This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Stone Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/nk.2ADI/820 Message Board Post: STONE, John Y. An enumeration of those men of the present generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves, and at the same time have honored the state to which they belong, would be incomplete were there failure to make prominent reference to the one whose name initiates this paragraph. He holds prominence as an eminent lawyer and statesman, a man of high scientific and literary attainments, a valiant and patriotic soldier, and as one who occupied a most trying position during the most exciting epoch in the political and military history of this country in which he bore himself with such credit as to gain him the respect of all. He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs, and one who has wielded a wide influence. A strong mentality, an invincible courage, a most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of opinion. A resident of Glenwood, Mills county, his reputation is not bounded by the confines of the state, for he is known throughout the country in connection with his political and professional labors. He is a western man and the enterprise and determined spirit that enabled so many native sons of Illinois to win national distinction have been manifest in his career. Mr. Stone was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, April 23, 1843. On both the paternal and maternal sides he is descended from old southern families, his ancestors being among the early settlers of Virginia and North Carolina. Ex-Governor William M. Stone, of Iowa is authority for the statement that two brothers of the name of Stone came to America in 1620 on the Mayflower, one of whom took up his abode in New England, while the other settled in Virginia, and from the latter Mr. Stone is descended. Tradition tends to prove this statement, as do all the records of the family that are available. The paternal grandparents of Mr. Stone were Spencer and Elizabeth (Hargis) Stone. The former was a native of Virginia and in early life removed to Kentucky, whence he emigrated to Illinois during the pioneer epoch in the history of that state, when William Langford Stone, father of John Y., was but six years of age. In 1853 the grandfather came to Mills county, Iowa, and entered one or more sections of land on Silver Creek from the government or bought it from settlers. In the fall of 1856 he returned in a covered wagon to Illinois to get William Stone's three children, their mother having died in February. His son William could not then leave Illinois, but the grandfather brought the boy and his two sisters, younger than he, the old gentleman and our subject sleeping under the wagon at night, while the bed was made within the wagon for the girls. Jefferson Stone, an uncle of our subject, and his family also accompanied the party. They left their Illinois home on the 1st of September arriving at their destination on Silver creek on the 13th of that month. In December or January following the father of these children also came to them. The trip was a very interesting one to the children. They journeyed westward over the prairies, crossed the rivers, camped out by night and prepared their food by the aid of fires built along the roadside. Spencer Stone developed his wild land into a well cultivated farm and thereon made his home until the close of the Civil war, when he returned to Illinois, spending the evening of his life near Clinton, where he died at the age of eighty years. His father was in the war of 1812 and in the old Indian wars, and the story has come down the line of time that upon one of his hunting expeditions in the woods of Kentucky among hostile Indians, he was conscious of the fact that he was being watched by an Indian and at length discovered the red man in a hollow tree and shot him before the Indian, who was taking aim at him, could fire. William Langford Stone, Mr. Stone's father, was a native of Kentucky, born in 1822, and followed agricultural pursuits throughout his entire life, with the exception of a few months passed in Athens, Illinois, during which time he engaged in the coopering business. He married Mary Ellen McLemore, a daughter of the Rev. Young and Nancy (Plumley) McLemore. Her father was an old-time Methodist preacher and school-teacher, and from him John Young received his second name. Both he and his wife were natives of North Carolina. Mrs. Stone died in Athens, Illinois, in February 1856. She was born in or near Knoxville, Tennessee, and in early womanhood gave her hand in marriage to William L. Stone, who was at that time twenty years of age. They became the parents of three children, a son and two daughters. As before stated, the children accompanied their grandfather to Iowa and a few months later the father also took up his abode in Mills county. For two years he rented land from his father, and his son, then usually called by his second name - Young - assisted him in its operation. He then purchased eighty acres of land, making small payments thereon, and from that property the father and son developed a farm and built thereon a log house. About the close of the Civil war William L. Stone moved across to the west side of Silver creek, and bought land there until he finally had a farm of five hundred or more acres, on which he died in August, 1899, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. He was again married in 1857, his second union being with Sophia Patrick, a noble woman, a daughter of one of the later settlers of the community. She was born near Cumberland, Maryland, and she became the mother of three children who are yet living. She was also to her step-children a devoted and loving mother, being possessed of noble qualities, of kindly manner and of genial disposition. She still lives upon the old homestead on Silver creek, near Silver City, in Mills county, and her stepson feels for her the deepest affection, as one from whom he had received a mother's tender care and attention in his youth, and he finds great pleasure in visiting the old homestead and in maintaining the affectionate relations of his boyhood days. It is with pleasure that we enter upon the task of compiling a brief life history of Mr. Stone, although it is impossible in the space at our command to do full justice to one whose life activities have been so varied, and whose fields of usefulness have been along so many lines. He has truly won the proud American title of a self-made man. In his boyhood he had the privileges of the common school, but he was early trained to labor. He first entered school when seven years of age, and later was for four years a student at Athens, Illinois. He then accompanied his grandfather to Iowa, where his advantages were limited to the district school. He learned rapidly and soon distanced his classmates, manifesting special aptitude in his studies. After reaching the Hawkeye state he attended school through the winter season, while in the summer months he worked on the home farm in the manner usual for farmer lads of that day. Steadily he worked his way upward step by step, ever making the most of his opportunities for advancement. He eagerly embraced every opportunity for acquiring an education. At the age of seventeen he entered the high school in Glenwood, Iowa, there pursuing the studies through the scholastic years of 1860-61. In the meantime he had devoted all his leisure hours to reading and study and thus became familiar with many books with which many young people of the time were totally unacquainted. In the country school he had studied algebra, geometry and Latin. These were not in the regular curriculum, but the teacher, a Mr. Perry Crosswait, was a well educated man and assisted him in his studies along those lines, unusual in the common schools of the day. It is still told of him on Silver creek that he distanced all competitors in all studies and that he "spelled down" all the schools within a radius of many miles, and even about twenty years ago, when the spelling-school mania took possession of the country, and when there was a grand "spelling" tournament at Glenwood, he met and unhorsed all comers except his partner, Mr. S. V. Proudfit. Mr. Stone early formed the desire to enter the legal profession. Before he was eighteen years of age he had secured a copy of Walker's American Law, and he devoted every leisure moment to studying the principles of jurisprudence. However, there was a pause in his legal study and a sudden change in his young life. War clouds gathered, there was a call to arms and his patriotic spirit was aroused. He put aside all personal ambitions and projects for the time being, and on the 9th of October 1861, offered his services to the government, joining Company F., Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, under Captain D. C. Blackman, or Glenwood. Before they left for the field he was appointed a corporal. In his boyhood's happy days he entered most heartily into everything which elicited his sympathies, and so with war. After the organization of the company it remained in Glenwood until the 10th of November, when the troops were driven in wagons - for there were no railroads - to Eddyville, where they took the cars for Keokuk, Iowa. He rapidly mastered military tactics, and notwithstanding his inferior rank was often deputed to act as drillmaster for his company. He quickly acquired a knowledge of all the routine and minutiae of military life and of the army regulations. On the 19th of March, 1862, the Fifteenth, on a drizzly day in the presence of assembled thousands of the people of Keokuk, embarked on a steamer for Benton Barracks, St. Louis. Concerning the embarkation a historian of Iowa troops has said: "Never shall I forget that memorable and sacred moment, when the boat, bearing the precious load of that noble regiment of patriots called the Fifteenth Iowa Volunteers, pushed off amid the huzzas, God-bless-you's and floating handkerchiefs from houses and steeples, as far as the eye could reach. It was, indeed a moment worth a life time. The regiment moved down the majestic river, Mississippi, and the rain continued to patter on the windows of the Gate City as though nothing had happened; the handkerchiefs continued to wave till long after the boat passed beyond the vision, and it was some time before the hospitable city realized that the Fifteenth had gone - many to return with new honors and pleasing fame, others to find 'glory and the grave' on the battle-fields of the south. At Benton Barracks the regiment received their new Springfield rifles and took supplies; and a few days later they were ordered to the front, going down the Mississippi and up the Ohio and Tennessee rivers in the steamer Minnehaha, to take part in the great battle of Shiloh. Their boat reached the wharf at four o'clock that morning, the 6th of April, they were off the boat, receiving their ammunition, after which they marched about three miles, and at ten o'clock were in the thickest of the battle with McClellan's division on the right. In this battle the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments fought together. By some error the Fifteenth was taken into conflict across an open field, marching by the right flank instead of moving in line of battle. Being under a heavy musketry and artillery fire the regiment lost severely in going in. The line of battle was formed in the woods after crossing the field, under a terrific rain of lead and iron. Colonel Reid was dangerously and Major Belknap severely wounded. Captain Blackmar and First Lieutenant Goode, of Corporal Stone's company, were severely wounded, and the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant Throckmorton, of Sidney, Iowa. In two hours the company and regiment lost more than one-third of their numbers. In marching through the underbrush Corporal Stone lost his bayonet, which in some way was pulled out of his scabbard. That part of the field had been the scene of a hard conflict just before, and many dead Union soldiers of some other command were lying around. From the scabbard of one of them having the same kind of gun, Corporal Stone took the bayonet and put it in his own scabbard.Captain James G. Day, then of Company I, and afterward judge for many years of the district and supreme courts of Iowa, was dangerously wounded near Corporal Stone, who with others placed the wounded officer on a horse, whose rider had been killed or wounded and started him to a place of safety. Captain Day had been first lieutenant of Mr. Stone's company and had helped organize it, and lived at Sidney, in Fremont county, Iowa. Afterward Corporal Stone himself was wounded by a spent grapeshot, but not dangerously. It was a bitter and disastrous day to the regiment and never afterward did it have so terrible a conflict, except before Atlanta, on July 22, 1864. After the battle of Shiloh the command engaged in slow approaches to Corinth and the siege of that important point. One day while close up to the enemy Corporal Stone was on duty on the advance picket line. He had three men under him at a post a few hundred yards in advance of the main guard, and in front of this post one of these three was placed as a vidette at a rail fence about a hundred yards in advance. When the German lieutenant, who could not speak English plainly, gave Corporal Stone his instructions he was understood to say that if the vidette was fired upon the Corporal should immediately go forward with the other two men to support him. Once during the day several shots were fired at this vidette by some of the enemy across a small field. The corporal promptly took his two men to the front to support his vidette. The firing attracted the attention of Lieutenant Colonel Dewey of the Fifteenth Iowa, who, was the grand officer of the guard for that day, and he came dashing up rapidly on horseback with his escort to see what was the matter. Not finding the corporal and the two men at the post, the colonel with his usual impetuosity began to storm about their deserting their post. But presently he ascertained they were out in front and he sent out after them and demanded of the corporal why he had left the post. On being informed of the instructions the corporal had received, the colonel said: Well, you either misunderstood him or he got things mixed. My orders were that if the vidette was fired upon he should fall back to the post. But since you 'retreated' to the front instead of the rear, I will not look into the matter any further." A few days after the battle of Shiloh, the Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments were organized into a brigade which was placed under the command of General M. M. Crocker, of Iowa, who continued in that capacity till he was placed in command of a division later on. It was known ever after as the "Iowa Brigade," or "Crocker's Brigade," and as thus organized it continued till it was mustered out after the war. The siege of Corinth lasted nearly a month and every hour, day and night, was one of danger and death. Soon after the capture of Corinth, Corporal Stone was promoted to the poisition of orderly sergeant, and a little later to that of second lieutenant. He was thenceforth in all the marches, skirmishes, sieges and battles of his regiment and brigade. Among these operations were embraced the campaigns and movements of General Grant to clear the enemy from that country, the march to Bolivar, the engagements near there; the return to Corinth, the march to Iuka and return; the battle of Corinth; the march to Grand Junction from Corinth; the maneuvers and skirmishes on the Hatchee, the march to Memphis, Tennessee; the minor actions and marches in southwestern Tennessee and northern Mississippi; the march down through Mississippi toward Vicksburg, until the capture of Holly Springs in the rear, thus compelling Grant to return and change his whole campaign against Vicksburg; the trip by steam-boat from Memphis to points opposite Vicksburg, in preparation for that great campaign. (This is part one of an extremely long biography, other parts will follow)