FULTON COUNTY OHIO - BIOS: BROWN, Esther STONE & STONE, Eliza (published 1954)
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Published in the "Wauseon Republican" 19 August 1954

Wauseon Had Top Flight Telegrapher
There is an interesting story to come out of the past of Esther Stone Brown
and her sister Eliza Stone.

Esther Brown came to Wauseon in the early Seventies as a Telegrapher for the
"Old Lake Shore."  She had served as a telegrapher at Wakeman, Ohio and one
other place before coming to Wauseon. She and he sister Eliza, were two of the
first women operators in the United States.

Mrs. Brown's sister was rated on of the best in the country and was in Chicago
at the time of the "great fire" of 1871.  She stayed at her post until the
flames drove her away.  She left in a wagon with many others.  She and her two
roommates buried their trunks before leaving the city.  When Miss Stone went
back for hers, it was gone.  Eliza came to Wauseon and lived with her sister
Esther for a while before going to Oswego, NY where she lived to be 97.
Esther Stone was the telegrapher in Wauseon until she married Judge Brown in
1883.

She was the mother of Mrs. Reas Campbell [Ruth Armstrong (Brown) Campbell].