John C. Stoner Biography


	This biography appears on pages 935-936 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				HON. JOHN C. STONER. 

	Hon. John C. Stoner, state senator, register of the United States 
land office and editor of the Lemmon Herald, was born February 6, 1881, 
in Bethany, Missouri. His father, John C. Stoner, was a Civil war 
veteran who served with the Fifth Missouri Cavalry from 1861 until 
1866. In the spring of 1883 he left Missouri and made his way to Hyde 
county, South Dakota, settling at Highmore. He became a prominent and 
influential citizen of that locality, serving for eight years as clerk 
of the circuit court and as county auditor for two years. He also 
engaged in newspaper publication for twenty years. His wife, who bore 
the maiden name of Margaret E. Bush, was a niece of Amanda Bush, 
stepmother of Abraham Lincoln, and was a native of Illinois. . 

	John C. Stoner was only two years of age when his parents removed 
with their family to Hyde county, South Dakota, and there he pursued 
his education in the common and high schools of Highmore until 1896. He 
afterward took a short course at Purdue University of Indiana in 1905. 
From early youth he has been familiar with newspaper publication, to 
which he has devoted his entire life save for about five years, which 
he spent in the real estate business at Highmore and in Indiana under 
the firm name of Cummings, Stoner & Wolley. He served as deputy auditor 
of Hyde county from 1900 until 1902 and both before and after that time 
was connected with the Highmore Herald, gaining broad experience in 
newspaper publication in that way. In the spring of 1909 he removed to 
Perkins county South Dakota, and in the spring of the following year 
established the Edson Press. In the spring of 1913 he purchased the 
Lemmon Herald, which he has since owned and published, giving to his 
patrons a weekly paper that is thoroughly modern in its methods of 
publication and treatment of news. 

	Mr. Stoner was married, in Lemmon, South Dakota, on the 30th of 
April, 1910, to Miss Pauline Rodenbur, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. 
Rodenbur, of Browns Valley, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Stoner have two 
children: John Carlton, aged two and a half years; and Maurice Edward, 
eight months old. 

	In religious faith Mr. Stoner is a Catholic. Fraternally he is 
connected with the Masons and was senior warden of Ree Valley Lodge, 
No. 70, F. & A. M., at Highmore in 1906-07. He was captain of the host 
of Lemmon Chapter, R. A. M., in 1914 and scribe in 1915. He also has 
membership with the Knights of Pythias at Highmore and with the Elks 
Lodge, No. 444, at Huron. His military service covers connection with 
the South Dakota National Guard from 1900 until 1904. In politics he is 
a progressive democrat and has been called upon to fill a number of 
important public positions. Aside from serving as deputy auditor of 
Hyde county he was elected state senator from the district comprising 
Perkins and Harding counties in 1914 and in 1915 was appointed register 
of the land office at Lemmon. He is thus leaving the impress of his 
individuality upon the political history of the state and he makes his 
paper an organ for furthering the success of the party and of the 
principles in which he believes