Ezekiel and General William Stone Family
Contributor: H. Dean Rogers, Salem, SC
The information on these pages are for personal research perposes ONLY and may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other person or organization without written consent from the contributor. Thank you.
Grave
Marker of William Stone
Pictures Provided by H. Dean Rogers.
Click here to see the Stone Cemetery List at Find A Grave
Be sure to return to this page, as you will be leaving this website. Thank You.
Mary
Stone, Wife of William Stone
My Mother's Autobiography (1st four pages) written when she was about twelve years old. Her Grandmother, Grace Stone Woodfin, was MPD (Mack) Stone's youngest daughter and lived with her at this time. There are some errors such as General William Stone was not born in Maryland. I also knew my Great Grandmother as she lived with us one summer in Harrison, Arkansas (where I was born) and she made sure I knew I was related to Thomas Stone, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. However, it is in error that General William Stone's Father, Ezekiel Stone, was a brother of Thomas Stone. I have discovered he was actually a cousin. So, yes we are still related but not as directly as reported in Roy Woodfin's newspaper accounts in the South Pittsburg Hustler Paper. As best I can tell from the "Stones of Surry", the William Stone family does trace all the way back to Governor William Stone (1603-1660). My Mom's paper did clear up one thing, however, where was Mack Stone from 1849 to 1853? There is no listing of him in the county records. Well, he was a forty-niner in California. He came back to help his mother Mary Stone farm the homestead across from Stone Cave. He is in your 1860 census living with his Mother. I remember my G Grandmother Grace Stone Woodfin telling me about walking behind the plow of her Father (Mack) and picking up arrowheads as he churned up the earth. "This is near where the Stone Cave is today on West Valley Road." ~ H. Dean Rogers~
My Mother's Autobiography (1st four pages):
My Autobiography – By Rayanna Rogers, about 1938
Chapter I
General William Stone, my great-great grand father was born in Maryland.
When he was grown his mother and father and most of his relatives and friends all moved. They moved in a long wagon train. William was married then and had one child. While they were on their way their baby got sick and they had to stop, but the rest of the train went on. They stopped in what is now known as the Sequatchie Valley in Tenn. By a big cave, now known as the Stone Cave. When the baby got well enough to go on they liked the valley and the area so well they just stayed there. That was about 1808.
Tennessee was then full of Indians. In the war with the Indians in 1812 he was made General. The Government gave him land for his services, and he therefore had quite a bit of land.
William Stone Served two terms in Congress. I have read two letters he wrote to his wife while he was in Congress. One letter was written in 1828 and the other was 1840. He told her he was buying two more Negro slaves. He was getting a twelve year old boy for 450 dollars, and two smaller boys for 250 dollars a piece.
William Stone married Mary Randall. They had seven children, three boys and four girls.
Chapter II
My great grand father, Mack Perry Stone, was born and spent his early life in Sequatchie Valley, Tennessee.
In 1849 during the gold rush he went to California. He struck gold and had, at one time, owned a farm where the City of San Francisco is today.
While he was in California his father died and he went back to the old home in Tennessee to stay with his mother.
While he was staying with his mother he met a charming little lady named Sally Bennet. He later married her and they had six children. One was a boy and the other five were girls. One of the girls, Grace Stone, is now my grandmother.
Chapter III
My mother, Anna Grace Woodfin, was born in South Pittsburg , Tennessee. When she was nine years old she moved to Ft. Worth, Texas, and lived there until nine years ago.
Anna Grace went to grade and also high school in Ft. Worth. When she finished high school she attended Texas Woman’s Collage now known as Texas Westland Collage.
Later she taught school in Ft. Worth for three years.
She then married Raymond Lowrey who at that time was a civil engineer for the Denver Rail Road.
They have three children, Rayanna, Carolyn, Jeannine … End.
"Vol. 5, North Carolina State Records.
William Stone, b. about 1723, m. Hannah Conway of Fauquier County about 1748, and lived there until about 1770. They had sons John, William, Ezekiel, Ephraim, and Conway, and daughters, Polly, Hannah, Nancy and Sally (family record).
Ezekiel Stone, son of William, was born in Fauquier County, Va., in 1756, died in Marion County, Tenn., at the age of 99 years and 11 months.
EZEKIEL STONE -- Born November 24,1756, in Fauquier County, Virginia. (Fauquier County was until 1759 a part of Prince William County, Virginia, which adjoined Charles County, Maryland, where we had always understood Ezekiel was born). It is presumed that Ezekiel remained in Virginia until-
1774 - Volunteered in Surry County, North Carolina, and served with the North Carolina Troops until the latter part of 1781. We have been unable to learn anything of his movements until
1784 - In Union District, South Carolina, where he apparently stayed until
1795 - Removed to Sevier County, North Carolina (now Tennessee), where he remained until
1816 - Removed to Bledsoe County, Tenn., where he remained until-
1819 - Removed to Marion County, Tenn., where we have a record of him until 1855, when it is presumed he passed away, being at that time more than 99 years of age.
____________________
The above information was furnished me by the Veterans Administration at Washington, D. C., and was taken from application for pension, made in 1832, by Ezekiel.
EZEKIEL STONE'S REVOLUTIONARY WAR RECORD, as furnished by Veterans Administration at Washington, in letter dated August 28, 1936:
"Ezekiel Stone volunteered in Surry County, North Carolina, and served with the North Carolina Troops, as follows: from sometime in 1774, three weeks as a private in Capt. Richard Good's Company, under Maj. Joseph Winston and went out against the Tories; from sometime in 1776, three months as Orderly Sergeant in Capt. William Dodson's Company, Col. Joseph William's Regiment, went on an expedition against the Cherokees and assisted in destroying a number of their towns in 1781, two tours, one of two weeks as; a private in Capt. William Bostie's Company, under Maj. Joseph Winston, and the other of ten weeks as a private in Capt. Humphrey's Company, Col. Francis Lock's Regiment."
_________________
The Veterans Administration informed me:
"The date of death of Ezekiel Stone (S. 1933) is not shown in the papers on file in his claim for pension.
"In order to obtain the date of last payment for pension, the name and address of person paid and possibly the date of death of the Revolutionary War pensioner, Ezekiel Stone (S. 1933), you should address the Comptroller General, General Accounting Office, Records Division, this city, and cite the following data:
"Ezekiel Stone, Certificate No. 4370, issued January 19 or 21, 1833, rate $20, per annum, commenced March 4, 1831, Act of June 7, 1832, East Tennessee Agency."
Ezekiel Stone married Jane Woods about 1779. Their children were:
Rebecca, b. 1780, m. Beard.
Catharine, b. 1783, m. McCord.
Hannah, b. 1786, m. Thomas Blair.
Mary, b. 1788.
William, b. 1791, m. Mary Randall.
John, b. 1793, m. Susannah Kelley.
Thomas Price, b. 1803, m. Minnie Bell.
Richard, m. Anne Kelley.
William Stone, born 1791, was a Captain in Creek War, and was made Brevet Brigadier General for gallantry at the Battle of the Horseshoe. He served with General Jackson in the Louisiana Campaign, and was present at the battle of New Orleans. He was elected to Congress in 1836, and was re-elected in 1838. He died in 1853.
For further details regarding William Stone, consult The Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949."
Note by: Dean Rogers
My Great grandmother, Grace A. Stone Woodfin, had an elder sister who remained in the Sequatchie Valley. She was Ella Stone, Daughter of Mack and Sallie Stone, who married a Condra. I am attaching another newspaper article telling where she was buried. I wonder if you have visited this cemetery in Cedar Springs, TN. If so I would love a picture of her gravestone if you have it. I also know she lived in a log cabin as I have a picture of her there.
It was always believed by the later Stone family that Ezekiel Stone, father of General William Stone and Thomas Stone, a signer of the Declaration of Independance, were brothers. I have thoroughly investegated this even by visiting The National Home site of Thomas Stone "the signer"and discovered this just isn't true. The Father of Ezekiel Stone is a William Stone, a Planter, who lived and farmed in Northern most Virginia (where the Quantico Marine base is located today). This William Stone's father was indeed a Thomas Stone but he also lived at this northern Virginia location and he to was a planter (farmer). It is quite possible that our line of Stones does link back to the original Governor William Stone in America, but I have been unable so far to verify this.
My Great Grandmother, Grace Alice Stone Woodfin, and her sibblings all strongly believed we were related to Thomas Stone, the signer.
The 1946 Stone Family Reunion at Stone Cave, Sequatchie County, TN
General William Stone was also a US Congressman.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000965
A Larger View of this Article from the Newspaper can be seen ...
The lady standing on the far right is my Great Grandmother Grace A. Stone Woodfin. I knew her well as a youngster as she stayed with us in Harrison, Arkansas (where I was born) several summers. She was Mack (M.P.D.) and Sallie Stone's youngest daughter. She married into the Woodfin family of which Roy Woodfin belonged. He was the publisher of the South Pittsburg newspaper for many years and actually attended the stone family reunions of which he wrote about in the article I sent. ... Dean Rogers
(Below
Picture above, on the left)