Baldwin County AlArchives Biographies.....Frank S. Stone October 3 1839 - ?
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 11, 2004, 10:19 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
   FRANK S. STONE, SR., one of the most popular steamboat owners on the Bigbee
river, with residence at Montrose, Baldwin county, Ala., was born at Bladen
Springs, Choctaw county, this state, October 3, 1839, a son of Capt. Sardine
Graham Stone, and brother of S. G. Stone, treasurer of Mobile county, whose
sketch appears elsewhere in this work. In 1847 Frank S. Stone was taken by his
parents to Mobile, where he was educated in its best schools until twelve years
old, when he was sent, at his own request, to Jeffersonville, Ind., for the
purpose of passing a year in the ship-yard of J. and D. Howard and learning the
business, after which he finished his literary education in Mississippi, under
Alexander Demitry. On his return to Mobile he entered the employ of William H.
Redwood & Co. as a shipping clerk, and a year later, in 1855, began his career
as a river man, by assuming the position of second clerk on the "Ben Lee," a
boat running in the Tombigbee river trade. A few years later, while clerk of the
ill-fated Eliza Battle which burned in 1858, he saved several persons from the
holocaust and now has in his possession a gold watch presented by a grateful
father of a rescued babe, and also a gold medal presented by the Masons of the
state. Transportation by water has claimed his attention ever since, and his
experience has been extensive and varied-having entered the trade in its "flush"
times and holding on through all the changes wrought by the introduction of
railroads. In 1864, Mr. Stone became captain of the steamer "Admiral," in the
Bigbee trade, and since then has had command of many boats. He is now part owner
and director in the Planters & Merchants' steam packet line, running the Warrior
and Tombigbee rivers, while the steamer "D. L. Tally" is under his immediate
command. September 4, 1862, Capt. Stone married Miss Mary Hawkins, daughter of
Dr. Augustus C. Hawkins, of Waverly, Miss. Dr. Hawkins was born in Georgia, and
on graduating in medicine first practiced in Union Springs, Ala., and then in
Waverly, Miss., in which latter place he died in 1856. Mrs. Mary Stone was born
at Union Springs, Ala., in 1742, was reared partly in Alabama and partly in
Mississippi, and graduated from Barton academy, Mobile. She has had three
children, viz.: Frank S., born June 12, 1863; Mary, born in 1866, but now
deceased; Robert O., born June 26, 1872. The surviving children have had most
excellent school advantages. Frank S., Jr., received his literary training in
Mobile at the Barton academy and Towles institute, then passed through a course
at the university of Alabama in civil engineering, then a course in physics, and
finally graduated from one of the best law schools in the south, the university
of Georgia; Robert O. is now pursuing a course of mining and mechanical
engineering at the Alabama polytechnic college. Captain Stone takes much
interest in and gives freely to all charitable undertakings, and has never
turned a hungry human being away from his door. His means are never withheld
from enterprises designed for the public good, and his energy in forwarding the
interests of such undertakings has been frequently manifested. The captain owns
several sections of land in Baldwin county, aside from his home place, and he
does not allow the property to lie idle. In 1879 he engaged extensively in
orange culture and planted an orchard of 3,000 trees at a cost of $30,000, but
repeated frosts, through successive years, have played havoc with crops, but he
is not yet discouraged. Capt. Stone has owned a summer residence at Montrose,
Baldwin county, for a number of years. He moved his family there and permanently
located in 1888 and began at once to add to his already extensive improvements.
He now has a beautiful home, situated on the east coast of Mobile bay
overlooking and commanding a fine view of its waters over one hundred feet
below; his home occupies spacious grounds, attached to which is a garden of well
selected and rare flowers and shrubs, including 112 different varieties of the
rose. He has a pear orchard of one thousand bearing trees. These trees now yield
from ten to thirty bushels of fruit per tree per annum. His favorite variety is
the Le Conte, of which his orchard is principally composed, but among its many
trees may be found the large sand pear, the Early Harvest, the Idaho, the
Keifer, the Lawson, the Japan, and the Duchess. He also has a fine vineyard,
composed of many favorite varieties of grapes, including the Scupernong, the
Alexander, Perkins, the Muscatelle, the Cawtaba, the Early Dawn, the Hoverman,
the James, the Concord, the Moore's Diamond and Niagara; he raises his own meat
and lard and has many cows and has his place well provided with a modern stable,
and in fact, his home is surrounded by all the comforts and conveniences of life
and is complete in all its appointments. He is a sound democrat, and member of
Mobile Harbor No. 19.

Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama"

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