Representative William Milo Stone View All Years

EX-GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. STONE died at his home in Oklahoma on the 18th day of July last, at the age of 66. He was a native of Ohio, and came to Iowa in 1854, settling at Knoxville, where he entered upon the practice of the law. In October, 1855, he established the Knoxville Journal, and became its editor. He was a delegate from Marion county to the convention which assembled at Iowa City (then the capital of the State), on the 22d of February, 1856, and organized the Republican party in Iowa. He was nominated by that convention for Presidential Elector, and was elected in November following. In 1857 he was chosen District Judge, and under the new constitution which took effect the next year was elected Judge of the new Sixth District. When the Rebellion broke out in 1861, he raised a company which went into the Third Iowa Infantry, of which regiment Captain Stone was appointed Major. He was taken prisoner by the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh, and was held at Richmond several months. Soon after he was released by exchange, Governor Kirkwood appointed him Colonel of the 22d Infantry. He was slightly wounded at one of the battles before Vicksburg, in 1863, and came home on furlough. He attended the Republican State Convention, made an eloquent war speech (with his arm in a sling), the night before the ballot was taken for a candidate for Governor, where most of the delegates were present. A warm contest had been going on for months between the supporters of General Fitz Henry Warren and Elijah Sells. But the thrilling eloquence of the wounded soldier in blue, captured a majority of the delegates, and Colonel William M. Stone was nominated for Governor. He was elected over General J. M. Tuttle, the Democratic candidate, by a majority of nearly 30,000. He was re-elected in 1865 over Colonel Thomas H. Benton by a majority of about 17,000. In 1888 Governor Stone was chosen Presidential Elector over Judge Grant of Davenport, who had been his competitor for the same position in 1856. In 1889, Governor Stone was appointed Assistant Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington, and near the close of President Harrison’s term, was promoted to Commissioner. Upon retiring from that position he settled in Oklahoma, where he resided at the time of his death. He leaves a widow, Caroline M., a daughter of the late Professor James Matthews of Knoxville.