John Y. Stone (1843-1928)

STONE

Posted By: Errin Wilker
Date: 7/27/2014 at 12:02:10

John Y. Stone was born near Springfield, Illinois, April 23, 1843, and died in the Edmundson Hospital, Council Bluffs, Iowa, June 26, 1928. Burial was at Glenwood, Iowa. He was with his parents as they removed to the Silver Creek valley of Mills County, Iowa, in 1856. He received a liberal education. He enlisted as fourth corporal in Company F, Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, October 10, 1861, was wounded in the breast at Shiloh April 6, 1862, was promoted to second lieutenant May 22, 1862, and was mustered out December 18, 1864, at the end of his service and returned home. Soon thereafter, he joined in partnership with P. T. Ballard in the ownership of Our Opinion, afterward the Glenwood Opinion, and for two years was its editor. He read law with William Hale at Glenwood, and was admitted to the bar in 1868 and became a partner of Mr. Hale. In 1877, he was elected representative, was re-elected in 1869, was elected senator in 1871, was again elected to the House in 1875, and re-elected in 1877, thus serving in the General Assembly continuously for twelve years, from the Twelfth to the Seventeenth inclusive, four sessions being in the House and two in the Senate. During his last session in the House, the Seventeenth, he was speaker. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876 and was Iowa’s member of the Republican National Committee from 1876 to 1880. In 1884, he was one of the four delegates at large from Iowa to the Republican National Convention. In 1888, he was elected attorney general and was re-elected in 1890 and 1892, serving six years. In 1891, he was temporary chairman of the Republican State Convention. In 1894, he was a candidate for United States senator along with John H. Gear, William P. Hepburn, John F. Lacey, Albert B. Cummins, and George D. Perkins, the nomination of the Republican caucus of the General Assembly going to Gear on the third ballot, and his election followed. General Stone’s active and useful political life began when he was twenty-five years of age and ended when he was fifty. He continued his law practice until near his death. He ranked as one of the most efficient attorney generals the state has had. His standing in his profession for integrity, honor, and ability was of the best. Some forty years ago, he began to acquire land in Mills Count, and plant it to apples and grapes, until at one time he had S00 acres with 100,000 bearing apple trees and 75,000 grape vines. He was one of Iowa’s most honorable and distinguished sons.

Source: Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. XVI, No. 7, January 1929, Pg. 550-551.