USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 121
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mgs Bank. He is also a director of the " will be so good to me, and bear me in their Charlestown Mutual Fire Insurance Co., and was president of the Odd Fellows Mutual Benefit Society in 1891,-'92, and '93.
In politics he was a Whig during the life of the party, and then a Republican ; to-day he votes for the best man, regardless of his affiliation.
In social organizations he has long been prominent, having occupied the chairs in the Bunker Hill Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Bunker Hill Encampment ; in the Knights of Honor, Daughters of Rebeckah and other organizations.
Mr. Stetson was married, Feb. 3, 1852, at West Dover, to Mirriam Owen, and has four children : Florence Adelaide Bickford, Clara Adella Howard, Eva Angelea (deceased ), Walter Emrie, and Gertrude Miriam Fitch.
STEVENS, HIRAM S., was born at Weston in 1832 ; received a common sehool education there ; removed to New Mexico in 185) and in 1856 located in that part of Mexico now known as Arizona ; was a mem- ber of the territorial Legislature from Arizona 1868-1873; was elected a delegate from Arizona in the Forty-fourth Congress as an independent candidate ; was re-elected to the Forty-fifth Congress.
STEVENS, THADDEUS, was born in Caledonia county, April 4, 1793 ; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1814; during that year he removed to Pennsylvania, stud- ied law and taught in an academy at the same time; in 1816 was admitted to the bar in Adams eounty ; in 1833 was elected to the state Legislature, and also in 1834, 1835, 1837 and 1841 ; in 1836 was elected a member of the convention to revise the state constitution ; in 1838 was appointed a eanal commissioner ; in 1842 he removed to Laneaster ; and in 1848 was elected a representative from Pennsylvania to the Thirty-first Congress, also to the Thirty- seeond ; and in 1858 was re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress, and also to the Thirty-seventh ; in 1862 he was re-elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress ; he was also a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1864; and re-elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress.
Many a joke, good and bad, is eredited to Thaddeus Stevens. One of the very keenest of his jests, which is undoubtedly authentie, is so commonplace in sound that one might easily be forgiven for failing to take in its meaning. In his last days David Reese and John Chauneey, two employes of the House of Representatives, used to earry him in a large arm ehair, from his lodging aeross the publie grounds, up the broad steps of the eapitol. "Who," he said to them one day,
strong arms, when you two mighty men are gone?" Such a question implied nothing short of a sense of intellectual immortality.
When he had taken to his bed for the last time, a visitor told him he was looking well. " Oh, John," was the quick reply, " It's not my appearance, but my disappearance that troubles me !"
One day a member of the House of Rep- resentatives, who was noted for his uncertain course on all questions, and who confessed that he never investigated a point under discussion without finding himself a neutral, asked for leave of absence. " Mr. Speaker," said Stevens, " I do not rise to object, but to suggest that the honorable member need not ask this favor, for he can easily pair off with himself !"
STONE, ASHLEY, late of Hinsdale, N. H., son of Ebenezer and Lydia (Streeter) Stone, was born in Hinsdale, July 7, 1816.
ASHLEY STONE.
He attended the distriet sehools of his native town until fifteen years of age. Leav- ing home in August, 1831, he walked to Mil- ford, Mass., where he learned the painter's trade. By working at his trade he earned means to study at the Milford Academy, but was not able to take a college eourse. Mr. Stone was endowed with a keen, logical mind, a good memory, and a desire for knowledge. Throughout his busy life he made study his reereation and so supple-
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mented his scanty early advantages that few college graduates were so thoroughly well read as he.
For several years he worked at his trade in Milford and Dorchester, Mass. ; the win- ter of 1836-37 was spent in Virgina and the city of Washington for a publishing house in placing "A Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge." In the spring of 1837 he went to Searsburg to care for his father's family and he carried on his trade in that and neighboring towns until the fall of 1843. He then went to Boston to assist J. M. Dexter in taking account of a stock of merchandise and subsequently closed out a bankrupt stock of goods at Cambridge, N. Y., as agent for Boston creditors.
In the spring of 1844 Mr. Stone bought out the general store of Flavius T. and Vol- ney Forbes in Wilmington, and he continued an interest in mercantile business in Wil- mington for over thirty years. In 1850 he went to California for a company who shipped spruce lumber around Cape Horn. While there he engaged successfully in mining and general trade. Returning to Wilmington in May, 1851, he became ex- tensively interested in real estate operations. He erected many of Wilmington's best build- ings, improved a number of surrounding farms, and for many years was a buyer or seller in a large majority of the real estate transactions of that town. In 1864 and 1865 he carried on an extensive and pros- perous baking business in Baltimore, Md. He was guardian and administrator of many large and intricate estates, and frequently held positions of trust. In 1877 he left Wilmington and returned to his native town of Hinsdale, where he bought land and erected houses to rent. Mr. Stone was always an exceedingly active man, and he also read extensively. Although he had remarkable physical endurance, his health at last failed from the great strain, and his eyes began to trouble him. He consulted the best medical authority in this country, submitted to three difficult surgical opera- tions, but became totally blind in 1884. This forced him to abandon active business life. He kept his home in Hinsdale, N. H., but spent the last few winters in Washington, Philadelphia, Mohawk, N. Y., and New York City.
Mr. Stone was stricken with paralysis July 28, 1893, from which he never recovered, and died at Hinsdale Dec. 15, 1893.
Mr. Stone had been a Free Soiler, a Whig and a Republican. He cast his first presi- dential vote for William Henry Harrison in 1840 and voted for every Whig and Repub- lican presidential candidate, including Ben- jamin Harrison in 1892, except voting for Horace Greeley in 1872. He represented
STONE.
the town of Searsburg as a Whig in the Legislature of 1840 and was re-elected in 1841, being the youngest member of each House when serving, and was probably the only surviving member of the Legislature at the time of his death. He was elected by the Whigs state senator from Windham county in 1852, and re-elected in 1853, serving on the committee of education in both sessions and being chairman of this committee in 1853. At the time of his death there were only six ex-members of the Ver- mont Senate who had served earlier than Mr. Stone and only two who served with him in 1852-'53. He was for several years deputy sheriff for Windham county and for many years town superintendent of schools and held other town offices in Searsburg and Wilmington.
Mr. Stone united with the Baptist church of Wilmington in 1850, just before leaving for California, having been baptized in the Deerfield river by Rev. Mr. Chase. He was for many years clerk of the church and super- intendent of its Sunday school, and one of its oldest members when he died.
He was philanthropic and self-sacrificing, and had always been an active supporter of education, morality, and temperance. His funeral was held in his home church at Wil- mington, and very fully attended by his old neighbors and friends, the sermon being preached by his old pastor, Rev. A. W. Goodnow, the text being from Job 23-10 : "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
Mr. Stone was married in Wilmington, June 6, 1844, to Harriet Ann, daughter of Lewis and Eleanor (Dexter) Lamb. They had six children : Lewis Porter, Byron Ash- ley, and Dexter Lyman (who are now active business men), Harriet Louisa, Albert Eben, and Lydia Eleanor, all three of whom died young. Mr. Stone afforded his three oldest sons the means for a liberal education.
STONE, BYRON ASHLEY, of Mohawk, N. Y., son of Ashley and Harriet A. (Lamb) Stone, was born June 15, 1848, at Wil- mington.
He attended the schools of his native town and later the Wesleyan University at Wilbraham, Mass., and Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he graduated with highest honors in 1868.
Mr. Stone's business life began in the store of W. M. Harris at South Deerfield, Mass., Sept. 22, 1868, but possessing an active dis- position he sought more stirring employment, and on March 22, 1869, entered the employ of Pease & Ruddock of the same town, man- ufacturers of pocket books, and began trav- eling to sell their products. In 1871 Mr. Ruddock died and the business was con-
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dur ted under the firm name of Pease & Stone until bought out, with the services of the partners, by the Charles Arms Manufact- uring Co. Mr. Stone was steadily progress- ing and in December, 1880, a wider oppor- tunity offering in the same business, he ac- cepted an offer from Langfeld Bros. & Co., of Philadelphia, where he is still connected. During twenty five years of constant travel Mr. Stone has visited nearly all the cities of this country, and has occupied a Incrative position of responsibility. In March, 1887, a corporation known as the Mohawk Valley Knitting Mills (limited), was organized by himself and associates, and he became vice- president of the company. Great success following this business, it led to the organi-
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zation of a second company called the Knit- ting Company of Mohawk (limited), and Mr. Stone was elected president of this company. Both mills have been prosperous, their business being exclusively knitting children's underwear. Mr. Stone is also a director of the National Mohawk Valley Bank.
In church work Mr. Stone is an active member of the Reformed church, and has been an elder in the same for twelve years. He was also a member of the board of edu- cation for three years and a trustee of the graded school, and did much toward secur- ing the present elegant school building.
He married, at Mohawk, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1872, Ella E., daughter of Justus S. F. and Harriet A. (Talcott) Crim. He then selected Mohawk as his permanent home, and has
STRATTON.
since built his residence there. He has had four children : Ross Byron, Lonis Talcott, Marjorie Dexter, Bertha Douglas, all living except the oldest, Ross B., who died August 21, 1886. Mr. Stone has had a busy, happy, and successful life.
STOWELL, WILLIAM H. H., was born at Windsor, July 26, 1840; was educated at the grammar and high schools of Boston ; engaged in mercantile business ; settled in Virginia in May, 1865, and was appointed collector of internal revenue for the fourth district in May, 1869 ; was elected a repre- sentative from Virginia in the Forty-second Congress as a Republican ; was re-elected to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses.
STOWELL WALTER LESTER, of San Francisco, Cal., son of l'almer Franklin and Clara (Goodell) Stowell, was born in North Tunbridge, July 10, 1852.
His education was commenced in the public schools of his native place and com- pleted in the Oakland Military Academy of California, having moved to that state in February, 1860. Soon after finishing his studies at school young Stowell received an appointment in the Custom House at San Francisco, which position he held for two years, until a change of the administration, when he eagaged in buying, storing, selling and shipping grain, also farming, until 1883, when he received an appointment in the postoffice at San Francisco, which place he has held, with the exception of brief inter- vals, to the present time and still holds.
Mr. Stowell has taken much interest in agricultural and horticultural pursuits and owns a fruit and grain farm of four hundred and eighty acres in the Sacramento valley.
He has been a member of the Pacific Coast Association Native Sons of Vermont for several years.
STRATTON, CHARLES C., of Fitch- burg, Mass., was born in Fairlee, August 22, 1829, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Stur- tevant) Stratton. His father was a leading citizen of the town, which he represented in the Legislature.
The early education of Charles C. was obtained in the district schools, supple- mented by a course at Thetford Academy. In the fall of 1846 he started out in life, and secured his first employment in the office of the Democratic-Republican of Haverhill, N. H., where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the art preservative. Later he was em- ployed as a printer in Newbury, Boston, and New York until 1854, when he connected himself with the Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel, and has since been connected with that estab- lishment, with the exception of three months,
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when he was with the 2d Mass. Cavalry, and in the Christian Commission at City Point, Va.
In March, 1867, he purchased a half inter- est in the office, and a few years later he rec- ognized and urged the importance of publish- ing a daily paper in Fitchburg. With this object in view the partnership with John E. Kellogg was formed in the spring of 1873,
CHARLES C. STRATTON.
and the first number of the Daily Sentinel was issued on the 6th of the following May. Results proved that the time had come for
such a venture. The Daily Sentinel was started May 6, 1873, as a four page paper, and was several times enlarged until in De- cember, 1892, it had become an eight page seven-column sheet with all the accessories of the regular metropolitan journal. The Senti- nel has proved an important factor in the de- velopment of Fitchburg, and was never more prosperous than at the present time. The office is in one of the finest buildings in the city.
He is prominently identified with the re- ligious and social elements of his adopted city, and is a member of the local Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Honor.
Mr. Stratton married at Fitchburg, Mass., June 11, 1873, Maria S., daughter of John and Sophronia C. Putnam. Of this union is one daughter : Louise S.
A man of sterling qualities, Mr. Stratton is one of the leading citizens of Fitchburg, and enjoys the confidence and respect of a large acquaintance.
SWEET, WILLIS, of Moscow, Idaho, was born at Alburgh Springs, Jan. 1, 1856 ; was educated in the common schools, and attended the Nebraska State University three years ; learned the printer's trade at Lincoln, Neb. ; located at Moscow, Idaho, in September, 1881, where he engaged in the practice of law ; was appointed United States attorney for Idaho, in May, 1888; was appointed associate justice of the Su- preme Court of Idaho, Nov. 25, 1889, which position he held until the admission of Idaho into the Union ; was elected to an un-expired term of the Fifty-first Congress as a Republican.
TABOR, H. A. W., of Denver, Col., son of Cornelius D. and Sarah (Terrin) Tabor, was born in Orleans county, Nov. 26, 1830. Educated only at the public schools he re- moved to Quincy, Mass., and learned the trade of a stone cutter, and after acquiring sufficient means, took up the study of the law and removed to Kansas, taking active part in the stirring events of the times when Kansas was agitated over the anti-slavery question. Here he became a member of the state Legislature, and in 1859 removed to Colorado, where he has since resided. He was the first mayor of Leadville, and has been the treasurer of Lake county ; was the first Lieutenant-Governor of the state in 1878, and in 1883 was chosen by the Col- orado Legislature as a United States senator.
TAYLOR, HENRY W., of Washington, D. C., son of Daniel W. and Almyra (Tyr- rell) Taylor, was born in Sherburne, May 20, 1855.
He was educated in the schools of his native town and at Black River Academy ; taught school two years in Windsor county. Selecting the trade of machinist, he com- pleted the apprenticeship, and in 1878 took charge of the machine shop of the Suther- land Falls Marble Co., which place he re- tained when that company was merged into the Vermont Marble Co. In 18SI he re- signed to accept an appointment in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where he remained until the following year, when he was appointed by Speaker Keifer, assist- ant engineer of the House of Representa- tives, and has since held this position.
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Mr. Taylor's services are in demand as an expert machinist. He was employed to conduct secret tests of plate printing of bank notes before a committee of the Treasury Department, and also by the engineer, James B. Eads, to operate and repair the costly model of the Tehuantepec Ship Railway, while on exhibition at the U. S. Capitol. Hle superintended the construction of the exten- sive terraces on the west front of the capitol, for the Vermont Marble Co., during which his gallant rescue of a workman's life ex- cited much comment.
HENRY W. TAYLOR.
Mr. Taylor was married at Pittsford, in 1884, to Mary E., daughter of Joseph B. and Caroline (Hall) Tottingham. Their chil- dren are : Caroline E., and Florence M.
TEMPLE, EDALBERT J., of Hinsdale, N. H., son of Willis Haynes Temple and Dolly Ann (Merchant) Temple, was born June 3, 1856, at Wilmington.
Mr. Temple received his early education in the common schools of his native town and at Brattleboro Academy, where he was graduated in 1877. He then entered Will- iams College, but soon left to engage in teaching. He began the reading of law with Hosea W. Brigham, Esq., then of Whiting- ham, and afterward entered the office of Hon. Oscar E. Butterfield of Wilmington, and there pursued his labors until he became a member of the bar, in March, 1881. In the following year he opened a law and insur-
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ance office at Hinsdale, N. H., and has since remained there, actively and successfully en- gaged in his business.
As a citizen of Wilmington he was enter- prising and public-spirited, and in educa- tional matters took great interest and became superintendent of schools in 1880. In his adopted home Mr. Temple has been active in public matters and the evidence of the esteem of his fellow townsmen is to be noted in the various offices bestowed upon him. In 1891 he was elected moderator and again in 1892, the first moderator elected in Hins- dale under the Australian system of ballot- ing, and still holds that office. In 1893 he was made a member of the board of educa- tion for three years and is chairman of the board. He is also one of the auditors of Cheshire county and is a strong Repub- lican and president of the Republican club of Hinsdale.
In religious preference he is a Universal- ist, and is treasurer of that society. Mr. Temple is a prominent member of Golden Rule Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 77, and was its representative to the Grand Lodge of the state in 1889.
Mr. Temple was married, at Whitingham, March 22, 1881, to Eva C., daughter of Hon. Hosea W. and Flora R. (Farnham) Brigham. The family consists of three children : Charles Hosea, Mabel Eva, and Madelion Merchant.
THOMAS, ORMSBY B., of Prairie du Chien, Wis., was born in Sandgate, August 21, 1832 ; went to Wisconsin in 1836; re- ceived a common-school education ; studied law, and graduated at the National Law School of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; was admit- ted to the bar at Albany, N. Y., in 1856 ; has been district attorney of Crawford county, Wis., several times ; was a member of the Wisconsin Assembly in 1862, 1865, and 1867, and of the Wisconsin state Senate in 1880 and 1881 ; was presidential elector in 1872 ; was in the Union army, and served as cap- tain of Co. D, 31st Regt. Wis. Vol. Inft. ; was elected to the Forty-ninth, and re-elected to the Fiftieth Congress as a Republican.
THURSTON, JOHN MELLEN, of Omaha, Neb., son of Daniel Sylvester and Ruth (Mellen) Thurston, was born in Mont- pelier, August 21, 1847. His father's fam- ily removed from Montpelier to Wisconsin in 1854. In 1861 his father volunteered in the 17th Wisconsin Infantry, and died in the service of his country in the spring of 1863. At this time young Thurston was compelled to undertake almost any kind of employment in order to assist in the sup- port of his family and to secure an educa- tion for himself. In 1865 he went to Chi-
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cago and spent a year as driver of a grocery wagon. At the end of this period he re- turned to his mother at Beaver Dam, Wis., and engaged in fishing and trapping, em- ploying a number of boys to help him, and shipping his wares to Chicago for sale. This venture proved successful and resulted in the accumulation of enough money to en- able him to attend school.
JOHN MELLEN THURSTON.
In 1866 he entered Wayland University at Beaver Dam, and remained until the institution closed in 1868. He now deter- mined to study law, and entered the office of E. P. Smith, an eminent attorney of Wis- consin, then a member of the bar at Beaver Dam. On the 21st of May, 1869, after an examination by the Hon. Alva Stuart, circuit judge at Portage, Wis., Mr. Thurston was ad- mitted to the bar. His necessities compelled him, however, to again engage in farming and manual labor until the end of the season when, in company with another young attor- ney, he determined to locate at Omaha, Neb., where he arrived Oct. 5, 1869, and began bus- iness in the office of William H. Morris, then a lawyer and trial justice. The new firm found insufficient business for their support, and Mr. Luthe, who was married, went to Denver. Mr. Thurston, true to his charac- teristics, stuck to his office, and during his novitiate was reduced to the necessity of sleeping upon a buffalo robe in his office and eked out a bare subsistence. Varying suc- cess attended his struggles. In 1871, upon
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the resignation of Judge Morris, Mr. Thurs- ton was appointed to fill the vacancy, and removed to larger offices. He then con- tinued his efforts until the spring of 1873 when he resigned his office of justice to form a law partnership with Hon. Charles H. Brown. The previous spring Mr. Thurston had been elected a member of the city coun- cil in Omaha, which office he filled two con- secutive years, acting as president of that body and chirman of the judiciary committee. In the spring of 1874, upon the expiration of his term as alderman, he was appointed city attorney by Mayor C. S. Chase, which posi- tion he filled three years, resigning finally to accept the assistant attorneyship of the Union Pacific R. R. under the Hon. A. J. Popple- ton, general solicitor of the corporation. Mr. Thurston was also elected a member of the Nebraska Legislature of 1875, and served in that body as chairman of the judicial com- mittee and acting speaker. In the fall of 1885 he was the Republican candidate for judge of the Third Judicial District of the state of Nebraska and was defeated.
For fifteen years Mr. Thurston has been identified with a majority of leading cases in the courts of Nebraska. While Mr. Thurston has not devoted himself to crimi- nal practice, but has rather avoided than sought employment in criminal cases, yet he has been called upon to defend fourteen persons charged with murder and has the almost unprecedented record of final ac- quittal in every case.
When he became general solicitor of the Union Pacific R. R., he had perhaps the largest general practice of any lawyer in this section. Since accepting this position, the responsible duties of which office he assum- ed on the first of February, 1888, he has retired from general practice, as the business of the railway system which is now all under his supervision occupies his entire time and attention.
In 1880 Mr. Thurston was one of the presidential electors for Nebraska and electoral messenger. In 1884 he was dele- gate-at-large to the Republican national convention at Chicago, and chairman of his state delegation. In 1888 he was also tem- porary chairman of the national Republi- can convention which nominated General Harrison for President. His speech in opening the convention was pronounced a masterpiece by the press of the country, and at its conclusion he received such an ovation as few men have ever been accorded, and in a single hour he acquired a great national reputation as an orator.
Mr. Thurston has delivered many memor- able addresses in different parts of the coun- try. His oration on the Centennial Anni- versary of Constitutional Independence at
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Chicago in 1880, his eulogy on General Grant before the Union League Club, his address on Abraham Lincoln, in 1890, and his tribute to the "man who wears the button," are among the most remarkable. The press of the whole country has seemed to unite in commendation of his abilities as a powerful and eloquent public speaker. He was urged by the greater portion of the entire West for appointment as Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of President Harri- son, and, although he made no effort to se- cure the position, it was at one time believed that his selection was certain. He has twice been a leading candidate for United States Senator from Nebraska. On one occasion he almost secured the Republican nomina- tion, which would have been equivalent to an election, and again, in 1893, he received the nomination of the Republican caucus and came within one vote of an election. It is believed that as soon as another oppor- tunity presents itself the people of Nebraska will insist upon his going to the United States Senate, and he has been urged by many for a still higher place.
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