Nielsen Hayden genealogy

William Eben Stone

Male 1845 - 1921  (75 years)


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  • Name William Eben Stone 
    Birth 27 Nov 1845  Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2, 3
    Gender Male 
    Death 23 Feb 1921  Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Person ID I21003  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of TWK
    Last Modified 28 Jan 2019 

    Father Dr. Ebenezer Stone,   b. 10 Oct 1797, Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Aug 1869, Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 71 years) 
    Mother Elizabeth Holbrook Hawes,   b. 10 May 1809, Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 18 Aug 1860, Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 51 years) 
    Marriage 23 Nov 1831  Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [3, 4
    Family ID F13831  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Katherine Maria Fay,   b. 6 Jul 1847, New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 29 May 1928, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 80 years) 
    Marriage 22 Jun 1871  Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 4
    Children 
    +1. Margaret Garrad Stone,   b. 19 Jul 1886, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1 Sep 1937, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 51 years)
    Family ID F12493  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 25 Jan 2019 

  • Notes 
    • He appears in several sources as "William Ebenezer Stone," and while it's possible that this was how he was christened, it's obvious from the record of his doings as an adult that he went by "William Eben Stone."

      From the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, April 1922, page 83: "William Eben Stone, Ph.B.", by J. Gardner Bartlett:

      WILLIAM EBEN STONE, of Cambridge, Mass., elected to resident membership in the New England Historic Genealogical Society 5 May 1880, died at his home in Cambridge 23 February 1921.

      He was born at Walpole, Mass., 27 November 1845, the youngest son of Dr. Ebenezer7 and Elizabeth Holbrook (Hawes) Stone, the father being a graduate of Brown University and the Harvard Medical School and for over forty years a successful physician in Walpole and the surrounding towns. The progenitor of the family in America was Dea. Gregory1 Stone of Cambridge, Mass., in 1637, from whom Mr. Stone was descended through John2 of Sudbury, Mass., Nathaniel3 and Ebenezer4 of Framingham, Mass., Silas5 of Natick, Mass., and Dublin, N. H., who died near Saratoga while serving in the American Army in the Revolution, Silas6 of Sherborn, Mass., who also was a soldier in the American Army in the Revolution and was severely wounded at the Battle of White Plains, N. Y., and Dr. Ebenezer7 Stone of Walpole, Mass., his father. In all of his ancestral lines Mr. Stone traced his descent from the early Puritan founders of New England, including among his ancestors the Waites, Hills, Pratts, Russells, Coolidges, Twitchells, Bullards, Barbours, Haweses, and many other well-known families of Middlesex and Norfolk Counties, Mass.

      Mr. Stone was graduated at Brown University in 1866 with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, and then studied mining engineering for a year as a member of the first class ever graduated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1867 he went to Marquette, Mich., where he remained seven years as a chemist and engineer in the employ of various iron mining companies. In 1874 he secured an interest in the Champion Iron Company of Michigan, soon afterwards became treasurer and general manager of this company, with offices in Boston, and continued in these positions for twenty-five years. The mines of this iron company were rich in a scarce high-grade ore which was essential in the manufacture of steel by the earlier methods of the open-hearth process, so that the operations of the company, under the efficient, skillful direction of Mr. Stone, became extremely profitable. During all these years Mr. Stone's home was in Cambridge and his office in Boston; but four times each year he spent a few weeks at the mines in Michigan, supervising their management. About 1901 the company was very advantageously sold to Pennsylvania steel interests merged in the United States Steel Corporation, and Mr. Stone retired from active business with an ample fortune.

      From his early years Mr. Stone was enthusiastically interested in the genealogy of the Stone family and the history of his ancestors, and by his persistent efforts from 1880 to 1896, through researches by Col. Joseph Lemuel Chester, Henry FitzGilbert Waters, and himself, he succeeded in locating Gregory Stone at Great Bromley, co. Essex, England, and in tracing back his ancestry there for several generations. These results were reported by Mr. Stone at the first meeting of the Stone Family Association, held in Boston 26 January 1897. Of this organization Mr. Stone was the predominant but unostentatious leader during the rest of his life, serving as its vice president, 1897-1904, its president, 1904-1909, and a member of its executive committee, 1909-1921. The activities of this association culminated in the appearance in 1918 of the Gregory Stone Genealogy, an important work of nine hundred pages, the compilation and publication of which were almost wholly due to the enthusiastic efforts and extreme liberality of Mr. Stone.

      In 1907 Mr. Stone was appointed a member of the Committee on English Research of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and he served on this committee the remaining fourteen years of his life. During all this time he was not only a generous annual contributor to the funds raised by the committee for carrying on genealogical research in England, but, was also always warmly appreciative of the results secured and published in the Register. After holding membership in the Society for forty years, he was elected, at the annual meeting in February 1920, a councillor for a three-year term, only one year of which he had served at the time of his decease. During his later life he was a frequent visitor to the library of the Society and to the Boston Athenaeum, for the purpose of pursuing his favorite genealogical researches.

      In 1874 Mr. Stone established his home in Cambridge, where he resided the rest of his life, and in later years he also had a summer house on Fisher's Island, in Long Island Sound. He travelled extensively in North and South America, and several times made extended trips to Europe, where the family lived at one time for three years while his children were being educated there.

      He was a member of the Somerset Club of Boston, the Oakley Country Club, the New England Kennel Club, and the Cambridge Boat Club. He also held membership in the Cambridge Historical Society, the Boston Athenaeum, the Bostonian Society, the Bibliophile Society of Boston, the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Society of Sons of the Revolution.

      The finest qualities of our ancient New England stock came to their fairest fruition in the character and personality of Mr. Stone. His innate refinement, cultured mind, and delicate modesty were always apparent; his courteous, genial, engaging manner and frank, sincere cordiality ever gladdened the circles in which he moved; his gentle, serene disposition, sympathetic kindness, warmth of heart, and liberal generosity endeared him to all his relatives and friends; and his unswerving integrity, sound judgment, and intellectual abilities secured for him the respect and esteem of the community. Favored with a tall figure, fine physique, and handsome countenance, he had a distinguished bearing and appearance. Remarkably fine health and unimpaired keenness of mind enabled him to enjoy life with full zest to advanced age, until finally stricken with illness a few months before his decease in his seventy-sixth year.

      He married at Cambridge, 22 June 1871, Katherine M. Fay, daughter of Rev. Dr. Charles and Charlotte E. (Hopkins) Fay. She survives him, together with their three daughters, Mrs. Arthur Loring Jackson (Pauline Fay Stone) of Cambridge, Mrs. Austin Tappan Wright (Margaret Garrad Stone) of Berkeley, Calif., and Amy Fay Stone of New York City. Their only son, Reginald Stone, died in 1892, in his fifteenth year.

  • Sources 
    1. [S2959] Arthur Wilmot Ackerman and Harold Clark Durrell, "Memoirs of Deceased Members of the New England Historic Genealogical Society." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 83:330, Jul 1929.

    2. [S2960] J. Gardner Bartlett, "William Eben Stone, Ph.B." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 76:83, Apr 1922.

    3. [S3036] Richard Hawes of Dorchester, Massachusetts and Some of His Descendants by Frank Mortimer Hawes. Hartford, Connecticut: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1932., date only.

    4. [S1809] Gregory Stone Genealogy: Ancestry and Descendants of Dea. Gregory Stone of Cambridge, Mass., 1320-1917 by J. Gardner Bartlett. Boston: Stone Family Association, 1918.