Henry Stelck, a promising young member of the Rock Island County bar, is a native of the City of Rock Island, having been born there February 12, 1878. His father was Peter Stelck and his mother Caroline (Koester) Stelck. Both the parents immigrated to America from Germany. Mr. Stelck, the elder, was born in 1833 in Wisch, Propstei, Schleswig-Holstein. The mother was born in Lensah in the same state in 1845. The father located in Rock Island in 1867, after having for ten years immediately following his removal to America, been a resident of Davenport, Iowa. The parents of the subject of this sketch were married in 1869, the mother dying May 27, 1883, and the father January 4, 1897. Of the seven children born to them five are living: Emma, wife of W. W. Harris, of Rock Island; Bertha, wife of Dr. O. P. Sala, of Davenport; Elizabeth G., and Henry, of Rock Island, and William, of Lakefield, Minnesota.
Our subject obtained his first schooling in the Roessler German school of Rock Island. Later he attended the German Lutheran school and eventually he entered the public schools, from which he graduated in 1894, after completing the high school course. After one year spent as a student at Augustana College he took up the study of law with Wood, Butterworth & Peek, of Moline. His professional training was completed with a three-year course at Northwestern University Law School. Shortly after beginning to practice he formed a partnership with M. M. Sturgeon, known as Sturgeon & Stelck, later becoming Sturgeon, Stelck & Sturgeon which partnership was later dissolved.
In the practice of law Mr. Stelck has manifested more than average ability. He is above all sham and pretense and his honesty and candor have won him friends on all hands. He is a Republican and has been more or less active in politics. Fraternally he is a member of the Masons.