WARE COUNTY  GA  Biography  LYDIA STONE

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LYDIA STONE BUILT BIG EMPIRE ON HER DREAMS

Born a dreamer, she became an empire-builder and a living
legend in her time. Lydia Stone was the name she was best
known by, but she was born Lydia Smith and died Lydia
Crews, the name of her second husband. In her 74 years in
South Georgia, Lydia Stone was known by such various
nicknames as "Queen of the Okefenokee," "The Swamp
Baroness," and simply "Miz Liddie." Born June 22, 1864 on
Cowhouse Island, she quickly decided to refuse the
restrictions of being a woman. Those who knew her say
Lydia Stone was possessed with a strong desire for
wealth. Because of her proximity to the swamp, she carved
her fortune and earned her fame on the rim of the
Okefenokee. She was known as a courageous woman, big in
stature and with a stong determination, Mrs. Stone was
said to be six feet tall.

Lydia must have dreamed at an early age of transforming
the swamp into her personal empire. She is reputed to
have begun ammassing her fortune as a small girl. Saving
nickles, dimes and quarters earned by helping neighbors,
she kept her savings in a jar. Acquaintance say that her
dream apparently grew as her saving increased. They say
that her desire to create an empire brought sacrifice of
her education and she never learned to read or write.
School is reported to have consisted of six days in
class.

William Smith, her father, gave her a cow and sow to
staart her on the route to wealth. With her childhood
savings, she purchased her first 40 acres of land, began
turpentine interests, and later sold the trees to the
railroad for crossties which she helped cut and load.

Income from turpentine and crosstie sales was reinvested
in the purchase of land. Land was $1 per acre and
sometimes less and she could expand her holdings. Despite
her lack of education, they say no one could beat her in
calculating figures and her knowledge of land, trees, or
livestock was unequalled.

It was not long before Lydia Stone owned all of Racepond,
the Charlton County community where she lived at the time
which was named for horse racing around a pond there.

Employees were always paid by the job, provided a house
for which Mrs. Stone collected rent and had to purchase
groceries and goods from her commissary.

Her holdings began to increase when she began buying land
abandoned by northerners and additional adquisitions were
made by paying back taxes abandoned by others. She built
a herd of about 1,000 cattle and was sharp in her
dealings with the livestock buyers in Waycross. Believing
in honesty, she reportedly would never do business with a
person suspected of trying to cheat her. Lydia supervised
her work crews from horseback and was reputed to be a
hard-driving employer.

Her first husband was Gordon Stone, an employee she fell
in love with at age 40. Together they continued to create
the empire. By the time Stone died, Lydia's dream had
become a reality for she owned land and cattle with a
fortune.

A desire for an heir led the childess Lydia to begin
inviting Melton Crews, one of her employees, to have
dinner with her. Crews was an efficient employee and
Lydia took an interest in him. They were later married
but Charlton County people regarded their relationship as
scandalous. Because Crews was only 22 years old to
Lydia's 64, she had him grow a beard and let his hair get
long to make him look older. She began to train him to
take over her empire.

Crews is reported to have staggered home one night after
drinking too much, spotted what he thought to be a
burglar and shot the man. It was later determined the man
was the cook's husbnad and Crews was indicted for murder,
receiving a 20-year prison sentence. Acquaintances say
Lydia spent the next two years trying to get Crews
released from prison, and there are tales told how she
tricked a governor into releasing Crews.

Friends say that while Crews was in prison, Lydia learned
she had cancer. She is said to have begun a search for a
second wife for Crews. Although Crews objected, Lydia
found one, the daughter of an employee and arranged for
Crews to spend his first night out of prison with the
girl. She made him promise to marry the girl upon her
(Lydia's) death.

When Lydia died in January, 1938, her assets totaled
almost a million dollars and she controlled more than
30,000 acres of land.

WAYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALD, Monday, April 22, 1974
CENTENNIAL EDITION
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