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Photo of John Stone Found!

Stone -> Howell

John Stone (1798 – 1877)

I recently received the above photo of our 3x great grandfather, John Stone. This is the first photo I’ve seen of him. This is now the eldest Stone ancestor photo we have. I can count the number of photos we have of ancestors born in the 1700’s on one hand – so this is pretty cool on several fronts.

The photo was provided by 4th cousin Paul Woodrow who writes:

“Attached is the photo of John Stone (original is 2 1/2 in. x 4 in., a carte-de-visite) and the obverse with photographer’s name and several notes. This is in a family album I inherited, and probably originated with my great-grandparents, David McMackon & Susan Stone. Printed below his photo is ‘John Stone, Great Grandfather’.”

John Stone is the first of our Stone ancestors that came to Canada from Ireland. He was born in County Carlow, and immigrated to Canada in 1820 at age 22.

I don’t have the name of the town in County Carlow where John Stone lived in Ireland, but it was likely in or near Tullowphelim, a townland near Tullow and outlined in blue on the map below.

Location of the Tullowphelim townland, County Carlow, Ireland (outlined in blue)

John married Mary Burns in 1826 in Canada. Mary was born in Ferns, Wexford, Leinster. They had 9 children, the eldest of which is our 2x great grandfather Thomas Stone.

John was a town Councillor in Orford in 1842 and Town Warden in 1843. Several mentions of him are noted in “Representative Canadians – A Cyclopedia of Canadian Biography being chiefly men of the Time – 1886” including:

“John Stone was a native of the County of Carlow, Ireland, and came to Canada in 1820, a the age of 22.  He married Mary Burns, on May 3rd, 1826, and settled on a farm in Elizabethtown, in 1834,

“He removed thence to the township of Esquesing, County of Halton, near the village of Adamsville (now Acton). Here the family resided for six years, after which, in 1840,  it went west, settling in the backwoods of the County of Kent, township of Orford.  Here John Stone purchased a bush farm, upon which he wrought and prospered, and died upon the same on November 16th 1877, in the eightieth year of his age.  His widow and one of his sons, A. J. Stone, are still living on the old homestead, near Highgate.

“…were both Episcopalians, but soon after their marriage, became Methodists”

John and Mary are buried together in the Gosnell Cemetery, Orford Township, Kent county, Ontario (near Chatham, Ontario). Paul Woodrow took the photo below of their gravestone. The inscription reads:

“In memory of John Stone who died Nov 16, 1877 aged 79 Y’s & 6 M’S. Mary Burns wife of John Stone died Feb 26, 1899 Aged 92 Yrs 10 Mos. …”



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The Elusive Trotter Family Connection

McKeough <-> Stone

Cousin Darcy McKeough is trying to find the family connection between Thomas A. Stone (son of Flora Maude Campbell and Spencer Stone) and the Mr. Trotter mentioned as “Stony’s uncle” in John Birmingham’s biography “Memoirs My Guardian Angel Taught Me”.

There was a business relationship between Trotter and McKeough.  (In 1905 Samuel Trotter incorporated McKeough – Trotter Limited.)   On the other side, the McKeough’s and Stones (and Howell’s) are related through John Stone  and Mary Burns.

I will keep looking, (here is my list of Trotter’s) but so far I haven’t located the connection between Stone and Trotter.

Here is the section of interest from the biography:

“In 1911, when automobiles were the craze of the moment, Dad bought an EMF car. Not to be outdone, our neighbour Uncle Phil, also bought the same make and model. There were no such things as drivers; licenses then, but after some instruction, I was allowed to drive the car, and in fact to take it out alone to town for shopping errands, and that sort of thing. A desire to have a car of my own kept mounting as the years went by and by 1914, I decided it was time so start to build one.

Tommy Stone, as usual, was my partner. Stony’s father had an old buggy which had served its usefulness as a horse drawn carriage vehicle, so this was given to us as a starter. Stony’s uncle, a Mr. Trotter, owned a machine shop in Chatham which made gasoline engines. These were the two cycle type of marine engines used mainly for fishing boats. Experimentally, Mr. Trotter had built an air-cooled engine which was not a great success. Although it would run, there was no market for it, so Mr. Trotter gave the engine to Stony. It was about a three horse power engine and about three times the size of the modern present-day engine of that power.”

 

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Betsy Cherry’s Clock

 Cherry -> Spencer -> Stone -> Howell

Peter Howell has this interesting heirloom clock made cir. 1864 in Connecticut by the S.C. Spring company.  This photo below taken by J. Spencer Howell during his last visit in 2010.
According to antiques.com which lists similar clocks:

“The company never issued a catalogue so its hard to know how many styles they made. Most of their clocks were sold to other clock manufacturers, so to find one with the S.C. Spring label in the case is a wonderful ‘find’ indeed…the image on the reverse-painted lower door glass reflects the type of work that was popular in that day…the clock features faux marble columns with gilded sections.”

Of special interest to our family: The clock has penciled service notations inside which often record the date and owner’s name such as “3.10.92 – Cleaned, Mrs. Spencer Stone” (Flora Maude Campbell Stone 1872-1969). Another notation refers to “Mrs. Spencer.” which could be interpreted to mean the aforementioned Mrs. Spencer Stone, but due to the age of the clock this could literally be Mrs. Spencer who was Betsy Cherry (1808-1893) who married William Spencer (1804-1846). Betsy Cherry Spencer outlived her husband William and daughter Adelaide Spencer (1833-1871).  After her daughter’s death, Betsy Cherry Spencer moved in with her widowed son-in-law Thomas Stone and raised her grandson, Spencer Stone (1869-1939) from age 2. (Adelaide Spencer married Thomas Stone (1827-1899) and they had eight children before her death)

So the likely provenance of the clock is: William & Betsy (Cherry) Spencer -> Spencer & Maude (Campbell) Stone -> John E. & Elizabeth (Stone) Howell -> Peter & Lee (Johnson) Howell.

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Thomas & Spencer Stone’s Store in Chatham

Stone -> Howell
 
Darcy McKeough mailed a copy of John Rhodes’ article covering the history of the dry goods store once owned by Thomas and Spencer Stone.

 “It was, along with Eaton’s (Austin’s), one of the two anchor stores of King Street and for nearly 125 years it maintained that status.”

The article appears in the September 15, 2010 issue of “Chatham Today” and can be read by clicking on the image above.

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Thomas Stone’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty

Thomas Stone’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty

Stone -> Howell

 
Thomas Archibald Stone
 

In June of 2006 I received an interesting email from Michael Manulak, a student at the University of Toronto. Mr. Manulak said he saw this web site and was developing a detailed research paper on the negotiation of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1948-1949, in which our Thomas Archibald Stone “played an integral role in Washington from July- September 1948.” Mr. Manulak asked if I would put him in contact with family members who knew Mr. Stone which I was happy to do.

In December he forwarded a copy of his completed paper titled The Gentle Nudge: The Canadian Department of External Affairs and the North Atlantic Treaty, 1948-1949, with the following note:

You will note that there are several references to Thomas Stone throughout the paper describing his role within the context of the negotiations. You will also note that there is a small section describing him personally on pgs. 11-12. For this I relied extensively on your (Mr. Spencer Howell & Ellen Devine’s interviews) as well as some additional research. Although brief, I do believe it is the most extensive research on him to date. I am very grateful for your help with this.

I encourage you to read the entire paper (download a copy here), but here are two excerpts – the first from p.9:

The most active Canadians at the NAT talks were: Lester B. Pearson, Hume Wrong, Thomas A. Stone and Escott Reid.

Then from p.11

Thomas A. Stone, the Canadian Minister in Washington, served more extensively than any Canadian during the NAT negotiations. Having grown up in Chatham, ON, Stone was a close personal friend of Pearson’s from their childhood. In terms of his personality, Henderson describes Stone as having a “great good nature” and being “particularly benign”. Stone’s opinions were essentially internationalist, however, with a greater hint of pragmatism than Reid or Pearson. In Washington, Stone was particularly well-connected having started his career there as a Third Secretary in 1927. In the embassy in Washington, Stone was seen as indispensable to the point that Wrong sought to delay Stone’s departure from Washington in the summer of 1949 (for an Ambassadorship in Sweden). Stone, a great entertainer, played musically and, according to Pearson his parties were “famous on two continents”. These parties were a known forum for high level diplomacy. Stone maintained close personal relations with Acheson, Hickerson and Theodore Achilles and “very often saw them socially”. He had an especially close personal friendship with Achilles and, as a result, one can observe that nearly all conversations with Achilles are made through Stone.

Thanks to Mr. Manulak’s paper we now have a better understanding of Thomas Stone’s significant role in developing the agreement which forms the basis for the existence of NATO today.

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A Discovery at Boone Hall Plantation

In 1935, Thomas Archibald Stone and his wife Ellen Ewing Noyes Stone purchased a much loved and beautiful southern plantation named Boone Hall. Lots of information is available on Boone Hall as it is now open to the public, thanks to the generosity of its current owners. (Boone Hall web site)

Last week I visited Boone Hall in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, for the first time. The Live Oaks planted hundreds of years ago that line the still unpaved driveway evoke feelings of a simpler time. The place is just peacefully beautiful.

The Discovery

To my delight, while looking at the exhibits in a small out-building now called the “Thomas A. Stone House”, I was able to make a little discovery of my own. A framed two page letter is on exhibit written by his mother Flora Maude Campbell Stone.   (page 1, page 2)

 

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Darcy McKeough’s Stone Charts

Last November, just before Thanksgiving, I received an express delivery package from W. Darcy McKeough – our expert on the Stone line. The package contained 6 very large handwritten charts – the largest two being about 11 ft long! All were ledger sheets taped together. These draft charts represent the result of many many years of work and collectively contain details on 515 descendants of Laurence Stone. I believe Darcy is getting ever closer to his goal of publishing much of his research in book form.

After many keyboarding sessions, I have finally completed merging the data in the charts into my database so they may be viewed online. Here is a report of the complete list of Laurence Stone (b. 1745, England) descendants in our database:

Descendant List (Register format) for Laurence Stone

Once again, we owe Darcy a great debt for sharing his research so generously!

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Stone Immigrants to North America

This list shows the known “Immigrant grandparents” of Elizabeth Louise STONE Howell who came to North America.

Clicking the name displays a tree showing the descendancy from the immigrant to Elizabeth Louise STONE Howell and her siblings. (this can be a large tree, so scroll your browser horizontally to center it, and vertically to see it) Clicking on a name in the tree displays details for the individual.

(by country of birth, then by generation (e.g.: 9ggf = 9th great grandfather), then by last name at birth)

ENGLAND

9x great grandparentsChristian COFFIN b. 1607 Marlborough, Wiltshire, England d. Haverhill, MA (9ggf)
Thomas CORLISS b 1603 Devonshire, England d. Newbury, MA (9ggf)
Thomas DAVIS b. 1603 Marlborough, Wiltshire, England on the “James” in 1635 d. Haverhill, MA (9ggf)
John EMERY b. 1598, Romsey, Hampshire, England d. 1683 Newbury, MA (9ggf)
Richard GARMENT Somersetshire, England (9ggf)
Alice GRANTHAM Emery b. 1599 Romsey, Hampshire, England d. 1649 Newbury, MA (9ggm)
Elizabeth WALKER Warren b. 1583 Kent, England to Plymouth MA on the “Anne” in 1623 (9ggf)
Richard WARREN b. 1579 London, England to Plymouth MA on the “Mayfower” d. 1628 Plymouth, MA (9ggf)
John WEBSTER b. 1605 Ipswich, Suffolk, England d. 1646 Ipswich, MA (9ggf)

8x great grandparents

Ann AMES Ford London, England – Plymouth, MA on the “Fortune”(8ggm)
Mary BETTS Boreman b. 1623 England d. prob CT (8ggm)
Samuel BOREMAN b. 1615 Banbury, England d. 1673 Hartford, CT (8ggf)
Robert CARVER b. 1594 – England (8ggf)
George CORLISS b. abt. 1617 Exeter, Devon, England d. Haverhill, MA (8ggf)
Joanna DAVIS Corliss b. cir 1624 Mralborough, Wiltshire, England d. Haverhill, MA (8ggm)
John EMERY b. 1628, Romsey, Hampshire, England d. 1693 Newbury, MA (8ggf)
Deacon William FORD b. 1604 England – to Plymouth, MA on the “Fortune” in 1621 (8ggf)
Alice GARMENT Whitmarsh b.1600 England (8ggm)
Daniel LADD b. 1613 Deal, Kent Co.,England d. Haverhill, MA (8ggf)
Sarah WALKER Warren b. bef. 1622, St. Olave, Southwark, London, England d. 1700 Plymouth, MA (8ggm)
John WHITMARSH – b. 1596 Somerset, England – d. 1644 Norfolk, MA (8ggf)

great grandparents

William SPENCER b. 1805 Matlock, Darbyshire, England d. 1837 Chatham, Ontario, Canada (1ggf)

IRELAND

3x great grandparentsCaptain Samuel CHERRY b. 1756 Ireland d. New Haven, Oswego Co., NY (3ggf)
Ann WALLACE Cherry b cir 1754-57 Coleraine, Londonderry, Ireland d. 1812 prob. NY (3ggm)

great grandparents

Mary BURNS Stone b. 1806 nr. Ferns (Dublin), Ireland d. 1899 Ontario, Canada (1ggm)
John STONE, b. 1760 Carlow, Ireland – d. Kent Co., Ontario, Canada (1ggf)

SCOTLAND

2x great grandparentsMalcolm CAMPBELL b. 1787 Auchindrain, Arglleshire, Scotland d. 1862 Kent County, Ontario, Canada (2ggf)
Isabel SMITH Campbell b. 1784 Auchindrain, Arglleshire, Scotland d. Kent County, Ontario, Canada 1841 (2ggm)

great grandparents

Neil CAMPBELL b. 1808 South Knapdale, Arglleshire, Scotland d. 1880 Kent County, Ontario, Canada 1841 (1ggf)

NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND)

8x great grandparentsPhilippe DELANO (de Lannoy) b. 1602, Leiden, Holland to Plymouth MA on the “Fortune” in 1621. d. 1681 Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA (8ggf)

WALES

7x great grandparentsHenry BODWELL b. 1651, Bodfel, Caernarvon, Wales d. Methuen, MA (7ggf)

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Five Kernels of Corn

A nice tradition for our Stone descendants….

Five Kernels of Corn

The tradition of placing five kernels of corn at each plate first started at Plymouth on Forefather’s Day, 22nd Dec. 1820 on the occasion of the Bi-Centennial of the Landing of the Pilgrims. Hosting the occasion was the newly founded Pilgrim Society with guest speaker, Daniel Webster.These tokens symbolize the period in 1623 known as the “starving time”, but I would like to go back a little to show you that this starving time was by no means an isolated occurrence.

The first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 was a bountiful feast, but an inventory taken afterwards in preparation for winter proved that the Pilgrims had grossly overestimated their harvest. The only way they could possibly get through the winter was to cut in half the already meager weekly rations. To make matters worse, soon after in November, arrived the ship Fortune with 35 new settlers and absolutely no provisions, no food, bedding, cookware or warm clothing.

They struggled through the winter, but in May 1622, their food supply was completely gone and the harvest was four months away. You may wonder why they did not hunt and fish for food; according to Edward Winslow, the number of fowl decreased during the warm months and the proper equipment and netting prohibited them from taking advantage of the abundance of cod in the area.

“And indeed,” said Winslow, “had we not been in a place where divers sorts of shell fish may be taken with the hand, we must have perished.”

In desperation, Winslow was sent 150 miles up the Maine coast to buy, beg or borrow whatever provisions the English ships there could spare. Hearing the plight of this courageous little group, the captains were extremely generous; all who were asked gave what they could and not one would accept payment of any kind. By the time Winslow returned, the settlers were literally starving. The provisions were a godsend, but there were many mouths to feed and when rationed out, each person received only one quarter pound of bread a day.

The long awaited harvest of 1622 was a dismal failure. The Pilgrims had not yet perfected the art of growing corn; they had been busy building the fort and their lack of food that summer left them too weak and weary to tend the fields properly. It seemed that they now faced the prospect of another year with little food.

“Behold now, another providence of God: a ship comes into the harbour

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Jaques Mahieu – Leiden Holland

Mahieu-> Delano-> Cherry-> Spencer-> Stone

Another Mayflower & Delano connection is found in Jaques Mahieu. He is the 12th Great Grandfather of many Howell ‘s via the Stone line.

“He came from Lille, now in the northern part of France. Formerly it was of Walloon Flanders. Heavily protestant, the area was captured by Catholic armies under Parma in 1578, and many Walloon Calvinists fled to England directly, while others fled north towards the Protestant cities of Bruges and Antwerp. When those cities fell in 1585, refugees went across to England or north to Zeeland and Holland. Apparently the Jacques Mahieu was among these refugees, taking with them their young daughters Mary and Franciose.

Jaques was the father of Marie Mahieu, who we already know to be the mother of Philippe de Lannoy (Delano), our original immgrant to America, arriving on the ship “Fortune” in 1621.

As it turns out, Marie had a sister named Hester. And Hester Mahieu married Francis Cooke, one of the passengers on the “Mayflower” and a signer of the Mayflower Compact.