WWI Solider - Service Connected Fatal Disability/Disease:
Richard Melvin Jelle was born in March of 1889 in Beaver Creek, MN, the third and final son of Jakob H. Jelle and Inger O Melkild - both immigrants from Norway.
His mother died of tuberculosis when he was just a year old leaving Richard's widower father to raise three young boys. Inger's sister had come from Norway to help in caring for her with TB, but arrived just after Inger's passing, but agreed to stay and help care for the boys before she married and settled nearby. This allowed Jake to continue working to support his children, himself, and her.
A little over a decade later, after Richard's uncle Elias died leaving Richard's aunt Lena a widow with four sons of her own, Jake and Lena decided to make lemons out of lemonade and married one another and moved to Garretson, SD so all the boys would have both a mother and father figure as they grew up. Richard and his brothers and 1st cousins turned step brothers all gained two additional younger brothers and finally a baby sister to this union for a total of nine children in the new Jelle household. Henry J "Big Hank", Henry O "Little Hank", Ole M, Richard M, Talmer M, Eddie L, Theodore O, George E, Melvin O, and Hannah L Jelle became one family under one roof from three separate Jelle marriages.
A photo postcard from Monroe, WA logging camp shows Richard and two other fellows in a "Sports" (early automobile) in 1912 commenting on how much he loved the Montana open prairie lands and another surviving postcard sent two years later at Fort Logan, Denver, CO, he enlisted in the Army for what would become WWI service per another later postcard sent to his older soldier brother Henry J. who served with him in the Philippine Islands. It is not without a certain amount of sad irony that Richard contracted the same disease that took his mother from him when he was just a year old (tuberculosis) while he was serving in the Philippine Islands and was sent back to the U.S. where in 1919 he was medically discharged from the infamous Fort Bayard, NM TB treatment center.
He returned home to eastern S. Dakota and lived as deeply as he could with the then incurable fatal disease. First he attended the welding school at the University in Brookings and can be seen in the front row of a photo of the Jack Rabbit school yearbook on Ancestry.com as well as a photo entitled Welding and remarkably even in another shot playing his Hardanger Fiddle in a quartet of male students there.
Richard married Dorothy J. Nelson on 21 Jun 1921 in Brookings, SD and the couple settled in Yankton, SD where he operated a machine welding shop and they had three children from 1921 to 1925 before his TB forced him to move the family west to Hot Springs for elevation, sunshine, and fresh air in the Black Hills as the only known treatment of the time.
Richard survived for another six years enjoying picnics with his own family and relatives visiting from the Garretson area in the new sunny sheltered environment of the Black Hills for his condition as much as he could before his death at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium in Feb 1932. The two homes he resided in even caught him two separate entries in the U.S. 1930 Decennial Census! He was buried in the VA cemetery behind the facility after being honored at one of the cities largest attended funerals on record.
His living legacy has spanned two more generations of military service members through his son Ray who served as a USAAF medical clerk in WWII and his grandson Eric who served as a USAF Security Policeman and Gulf War Era Veteran who helped deter WWIII in securing the nation's nuclear arsenal for five years at two bomber basesnot to mention serving abroad in Kuwait, S. Korea, and Turkey.
Let us not forget that not all heroes take a bullet or a piece of shrapnel meant for one of their comrades in arms.
.
Richard Melvin Jelle was born in March of 1889 in Beaver Creek, MN, the third and final son of Jakob H. Jelle and Inger O Melkild - both immigrants from Norway.
His mother died of tuberculosis when he was just a year old leaving Richard's widower father to raise three young boys. Inger's sister had come from Norway to help in caring for her with TB, but arrived just after Inger's passing, but agreed to stay and help care for the boys before she married and settled nearby. This allowed Jake to continue working to support his children, himself, and her.
A little over a decade later, after Richard's uncle Elias died leaving Richard's aunt Lena a widow with four sons of her own, Jake and Lena decided to make lemons out of lemonade and married one another and moved to Garretson, SD so all the boys would have both a mother and father figure as they grew up. Richard and his brothers and 1st cousins turned step brothers all gained two additional younger brothers and finally a baby sister to this union for a total of nine children in the new Jelle household. Henry J "Big Hank", Henry O "Little Hank", Ole M, Richard M, Talmer M, Eddie L, Theodore O, George E, Melvin O, and Hannah L Jelle became one family under one roof from three separate Jelle marriages.
A photo postcard from Monroe, WA logging camp shows Richard and two other fellows in a "Sports" (early automobile) in 1912 commenting on how much he loved the Montana open prairie lands and another surviving postcard sent two years later at Fort Logan, Denver, CO, he enlisted in the Army for what would become WWI service per another later postcard sent to his older soldier brother Henry J. who served with him in the Philippine Islands. It is not without a certain amount of sad irony that Richard contracted the same disease that took his mother from him when he was just a year old (tuberculosis) while he was serving in the Philippine Islands and was sent back to the U.S. where in 1919 he was medically discharged from the infamous Fort Bayard, NM TB treatment center.
He returned home to eastern S. Dakota and lived as deeply as he could with the then incurable fatal disease. First he attended the welding school at the University in Brookings and can be seen in the front row of a photo of the Jack Rabbit school yearbook on Ancestry.com as well as a photo entitled Welding and remarkably even in another shot playing his Hardanger Fiddle in a quartet of male students there.
Richard married Dorothy J. Nelson on 21 Jun 1921 in Brookings, SD and the couple settled in Yankton, SD where he operated a machine welding shop and they had three children from 1921 to 1925 before his TB forced him to move the family west to Hot Springs for elevation, sunshine, and fresh air in the Black Hills as the only known treatment of the time.
Richard survived for another six years enjoying picnics with his own family and relatives visiting from the Garretson area in the new sunny sheltered environment of the Black Hills for his condition as much as he could before his death at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium in Feb 1932. The two homes he resided in even caught him two separate entries in the U.S. 1930 Decennial Census! He was buried in the VA cemetery behind the facility after being honored at one of the cities largest attended funerals on record.
His living legacy has spanned two more generations of military service members through his son Ray who served as a USAAF medical clerk in WWII and his grandson Eric who served as a USAF Security Policeman and Gulf War Era Veteran who helped deter WWIII in securing the nation's nuclear arsenal for five years at two bomber basesnot to mention serving abroad in Kuwait, S. Korea, and Turkey.
Let us not forget that not all heroes take a bullet or a piece of shrapnel meant for one of their comrades in arms.
.
WWI Solider - Service Connected Fatal Disability/Disease:
Richard Melvin Jelle was born in March of 1889 in Beaver Creek, MN, the third and final son of Jakob H. Jelle and Inger O Melkild - both immigrants from Norway.
His mother died of tuberculosis when he was just a year old leaving Richard's widower father to raise three young boys. Inger's sister had come from Norway to help in caring for her with TB, but arrived just after Inger's passing, but agreed to stay and help care for the boys before she married and settled nearby. This allowed Jake to continue working to support his children, himself, and her.
A little over a decade later, after Richard's uncle Elias died leaving Richard's aunt Lena a widow with four sons of her own, Jake and Lena decided to make lemons out of lemonade and married one another and moved to Garretson, SD so all the boys would have both a mother and father figure as they grew up. Richard and his brothers and 1st cousins turned step brothers all gained two additional younger brothers and finally a baby sister to this union for a total of nine children in the new Jelle household. Henry J "Big Hank", Henry O "Little Hank", Ole M, Richard M, Talmer M, Eddie L, Theodore O, George E, Melvin O, and Hannah L Jelle became one family under one roof from three separate Jelle marriages.
A photo postcard from Monroe, WA logging camp shows Richard and two other fellows in a "Sports" (early automobile) in 1912 commenting on how much he loved the Montana open prairie lands and another surviving postcard sent two years later at Fort Logan, Denver, CO, he enlisted in the Army for what would become WWI service per another later postcard sent to his older soldier brother Henry J. who served with him in the Philippine Islands. It is not without a certain amount of sad irony that Richard contracted the same disease that took his mother from him when he was just a year old (tuberculosis) while he was serving in the Philippine Islands and was sent back to the U.S. where in 1919 he was medically discharged from the infamous Fort Bayard, NM TB treatment center.
He returned home to eastern S. Dakota and lived as deeply as he could with the then incurable fatal disease. First he attended the welding school at the University in Brookings and can be seen in the front row of a photo of the Jack Rabbit school yearbook on Ancestry.com as well as a photo entitled Welding and remarkably even in another shot playing his Hardanger Fiddle in a quartet of male students there.
Richard married Dorothy J. Nelson on 21 Jun 1921 in Brookings, SD and the couple settled in Yankton, SD where he operated a machine welding shop and they had three children from 1921 to 1925 before his TB forced him to move the family west to Hot Springs for elevation, sunshine, and fresh air in the Black Hills as the only known treatment of the time.
Richard survived for another six years enjoying picnics with his own family and relatives visiting from the Garretson area in the new sunny sheltered environment of the Black Hills for his condition as much as he could before his death at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium in Feb 1932. The two homes he resided in even caught him two separate entries in the U.S. 1930 Decennial Census! He was buried in the VA cemetery behind the facility after being honored at one of the cities largest attended funerals on record.
His living legacy has spanned two more generations of military service members through his son Ray who served as a USAAF medical clerk in WWII and his grandson Eric who served as a USAF Security Policeman and Gulf War Era Veteran who helped deter WWIII in securing the nation's nuclear arsenal for five years at two bomber basesnot to mention serving abroad in Kuwait, S. Korea, and Turkey.
Let us not forget that not all heroes take a bullet or a piece of shrapnel meant for one of their comrades in arms.
.
Richard Melvin Jelle was born in March of 1889 in Beaver Creek, MN, the third and final son of Jakob H. Jelle and Inger O Melkild - both immigrants from Norway.
His mother died of tuberculosis when he was just a year old leaving Richard's widower father to raise three young boys. Inger's sister had come from Norway to help in caring for her with TB, but arrived just after Inger's passing, but agreed to stay and help care for the boys before she married and settled nearby. This allowed Jake to continue working to support his children, himself, and her.
A little over a decade later, after Richard's uncle Elias died leaving Richard's aunt Lena a widow with four sons of her own, Jake and Lena decided to make lemons out of lemonade and married one another and moved to Garretson, SD so all the boys would have both a mother and father figure as they grew up. Richard and his brothers and 1st cousins turned step brothers all gained two additional younger brothers and finally a baby sister to this union for a total of nine children in the new Jelle household. Henry J "Big Hank", Henry O "Little Hank", Ole M, Richard M, Talmer M, Eddie L, Theodore O, George E, Melvin O, and Hannah L Jelle became one family under one roof from three separate Jelle marriages.
A photo postcard from Monroe, WA logging camp shows Richard and two other fellows in a "Sports" (early automobile) in 1912 commenting on how much he loved the Montana open prairie lands and another surviving postcard sent two years later at Fort Logan, Denver, CO, he enlisted in the Army for what would become WWI service per another later postcard sent to his older soldier brother Henry J. who served with him in the Philippine Islands. It is not without a certain amount of sad irony that Richard contracted the same disease that took his mother from him when he was just a year old (tuberculosis) while he was serving in the Philippine Islands and was sent back to the U.S. where in 1919 he was medically discharged from the infamous Fort Bayard, NM TB treatment center.
He returned home to eastern S. Dakota and lived as deeply as he could with the then incurable fatal disease. First he attended the welding school at the University in Brookings and can be seen in the front row of a photo of the Jack Rabbit school yearbook on Ancestry.com as well as a photo entitled Welding and remarkably even in another shot playing his Hardanger Fiddle in a quartet of male students there.
Richard married Dorothy J. Nelson on 21 Jun 1921 in Brookings, SD and the couple settled in Yankton, SD where he operated a machine welding shop and they had three children from 1921 to 1925 before his TB forced him to move the family west to Hot Springs for elevation, sunshine, and fresh air in the Black Hills as the only known treatment of the time.
Richard survived for another six years enjoying picnics with his own family and relatives visiting from the Garretson area in the new sunny sheltered environment of the Black Hills for his condition as much as he could before his death at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium in Feb 1932. The two homes he resided in even caught him two separate entries in the U.S. 1930 Decennial Census! He was buried in the VA cemetery behind the facility after being honored at one of the cities largest attended funerals on record.
His living legacy has spanned two more generations of military service members through his son Ray who served as a USAAF medical clerk in WWII and his grandson Eric who served as a USAF Security Policeman and Gulf War Era Veteran who helped deter WWIII in securing the nation's nuclear arsenal for five years at two bomber basesnot to mention serving abroad in Kuwait, S. Korea, and Turkey.
Let us not forget that not all heroes take a bullet or a piece of shrapnel meant for one of their comrades in arms.
.
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