William Ellery STONE, called Ellery, was born on March 31, 1804, in Whiting, Vermont.[1] He was the eldest son of John Hammett Sr., a farmer, and Hannah (FOSTER) STONE. John was born in 1784, the second son of Stukely H. STONE of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, who served Rhode Island in both Waterman’s Regiment in the winter of 1776-77 and Tillinghast’s Regiment in 1781.[2] Hannah, born in 1785, was the daughter of Benjamin FOSTER Jr. and Hannah COLLINS of Massachusetts. Benjamin FOSTER had served from 1776-1778 as a Corporal and Sergeant in the Massachusetts militia (Minute Men) during the Revolutionary War.[3] John Hammett and Hannah STONE had ten children – four girls and six boys – between 1802 and 1819: Frelove, (William) Ellery, Nancy, Arlena, John H Jr., Stukely, Ursula, Willis and Joseph.[4]
In 1812, when Ellery was 8 years old, his father enlisted in the U.S. Army for a period of 5 years. This was during the time known as the War of 1812. John left his wife and 6 children to serve as a Sergeant of the 21st United States Infantry under Captains Chapman, Grafton and Proctor.[5] Life in the early 1800s in upstate Vermont near Fort Ticonderoga would have been particularly challenging for a young mother alone with 6 young children. Ellery would have had to grow up quickly to assume the role of “man of the house” at a young age while his father was away serving in the army.
John H. became ill in February of 1814 and returned home to Whiting to recuperate. There is no record of from what illness he suffered. He was dropped from the army rolls December 31, 1815, and discharged, never returning to duty after becoming sick.[6] After he left the Army, the Stone family grew to include the three youngest children – Ursula, Willis and Joseph, all born after 1815.
John H. applied for the Veteran Bounty Grant on February 23, 1819 – obtaining a grant (no. 29782) for 160 acres of his choosing.[7] There is no record of John H. ever claiming this land. However, after his death, his widow, Hannah, claimed the permit on the acreage in Minnesota, and then transferred it to another family in 1871.[8]
John H.’s family lived in the town of Addison, Vermont, until after 1820, at which point they migrated southwest into Pennsylvania, settling in Crawford County, a days ride from Cattaraugus County, NY, in 1830. Ellery remained in Vermont. The movement of the rest of the family follows the building of the Erie Canal, which was erected between 1817 and 1825, with branch canals built between 1833 and 1877. It was in Pennsylvania that John H. died in 1848. He is buried at McDowell Cemetery in Dicksonburg, PA – the only STONE family member buried in the cemetery there.[9] Hannah eventually went blind and remained with her youngest son, Joseph, and his family until the end of her days.[10] She died in 1875 in Branch, Michigan.[11]
Around 1826, Ellery STONE married his cousin, Livonia COLLINS, daughter of John and Rebecca (SHERMAN) COLLINS, from neighboring Rutland, VT. Livonia was the daughter of his maternal grandmother’s brother. The couple migrated southwest to Cattaraugus County, New York, where their first son, William Ellery Jr., was born in March 1828, followed by Henry in March 1830. When Eugene Delton was born in early January 1832 the family had made its way to Warren County, PA, just over the state line.[12] Here a fourth son, John, was born around 1834. The family remained in northern Pennsylvania through 1835, after which they returned to Leon, in Cattaraugus County. The remaining children – Mina/Mariah (1836), Ellen (1838) and Silas (1844) – were all born in New York. All the STONE siblings would live past infancy. With the spirit of westward exploration inherited from their ancestors, many would travel west as far as the Pacific Ocean.
Chattaraugus Creek NY ca 1890
Ellery settled in Cattaraugus Co., NY in the 1830s and opened the first tavern in Carrolton, near the mouth of Tuna Creek. This noted in the “Historical Gazetteer and Biographical Memorial of Cattaraugus County” as being is under the name of Elias STONE – however it is suspected he is the same man. He served as the town clerk of Leon in Cattaraugus County, NY, from 1853-55.[13] In 1850, Ellery STONE is a 46-year-old residing with his family, his wife and five children (Eugene, John, Mina/Mariah, Ellen and Silas).[14] He receives a deed of land from John Lang in April 1851 and continues to reside in the town through 1855 as the tavern keeper.
Sometime after 1855, Ellery and his family followed the promise of land west to the state of Minnesota, where they are settled in Goodhue County before September of 1857.[15] He took up farming, along with his son Eugene, who had been farming their land in New York, and became very involved in local politics. Ellery was elected the first superintendent of schools, and a member of the Board of Supervisors in the first township election of Leon, Minnesota, in 1858. This election was held in the town store and fifty votes were polled.[16] He served as Director of the Agricultural and Mechanical Society for the County of Goodhue, and was nominated for, but lost, the Leon County Democratic Delegate seat at the county convention in September of 1859.[17] In 1862, Ellery claimed the 160 acres of bounty land in a transfer from Jesus Maldonado, who had received his acres upon service in the Mexican American War.[18]
Ellery died on the 26th of March 1867 at the age of 63 and is buried in Cannon Falls Cemetery, Goodhue County, Minnesota. Livonia died twelve years later and was buried beside him. Their son, Silas, who died in 1863 at 19, is buried nearby.
Eugene Delton Stone (1832-1914)
Eugene Delton STONE was born when his family was living in Warren County, Pennsylvania, in early January 1832, the third son of Ellery and Livonia (COLLINS) STONE. He had two elder brothers, William Ellery Jr. and Henry, and would have two younger brothers – John, born 1834, and Silas, born 1844 – and two younger sisters – Mariah, born 1836, and Ellen, born 1838.[1]
When Eugene was in his early 20s, his family migrated west and settled in Minnesota, in Leon Township (Township 111), Goodhue County.[2] Eugene purchased with cash 159.92 acres of section six in the township (then called Red Wing) in November 1855.[3] Eugene worked with his father breaking and cultivating the land and came into possession of the place after the death of his parents. For over fifty years, he carried on farming, conducting general agricultural operations and stock raising and selling cream furnished by his fine Jersey cows.[4] This farm, consisting of 222 acres, 197 of which were plowed, remained in the family through the early part of the 20th Century.
Leon Township was settled in 1856 and organized in 1858, so the STONE family were some of the first settlers to the area. At the time it was just a pioneer village, still with Indian teepees around. The STONES were instrumental in the naming of the town and chose to name it for the town in Cattaraugus County, New York, where the family emigrated from. Along with his father, Ellery, Eugene became very involved in local politics and was elected as a collector and a constable in the first township election of Leon, Minnesota, in 1858.[5]
In 1860, he married Ingre Ellen JOHNSON, an immigrant from Kronoberg, Sweden, who had arrived in America in 1857. She was the daughter of Nils JOHNSON and Mariah (Unknown). After spending a year in Elgin, Illinois, Ingre’s family came up the Mississippi River to Red Wing on the “Mississippi Belle.”
In the summer of 1860, the young married couple were living in a farmhouse situated in Leon Township in Wastedo. They lived sandwiched between the houses of Eugene’s parents, Ellery and Livonia and youngest brother Silas, and Eugene’s older brother Henry, his wife Mary, and their son Clayton, not yet a year old.[6] Around Christmas of 1860, Eugene and Ellen’s first child – daughter Fanney – was born. Sadly, however, Fanney was a sick child and would die at home in June of 1869 from spinal disease.
In 1862, the Homestead Act gave 160 Acres of land to adults, provided they had lived on the land for five years. In February of 1862, Eugene was listed on Warrant No. 96740 as purchasing his 160 acres of land from John Williams, who had received it directly from the U.S. government.[7] In August of 1862, Eugene registered as a Private in the Goodhue Rangers Citizen Soldiers for a period of one month. He was discharged from service in late September the same year. That November, his son, Franklin Sherman STONE, was born.
In February of 1864, he again enlisted, this time in Winona County, Minnesota, as a Private in Brackett’s Battalion[8], Minnesota Volunteer Cavalry. This battalion was assigned to the frontier as part of General Alfred Sully’s Northwestern Indian Expedition into Dakota Territory – known as the “Indian Wars.” The campaign was meant to subjugate Native Americans considered “hostile.” This conflict with the Native Americans had a huge impact on Minnesotans in the 1860s. Hundreds of settlers and natives alike were killed. In many parts of southern and western Minnesota the population vanished for years – people did not feel safe to return to their homes until late 1865.[9] Brackett’s Battalion was part of an effort to push the natives westward, and to service military posts along the western frontier that would encourage white settlement. The battalion saw battle several times, most notably in July of 1864 at the Battle of Tah Kah A Kuty, or Kildeer Mountain, where the battalion attacked an encampment of mostly Lakota, but among them five other bands of Native Americans. The battle lasted several hours, but the natives were eventually defeated by the Union soldiers, who burned their homes and the woods that surrounded the encampment.
Brackett’s Battalion near Sioux City 1865; Camp of Brackett’s Battalion near Fort Berthold, Dakota Territory, 1865
The battalion next saw action in August as they passed through the Badlands on their march to the Yellowstone River. The Battle of the Badlands lasted three days but again the battalion were mostly unscathed. The remainder of the service was spent uneventfully patrolling Dakota territory or garrisoning western posts.[10] Eugene Delton STONE was promoted to Corporal during his service and discharged with the company in May of 1866.[11]
After returning from service, Eugene and Ellen had four more children – Livonia (b. 1967), Silas (b. 1870), George (b. 1874) and Lillian (b. 1877).
During this time, Goodhue County became a leader in wheat growing – by 1873 it was the world’s largest primary wheat market.[12] The Stone family, however, were stock and dairy farmers. Diversification was becoming more popular in farming in the 1870s, as the land was exhausted from wheat farming, drought and pests. Dairy farming would have been familiar to the farmers, especially those, such as Eugene’s wife Ellen, who immigrated from Scandinavia.[13] Beef stock and dairy farming were considered viable options for the Minnesota climate as the rolling hills made for good grazing pasture, the stock could be used for meat, the cows provided butter, milk – including skim to feed the livestock – and cheese, and the cows were sturdy enough to withstand the harsh winters.
In the winter of 1880, a blizzard struck Minnesota in the middle of October. The snow did not stop. It continued to fall until it was twenty feet deep – so deep farmers had to tunnel to their barns, which were buried in snow, to feed their livestock. During this time, three of the Stone children died. First, youngest daughter Lillian, just two and a half years old, succumbed on November 2, 1880. Four days later, on November 6, her brother George died at the age of four. The next day, the oldest living sister – Livonia, named for Eugene’s mother who had just passed away the year before – died as well. She was only 13 years old.
It continued to snow until April. Railroads could not be cleared, and roads were impassable. Towns were cut off from critical supplies. It became known at the Hard Winter, or the Long Winter. In the spring, the thaw happened so quickly that many towns along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers were flooded, some so severely they were abandoned permanently, and in one instance the flood permanently altered the course of the Missouri River in Omaha.[14]
Crews clear snow in Winona Minnesota 1881; Snow Blockade, March 1881
On May 5, 1904, Eugene claimed 80 acres of land in Little Rock, Arkansas, under the original Homestead Act.[15] There is no evidence that he used it – it is more likely he sold or transferred the land, but that paper trail has not been identified.
Brackett’s Battalion veterans gathered for a Grand Army of the Republic reunion, 1905
The STONE family remained in Goodhue for the duration of their lives. Ellen was a leader in the local Swedish Lutheran Church, called Spring Garden – she was one of the original founders to name the community there.[16] Her parents also lived nearby and are buried in the Cannon Falls Cemetery near their daughter.[17] Eugene Delton retired sometime before 1910[18] and died in Cannon Falls in 1914. Ellen died in 1920. They are buried side-by-side in Cannon Falls Cemetery, Cannon Falls, Minnesota.[19]
The two living sons of Eugene and Ellen remained in Minnesota. Franklin lived in Minneapolis with his family. He managed creameries there, was an insurance salesman, and continued to own and manage a local creamery in Cannon Falls.[20] He died in Minneapolis in 1929.[21] Silas became a carpenter and farmer and lived with his family until his death in 1935.[22]
Gathering Roots 