Melvin Stone (1907)
STONE
Posted By: Kent Transier
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:03:25
The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Friday, July 5, 1907
Page 1, Column 4MELVIN STONE DIES IN DES MOINES
Former Prominent Winterset Man Passes Away - Lived Here Twenty Years Ago
A Man With a Record. Civil War Veteran and Prominent Politician. Was in Insurance and Hardware Business in Winterset and Failed.
Melvin Stone, a former resident of Winterset and for many years one of its prominent business men died at his home in Des Moines last Thursday. Stone was a brother of Iowa’s famous war governor.
Stone came to Winterset soon after the Civil war. He was in the hardware business and was doing a successful business. One evening he called Calvin Ballard, a west side druggist from his bed and asked him to come to the drugstore and fill a prescription for his sick wife. Ballard got up and went to the drugstore. In the gloom of the kerosene lamp he filled the harmless prescription with a deadly poison. Stone went home and gave the medicine to his wife who died in great agony a few minutes after taking the medicine.
Stone sued Ballard for malpractice, and in a famous trial failed to secure a judgment although Ballard admitted he gave the wrong medicine.
Stone lived in Des Moines for many years. He was a veteran of the Civil War and applied for the position of Street Commissioner. He was turned down and carried the case to the state Supreme Court.
Stone was in the hardware business in Winterset. After his famous suit the business did not prosper. P. J. Stiffler, C. P. Lee and W. H. Robb, a farmer living north of the city, went on his notes. One night Robb discovered Stone moving has stock from the building. With the aid of officers he stopped him. The failure of Stone caused the failure of Lee, Stiffler and Robb, at that time three of the most prominent men in the county. C. P. Lee who lived in Winterset until his death a few years ago was never able to recover from the financial shock, and died a poor man. Robb died impoverished in Kansas. Stiffler is a prosperous businessman in Pennsylvania.
Stone was of excellent stock. His brother, William Milo Stone, was governor of Iowa from 1863 to 1868. Others of the family have been prominent in public affairs.
Mr. Stone fought in the rebellion, and suffered for it. His health was undetermined. He was one of the first of the old soldiers to attempt application of the soldiers’ preference law. He wanted the position that was and is held by John Stewart, the East Des Moines politician. His application was not considered favorably by the city officials, and Stone went into the District Court. He received an unfavorable decision there and carried the case to the Iowa Supreme Court work is now pending.
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