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.
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. …”
