Newaygo County MI Archives Biographies.....Stone, Hon. Charles W.  June 2, 1833 - 
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Jan Cortez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00020.html#0004939 March 25, 2009, 1:48 am

Author: Chapman Brothers

HON. CHARLES W. STONE, Representative from Newaygo County, was born June 2, 
1833, in Warrensburg, Warren 

Co., N.Y., and is the eldest son of Samuel and Sally (Moore) Stone.  The 
father was a son of John and Mary 

(Collins) Stone, and grew to maturity in Warrensburg, married there and reared 
a family of 10 children.  

He was a native of New Hampshire, and died in Warrensburg in 1878.  The mother 
was born in Eastern New 

York and died in Warrensburg, in February, 1883.  The elder Stone was an 
honest, ahrdworking man, and left 

to his sons a better heritage than most men do, who earn for them immunity 
from effort and freedom from 

the struggle necessary to humanity in order to develop its greatest and best.  
The boasted glory of the 

West was made possible by the stringencies which held former generations at 
the East.  John Stone was born 

in the old Granite State, and resided some years at Weare, Hillsborough Co., 
N.H., removing thence to 

Cambridge, N.Y., and, later, to Warrensburg, where he spent his life in honor 
and usefulness and died at 

the age of 92 years.  His wife was also a nonogenarian at the time of her 
death.

The boyhood of Mr. Stone was passed in the manner common to the children of 
the place, period and 

generation in which he was born.  Industry, grugality and the necessity of 
utilizing every moment were so 

impressed upon him as to become a sense instinctive traits.  He obtained 
little educational discipline in 

the schools, and, when he found himself in undisputed possession of the 
privilege of making his own way in 

the world.  His years of labor during his minority had trained him in a 
complete knowledge of every detail 

in the manufacture of lumber; and in the early summer, when independent 
manhood brought with it the added 

need of immediate effort, he began to seek a service with which he was 
familiar.  An opening in Florida 

attracted his attention, and he found encouragement in the project, but must 
wait until November before he 

could go to a tropical climate with safety.  Opportunity mets her ardent 
seekers more than half way, and 

intelligence soon reached him that a company at Glens Falls were engaging men 
for the lumber woods of 

Northern Michigan, and he made his way to that place.  He applied to Albert M. 
Cheney who, with Lewis L. 

Arms, of Glens Falls, and Eliphalet Wood, of Chicago, had established the 
business and intrests still 

known under the style of the Newaygo Company.  To Mr. Cheney young Stone 
stated his case, but he was 

received with a shake of the head.  He accepted the repulse without comment 
and reached the door, but 

before he opened it he was re-called.  "I think there is something in you and 
will give you a chance," was 

Mr. Cheney's sententious remark; and in a few days he was on his way to 
Newaygo County.  the village of 

that name consisted of only a few houses, and its principal business interests 
were in the hands of John 

A. Brooks and the Newaygo Company.

Nine dollars represented the cash capital of Mr. Stone when he found himself 
in the field he had sought.  

His first work was scaling logs for the Newaygo Company on the land belonging 
to James and William Barton. 

 He continued in the employ of the Company twelve years. emgaged mostly in 
utilizing his time for the best 

interests of his employers.  The following year his settlement in Newaygo 
County (1855), he bought 160 

acres of unimproved land in what was then Fremont Township.  He made his 
purchase under the Graduation 

Act, paying 75 cents per acre therefor, and in it invested his first earnings 
in Michigan.  The entire 

tract is still in his possession; and, under the changes in the municipal 
condition incident to the 

settlement and organization of the county, its described location is now on 
section six, Garfield 

Township.  At the time of Mr. Stone's settlement Fremont comprised the 
territory now included in the 

townships of Dayton, Sherman, Sheridan and the western half of Garfield, then 
belonging to Sherman.  The 

division and several organizations were made in 1866, and Mr. Stone was made 
first Supervisor of Sherman, 

and, with the exception of one year, held the position successively until his 
nomination for County 

Treasurer, in 1878.

He was married May 10, 1858, in Caldwell, Warren Co., N.Y., to Mary, daughter 
of John Eddy.  Two children 

- Frederick C. and Clara J. - have been born of this union.  The family 
resided in the village of Newaygo 

about 15 years, when they removed to the farm, of which 100 acres is cleared 
and in admirable condition, 

with farm fixtures and general arrangement of a character which puts the place 
in the front rank among the 

best in the county.  On being elected to a county office, he removed to the 
village, where he resided 

until the summer of 1883, when he again removed to his farm.  Besides his 
homestead and house and lot in 

Newaygo village, he owns 400 acres of timber land in the county.

Until the organization of the National Greenback party Mr. Stone was a 
Democrat and pursued a 

straightforward, well-defined, but non-aggressive policy, that secured the 
respect of his peers and the 

confidence of all parties.  He never possessed the peculiar instincts of a 
wire-puller, nor exhibited the 

traits which characterize a ring politician of the period.  Nor is he a man of 
the stamp, so common to the 

nineteenth century, of such marvelous type that the contingencies of decades 
of public affairs seem to 

have been created expressly to develop.  Verily, the possibilities within the 
range of political ingenuity 

increase in direct proportion to the lapse of time!  Mr. Stone's election to 
the positions he has held and 

is still holding present a feature in Newaygo County local politics, which do 
the good sense and sound 

judgment of her voting community eminent credit.  The county officers as a 
rule are selected for peculiar 

ability and fitness for the work to be accomplished.  In 1878 Mr. Stone was 
elected County Treasurer and 

was re-elected in 1880.  He was nominated in 1882, before the expiration of 
his second term, by the 

National Greenback element of the county as its Representative in the 
Legislature of Michigan.  the 

campaign and its results were most flattering to the candidate and 
satisfactory to the constituency who 

presented him for the position, without knowledge or effort of his own.  His 
election was secured soley 

through the general confidence in his character and abilities, and was 
pecularily significant from the 

fact that he ran against two candidates, - Edward E. Edwards, the then 
incumbent and Republican nominee, 

and George W. Nafe, the candidate of the Democrats.  In the House he was made 
member of Committees on the 

State School for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb, on Supplies and Expenditures; and, 
in the varied servies to 

which he was called, distinguished himself as the protector of the interests 
of his constituency and by 

the consistency of his actions as a representative of the class to which he 
considers it his best 

perogative to belong.

Mr. Stone was first Master of the Grange at Fremont when it was organized, and 
also of the first County 

Grange.  He has been a member of the Masonic Lodge of Newaygo over 20 years.  
On the organization of the 

Patrons' Mutual Fire Insurance Company for the counties of Newaygo, Muskegon 
and Oceana, Mr. Stone was 

made its first President and Treasurer.  He discharged the duties of the 
latter position until January, 

1883.

Mr. Stone's portrait may be found on page 340.  Its fitness as an 
accompaniment to this sketch (plain and 

matter-of-fact as the latter is necessarily, from the modest pretensions and 
the unassuming charachter of 

the gentleman whose life and similitude are here perpetuated), will be 
acknowledged by all, and both will 

be a source of satisfaction to the people of Newaygo County, among whom he has 
expended the best years and 

energies of his life.

Additional Comments:
1884 Portrait & Bio Album of Newaygo Co.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/newaygo/bios/stone379nbs.txt

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