Frank was the fourth of six surviving children of Oren and Joanna (Turner) Stone. On his death certificate Frank's wife claimed he was born in Windsor, Massachusetts, which was his father's hometown, but his parents were residents of Savoy, Massachusetts at the time Frank was born, and Frank claimed Savoy as his birthplace. Unfortunately no birth record for Frank or any of his siblings can be found as it seems the births were never registered. Frank's birthdate was given most particularly as March 1833 on the 1900 census.
Frank grew up in his large family living nearby to his Turner grandparents and cousins. His grandfather, Elijah, an old Revolutionary War veteran, died when Frank was ten. He was just 13 when his mother died in 1846, and then his grandmother died six months later. Frank and his siblings were thereafter scattered around the Berkshires, working or placed in other people's homes. In the 1850 census Frank (going by the name of Ebenezer) could be found listed in Windsor, Massachussets, age 17, living with William Beed, 43, a carpenter, and his wife and daughter. His brothers Ira/Newell and Billy also lived in Windsor, with two other separate families. Their father cannot be found in this census at all. Nor can Frank be found in the 1855 state or the 1860 federal censuses of Massachusetts, although his Civil War invalid pension records reveal that in the summer of 1860 he lived with his brother Ward's wife's brother, Lord M. Ackert, in Peru, helping with the haying.
Frank became a Union Civil War soldier when he enlisted for three years' service in Sandisfield, Massachusetts as a Private on 14 September 1861, age 28, in Co. F, 27th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He received a disability discharge from the same unit's regimental hospital in New Bern, North Carolina on 19 July 1862 after contracting pulmonary phthisis (consumption, or tuberculosis) on Roanoke Island that February (his unit had been sent to North Carolina and engaged in "minor skirmishes" and extreme, major hardships there and while on shipboard during his tenure in the service--see the first three chapters of Bearing Arms in the Twenty-Seventh Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteer Infantry During the Civil War, 1861-1865 by William P. Derby, 1883, currently available online).
Upon discharge he was described as having a bad cough, was five feet five and a quarter inches tall, with grey eyes and brown hair. He was also much troubled with rheumatism he attributed to exposure during his military service and found that he was no longer able to do hard physical labor. He returned to Otis, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts and began the application process for a Civil War invalid pension.
On 5 April 1863 Frank attended the funeral of his younger brother, Newell, who had also enlisted for the Union and had died in Virginia of tuberculosis. Newell's body had been sent back for a funeral at the church in Peru, Massachusetts and burial in the Turner Cemetery in Savoy beside his mother. Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, and their sister, Lizzie (Stone) Janes, as well as their father, also gathered for the funeral.
On 17 July 1864, in Huntington, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts, where Frank was working as a farmer, he married Amanda L. Hinman. Justice of the Peace C.H. Kirkland, Esquire performed the marriage. It was the first marriage for both parties (ages 31 and 26). By the next spring Frank and Amanda were farming in Chester, Massachusetts with a seven-year old girl (Frances Nash) and a 22-year-old farmer (Henry Gibson) also in the household (1865 Mass. census).
On 30 August 1868 Frank's Civil War invalid pension was granted (Certificate no. 266,862. Stone, Francis, Co. F, 27th Mass. Inf.). The 1870 U.S. census found them back in Savoy, Berkshire County, Mass. showing Francis (Laborer), 37, with wife Amanda, 32, and Ada Stone, 12 (born circa 1858--Amanda's daughter? a ward? a foster child? a servant?). The family cannot be found in the 1880 census, but in June 1884 Francis E. Stone bought a quarter-acre of land in Hindsdale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts from Warren P. and Jane Knight of Hinsdale for the price of $100 (Book 262, Page 65 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). In the 1885 County Gazetteer Directory, a "Francis E. Stone" worked at or owned a grocery, and "Frank Stone" was listed as a laborer, leasing the home and lot of W. Plunkett on Road 29. In January 1886 he bought 32 more acres in Hinsdale from Elizabeth Tuttle for $250 (Book 262, Page 67 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). The town of Hinsdale around that time had a population of 1,656 (Pittsfield, Mass. city directory 1885).
By 1898 Frank and Amanda had moved to Becket, Massachusetts, her hometown. There Frank again set up and ran a grocery store and a livery (he loved horses). The 1900 U.S. census found the couple living by themselves in a rented home in Becket, ages 67 and 60, married for 34 years. They also revealed on the census that Amanda had had one child, who was by then dead. (But in 1906 Amanda's sister Lucinda Williams of Becket, and Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, in sworn statements provided for Amanda's application for a widow's pension, claimed that there were no children resulting from Frank and Amanda's marriage.)
A Civil War pension Special Examiner stated, not long after Frank's death, "From all I could learn about the soldier at Becket his home he had been in poor health for a good many years, was emaciated, had a cough and did not do any kind of hard work he kept a couple of cheap horses and took travelling men or any one who wanted to be carried out in the country -- have been with him myself -- while he drank some -- as most of those old mountaineers do -- I do not believe that he abused it -- and he was a mild dispositioned and pleasant spoken old man as I remember him now."
At 3 a.m. on Friday morning, 6 April 1906, Francis E. Stone died at his home, age 73, after an illness of several months "with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age," as well as of "a complication of lesions incidental to the Senile State." He had been attended by Dr. O. J. Shepardson of Chester, Mass. from 25 March 1906 until his death. He had been receiving a Civil War invalid pension payment of $12 a month for "disease of lungs" and on 5 March had applied to have that amount increased due to his condition worsening, rendering him unable to do any physical labor whatsoever. He had also been suffering from rheumatism, lumbago, and sciatica for years and on 25 May 1903 had broken his right leg and was still hobbling on crutches the following September.
His funeral was held in Becket and his body was sent by train to the cemetery vault in Hinsdale. No records of his burial there have been found but his death certificate, obituaries, and pension records indicate he was buried at Hinsdale on 8 April 1906. The most probable place would have been Hinsdale Cemetery also known as Maple Street Cemetery, as his wife's body was sent there to be buried when she died in 1927 (1927 Deaths Registered in Becket, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Ancestry.com).
Obituaries:
1.
BECKET.
--The funeral of Francis E. Stone was held in the home Saturday [sic; Sunday] morning Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. The remains were taken to Hinsdale on the 1 o'clock train, where they will lay in the vault until a time suitable for interment.
[Berkshire Evening Eagle, Tuesday, April 10, 1906, page 3, col. 2]
2.
Becket...
Francis E. Stone, 73 years of age, a veteran of the Civil war, being a member of the 27th Massachusetts cavalry [sic; infantry], died at his home in this village, Friday at 3 a. m.; after an illness of several months with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age. Mr. Stone had been a resident of this town for eight years, and was well known in this part of the county for his quick wit and apt repartee. He has always been fond of horses and usually kept several and has done a livery business in Hinsdale, Chester and this town. He was born in Windsor, this state. He is survived by a wife, who has the sympathy of the community. The funeral was held at the home Sunday morning at nine o'clock, Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. Mr. Mitchell referred very feelingly to the deceased's service during the war, his confinement in a southern prison pen and his uncomplaining suffering. The remains were taken to Hinsdale and placed in the vault, to remain until a suitable season for interment.
[The Sun, Pittsfield, Mass., Thursday, April 12, 1906, page 2]
Frank grew up in his large family living nearby to his Turner grandparents and cousins. His grandfather, Elijah, an old Revolutionary War veteran, died when Frank was ten. He was just 13 when his mother died in 1846, and then his grandmother died six months later. Frank and his siblings were thereafter scattered around the Berkshires, working or placed in other people's homes. In the 1850 census Frank (going by the name of Ebenezer) could be found listed in Windsor, Massachussets, age 17, living with William Beed, 43, a carpenter, and his wife and daughter. His brothers Ira/Newell and Billy also lived in Windsor, with two other separate families. Their father cannot be found in this census at all. Nor can Frank be found in the 1855 state or the 1860 federal censuses of Massachusetts, although his Civil War invalid pension records reveal that in the summer of 1860 he lived with his brother Ward's wife's brother, Lord M. Ackert, in Peru, helping with the haying.
Frank became a Union Civil War soldier when he enlisted for three years' service in Sandisfield, Massachusetts as a Private on 14 September 1861, age 28, in Co. F, 27th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He received a disability discharge from the same unit's regimental hospital in New Bern, North Carolina on 19 July 1862 after contracting pulmonary phthisis (consumption, or tuberculosis) on Roanoke Island that February (his unit had been sent to North Carolina and engaged in "minor skirmishes" and extreme, major hardships there and while on shipboard during his tenure in the service--see the first three chapters of Bearing Arms in the Twenty-Seventh Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteer Infantry During the Civil War, 1861-1865 by William P. Derby, 1883, currently available online).
Upon discharge he was described as having a bad cough, was five feet five and a quarter inches tall, with grey eyes and brown hair. He was also much troubled with rheumatism he attributed to exposure during his military service and found that he was no longer able to do hard physical labor. He returned to Otis, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts and began the application process for a Civil War invalid pension.
On 5 April 1863 Frank attended the funeral of his younger brother, Newell, who had also enlisted for the Union and had died in Virginia of tuberculosis. Newell's body had been sent back for a funeral at the church in Peru, Massachusetts and burial in the Turner Cemetery in Savoy beside his mother. Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, and their sister, Lizzie (Stone) Janes, as well as their father, also gathered for the funeral.
On 17 July 1864, in Huntington, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts, where Frank was working as a farmer, he married Amanda L. Hinman. Justice of the Peace C.H. Kirkland, Esquire performed the marriage. It was the first marriage for both parties (ages 31 and 26). By the next spring Frank and Amanda were farming in Chester, Massachusetts with a seven-year old girl (Frances Nash) and a 22-year-old farmer (Henry Gibson) also in the household (1865 Mass. census).
On 30 August 1868 Frank's Civil War invalid pension was granted (Certificate no. 266,862. Stone, Francis, Co. F, 27th Mass. Inf.). The 1870 U.S. census found them back in Savoy, Berkshire County, Mass. showing Francis (Laborer), 37, with wife Amanda, 32, and Ada Stone, 12 (born circa 1858--Amanda's daughter? a ward? a foster child? a servant?). The family cannot be found in the 1880 census, but in June 1884 Francis E. Stone bought a quarter-acre of land in Hindsdale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts from Warren P. and Jane Knight of Hinsdale for the price of $100 (Book 262, Page 65 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). In the 1885 County Gazetteer Directory, a "Francis E. Stone" worked at or owned a grocery, and "Frank Stone" was listed as a laborer, leasing the home and lot of W. Plunkett on Road 29. In January 1886 he bought 32 more acres in Hinsdale from Elizabeth Tuttle for $250 (Book 262, Page 67 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). The town of Hinsdale around that time had a population of 1,656 (Pittsfield, Mass. city directory 1885).
By 1898 Frank and Amanda had moved to Becket, Massachusetts, her hometown. There Frank again set up and ran a grocery store and a livery (he loved horses). The 1900 U.S. census found the couple living by themselves in a rented home in Becket, ages 67 and 60, married for 34 years. They also revealed on the census that Amanda had had one child, who was by then dead. (But in 1906 Amanda's sister Lucinda Williams of Becket, and Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, in sworn statements provided for Amanda's application for a widow's pension, claimed that there were no children resulting from Frank and Amanda's marriage.)
A Civil War pension Special Examiner stated, not long after Frank's death, "From all I could learn about the soldier at Becket his home he had been in poor health for a good many years, was emaciated, had a cough and did not do any kind of hard work he kept a couple of cheap horses and took travelling men or any one who wanted to be carried out in the country -- have been with him myself -- while he drank some -- as most of those old mountaineers do -- I do not believe that he abused it -- and he was a mild dispositioned and pleasant spoken old man as I remember him now."
At 3 a.m. on Friday morning, 6 April 1906, Francis E. Stone died at his home, age 73, after an illness of several months "with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age," as well as of "a complication of lesions incidental to the Senile State." He had been attended by Dr. O. J. Shepardson of Chester, Mass. from 25 March 1906 until his death. He had been receiving a Civil War invalid pension payment of $12 a month for "disease of lungs" and on 5 March had applied to have that amount increased due to his condition worsening, rendering him unable to do any physical labor whatsoever. He had also been suffering from rheumatism, lumbago, and sciatica for years and on 25 May 1903 had broken his right leg and was still hobbling on crutches the following September.
His funeral was held in Becket and his body was sent by train to the cemetery vault in Hinsdale. No records of his burial there have been found but his death certificate, obituaries, and pension records indicate he was buried at Hinsdale on 8 April 1906. The most probable place would have been Hinsdale Cemetery also known as Maple Street Cemetery, as his wife's body was sent there to be buried when she died in 1927 (1927 Deaths Registered in Becket, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Ancestry.com).
Obituaries:
1.
BECKET.
--The funeral of Francis E. Stone was held in the home Saturday [sic; Sunday] morning Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. The remains were taken to Hinsdale on the 1 o'clock train, where they will lay in the vault until a time suitable for interment.
[Berkshire Evening Eagle, Tuesday, April 10, 1906, page 3, col. 2]
2.
Becket...
Francis E. Stone, 73 years of age, a veteran of the Civil war, being a member of the 27th Massachusetts cavalry [sic; infantry], died at his home in this village, Friday at 3 a. m.; after an illness of several months with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age. Mr. Stone had been a resident of this town for eight years, and was well known in this part of the county for his quick wit and apt repartee. He has always been fond of horses and usually kept several and has done a livery business in Hinsdale, Chester and this town. He was born in Windsor, this state. He is survived by a wife, who has the sympathy of the community. The funeral was held at the home Sunday morning at nine o'clock, Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. Mr. Mitchell referred very feelingly to the deceased's service during the war, his confinement in a southern prison pen and his uncomplaining suffering. The remains were taken to Hinsdale and placed in the vault, to remain until a suitable season for interment.
[The Sun, Pittsfield, Mass., Thursday, April 12, 1906, page 2]
Frank was the fourth of six surviving children of Oren and Joanna (Turner) Stone. On his death certificate Frank's wife claimed he was born in Windsor, Massachusetts, which was his father's hometown, but his parents were residents of Savoy, Massachusetts at the time Frank was born, and Frank claimed Savoy as his birthplace. Unfortunately no birth record for Frank or any of his siblings can be found as it seems the births were never registered. Frank's birthdate was given most particularly as March 1833 on the 1900 census.
Frank grew up in his large family living nearby to his Turner grandparents and cousins. His grandfather, Elijah, an old Revolutionary War veteran, died when Frank was ten. He was just 13 when his mother died in 1846, and then his grandmother died six months later. Frank and his siblings were thereafter scattered around the Berkshires, working or placed in other people's homes. In the 1850 census Frank (going by the name of Ebenezer) could be found listed in Windsor, Massachussets, age 17, living with William Beed, 43, a carpenter, and his wife and daughter. His brothers Ira/Newell and Billy also lived in Windsor, with two other separate families. Their father cannot be found in this census at all. Nor can Frank be found in the 1855 state or the 1860 federal censuses of Massachusetts, although his Civil War invalid pension records reveal that in the summer of 1860 he lived with his brother Ward's wife's brother, Lord M. Ackert, in Peru, helping with the haying.
Frank became a Union Civil War soldier when he enlisted for three years' service in Sandisfield, Massachusetts as a Private on 14 September 1861, age 28, in Co. F, 27th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He received a disability discharge from the same unit's regimental hospital in New Bern, North Carolina on 19 July 1862 after contracting pulmonary phthisis (consumption, or tuberculosis) on Roanoke Island that February (his unit had been sent to North Carolina and engaged in "minor skirmishes" and extreme, major hardships there and while on shipboard during his tenure in the service--see the first three chapters of Bearing Arms in the Twenty-Seventh Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteer Infantry During the Civil War, 1861-1865 by William P. Derby, 1883, currently available online).
Upon discharge he was described as having a bad cough, was five feet five and a quarter inches tall, with grey eyes and brown hair. He was also much troubled with rheumatism he attributed to exposure during his military service and found that he was no longer able to do hard physical labor. He returned to Otis, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts and began the application process for a Civil War invalid pension.
On 5 April 1863 Frank attended the funeral of his younger brother, Newell, who had also enlisted for the Union and had died in Virginia of tuberculosis. Newell's body had been sent back for a funeral at the church in Peru, Massachusetts and burial in the Turner Cemetery in Savoy beside his mother. Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, and their sister, Lizzie (Stone) Janes, as well as their father, also gathered for the funeral.
On 17 July 1864, in Huntington, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts, where Frank was working as a farmer, he married Amanda L. Hinman. Justice of the Peace C.H. Kirkland, Esquire performed the marriage. It was the first marriage for both parties (ages 31 and 26). By the next spring Frank and Amanda were farming in Chester, Massachusetts with a seven-year old girl (Frances Nash) and a 22-year-old farmer (Henry Gibson) also in the household (1865 Mass. census).
On 30 August 1868 Frank's Civil War invalid pension was granted (Certificate no. 266,862. Stone, Francis, Co. F, 27th Mass. Inf.). The 1870 U.S. census found them back in Savoy, Berkshire County, Mass. showing Francis (Laborer), 37, with wife Amanda, 32, and Ada Stone, 12 (born circa 1858--Amanda's daughter? a ward? a foster child? a servant?). The family cannot be found in the 1880 census, but in June 1884 Francis E. Stone bought a quarter-acre of land in Hindsdale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts from Warren P. and Jane Knight of Hinsdale for the price of $100 (Book 262, Page 65 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). In the 1885 County Gazetteer Directory, a "Francis E. Stone" worked at or owned a grocery, and "Frank Stone" was listed as a laborer, leasing the home and lot of W. Plunkett on Road 29. In January 1886 he bought 32 more acres in Hinsdale from Elizabeth Tuttle for $250 (Book 262, Page 67 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). The town of Hinsdale around that time had a population of 1,656 (Pittsfield, Mass. city directory 1885).
By 1898 Frank and Amanda had moved to Becket, Massachusetts, her hometown. There Frank again set up and ran a grocery store and a livery (he loved horses). The 1900 U.S. census found the couple living by themselves in a rented home in Becket, ages 67 and 60, married for 34 years. They also revealed on the census that Amanda had had one child, who was by then dead. (But in 1906 Amanda's sister Lucinda Williams of Becket, and Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, in sworn statements provided for Amanda's application for a widow's pension, claimed that there were no children resulting from Frank and Amanda's marriage.)
A Civil War pension Special Examiner stated, not long after Frank's death, "From all I could learn about the soldier at Becket his home he had been in poor health for a good many years, was emaciated, had a cough and did not do any kind of hard work he kept a couple of cheap horses and took travelling men or any one who wanted to be carried out in the country -- have been with him myself -- while he drank some -- as most of those old mountaineers do -- I do not believe that he abused it -- and he was a mild dispositioned and pleasant spoken old man as I remember him now."
At 3 a.m. on Friday morning, 6 April 1906, Francis E. Stone died at his home, age 73, after an illness of several months "with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age," as well as of "a complication of lesions incidental to the Senile State." He had been attended by Dr. O. J. Shepardson of Chester, Mass. from 25 March 1906 until his death. He had been receiving a Civil War invalid pension payment of $12 a month for "disease of lungs" and on 5 March had applied to have that amount increased due to his condition worsening, rendering him unable to do any physical labor whatsoever. He had also been suffering from rheumatism, lumbago, and sciatica for years and on 25 May 1903 had broken his right leg and was still hobbling on crutches the following September.
His funeral was held in Becket and his body was sent by train to the cemetery vault in Hinsdale. No records of his burial there have been found but his death certificate, obituaries, and pension records indicate he was buried at Hinsdale on 8 April 1906. The most probable place would have been Hinsdale Cemetery also known as Maple Street Cemetery, as his wife's body was sent there to be buried when she died in 1927 (1927 Deaths Registered in Becket, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Ancestry.com).
Obituaries:
1.
BECKET.
--The funeral of Francis E. Stone was held in the home Saturday [sic; Sunday] morning Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. The remains were taken to Hinsdale on the 1 o'clock train, where they will lay in the vault until a time suitable for interment.
[Berkshire Evening Eagle, Tuesday, April 10, 1906, page 3, col. 2]
2.
Becket...
Francis E. Stone, 73 years of age, a veteran of the Civil war, being a member of the 27th Massachusetts cavalry [sic; infantry], died at his home in this village, Friday at 3 a. m.; after an illness of several months with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age. Mr. Stone had been a resident of this town for eight years, and was well known in this part of the county for his quick wit and apt repartee. He has always been fond of horses and usually kept several and has done a livery business in Hinsdale, Chester and this town. He was born in Windsor, this state. He is survived by a wife, who has the sympathy of the community. The funeral was held at the home Sunday morning at nine o'clock, Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. Mr. Mitchell referred very feelingly to the deceased's service during the war, his confinement in a southern prison pen and his uncomplaining suffering. The remains were taken to Hinsdale and placed in the vault, to remain until a suitable season for interment.
[The Sun, Pittsfield, Mass., Thursday, April 12, 1906, page 2]
Frank grew up in his large family living nearby to his Turner grandparents and cousins. His grandfather, Elijah, an old Revolutionary War veteran, died when Frank was ten. He was just 13 when his mother died in 1846, and then his grandmother died six months later. Frank and his siblings were thereafter scattered around the Berkshires, working or placed in other people's homes. In the 1850 census Frank (going by the name of Ebenezer) could be found listed in Windsor, Massachussets, age 17, living with William Beed, 43, a carpenter, and his wife and daughter. His brothers Ira/Newell and Billy also lived in Windsor, with two other separate families. Their father cannot be found in this census at all. Nor can Frank be found in the 1855 state or the 1860 federal censuses of Massachusetts, although his Civil War invalid pension records reveal that in the summer of 1860 he lived with his brother Ward's wife's brother, Lord M. Ackert, in Peru, helping with the haying.
Frank became a Union Civil War soldier when he enlisted for three years' service in Sandisfield, Massachusetts as a Private on 14 September 1861, age 28, in Co. F, 27th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He received a disability discharge from the same unit's regimental hospital in New Bern, North Carolina on 19 July 1862 after contracting pulmonary phthisis (consumption, or tuberculosis) on Roanoke Island that February (his unit had been sent to North Carolina and engaged in "minor skirmishes" and extreme, major hardships there and while on shipboard during his tenure in the service--see the first three chapters of Bearing Arms in the Twenty-Seventh Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteer Infantry During the Civil War, 1861-1865 by William P. Derby, 1883, currently available online).
Upon discharge he was described as having a bad cough, was five feet five and a quarter inches tall, with grey eyes and brown hair. He was also much troubled with rheumatism he attributed to exposure during his military service and found that he was no longer able to do hard physical labor. He returned to Otis, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts and began the application process for a Civil War invalid pension.
On 5 April 1863 Frank attended the funeral of his younger brother, Newell, who had also enlisted for the Union and had died in Virginia of tuberculosis. Newell's body had been sent back for a funeral at the church in Peru, Massachusetts and burial in the Turner Cemetery in Savoy beside his mother. Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, and their sister, Lizzie (Stone) Janes, as well as their father, also gathered for the funeral.
On 17 July 1864, in Huntington, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts, where Frank was working as a farmer, he married Amanda L. Hinman. Justice of the Peace C.H. Kirkland, Esquire performed the marriage. It was the first marriage for both parties (ages 31 and 26). By the next spring Frank and Amanda were farming in Chester, Massachusetts with a seven-year old girl (Frances Nash) and a 22-year-old farmer (Henry Gibson) also in the household (1865 Mass. census).
On 30 August 1868 Frank's Civil War invalid pension was granted (Certificate no. 266,862. Stone, Francis, Co. F, 27th Mass. Inf.). The 1870 U.S. census found them back in Savoy, Berkshire County, Mass. showing Francis (Laborer), 37, with wife Amanda, 32, and Ada Stone, 12 (born circa 1858--Amanda's daughter? a ward? a foster child? a servant?). The family cannot be found in the 1880 census, but in June 1884 Francis E. Stone bought a quarter-acre of land in Hindsdale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts from Warren P. and Jane Knight of Hinsdale for the price of $100 (Book 262, Page 65 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). In the 1885 County Gazetteer Directory, a "Francis E. Stone" worked at or owned a grocery, and "Frank Stone" was listed as a laborer, leasing the home and lot of W. Plunkett on Road 29. In January 1886 he bought 32 more acres in Hinsdale from Elizabeth Tuttle for $250 (Book 262, Page 67 &c of the Registry of Deeds, Middle Berkshire County, Pittsfield, Massachusetts). The town of Hinsdale around that time had a population of 1,656 (Pittsfield, Mass. city directory 1885).
By 1898 Frank and Amanda had moved to Becket, Massachusetts, her hometown. There Frank again set up and ran a grocery store and a livery (he loved horses). The 1900 U.S. census found the couple living by themselves in a rented home in Becket, ages 67 and 60, married for 34 years. They also revealed on the census that Amanda had had one child, who was by then dead. (But in 1906 Amanda's sister Lucinda Williams of Becket, and Frank's brother, Ward Stone of Peru, in sworn statements provided for Amanda's application for a widow's pension, claimed that there were no children resulting from Frank and Amanda's marriage.)
A Civil War pension Special Examiner stated, not long after Frank's death, "From all I could learn about the soldier at Becket his home he had been in poor health for a good many years, was emaciated, had a cough and did not do any kind of hard work he kept a couple of cheap horses and took travelling men or any one who wanted to be carried out in the country -- have been with him myself -- while he drank some -- as most of those old mountaineers do -- I do not believe that he abused it -- and he was a mild dispositioned and pleasant spoken old man as I remember him now."
At 3 a.m. on Friday morning, 6 April 1906, Francis E. Stone died at his home, age 73, after an illness of several months "with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age," as well as of "a complication of lesions incidental to the Senile State." He had been attended by Dr. O. J. Shepardson of Chester, Mass. from 25 March 1906 until his death. He had been receiving a Civil War invalid pension payment of $12 a month for "disease of lungs" and on 5 March had applied to have that amount increased due to his condition worsening, rendering him unable to do any physical labor whatsoever. He had also been suffering from rheumatism, lumbago, and sciatica for years and on 25 May 1903 had broken his right leg and was still hobbling on crutches the following September.
His funeral was held in Becket and his body was sent by train to the cemetery vault in Hinsdale. No records of his burial there have been found but his death certificate, obituaries, and pension records indicate he was buried at Hinsdale on 8 April 1906. The most probable place would have been Hinsdale Cemetery also known as Maple Street Cemetery, as his wife's body was sent there to be buried when she died in 1927 (1927 Deaths Registered in Becket, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Ancestry.com).
Obituaries:
1.
BECKET.
--The funeral of Francis E. Stone was held in the home Saturday [sic; Sunday] morning Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. The remains were taken to Hinsdale on the 1 o'clock train, where they will lay in the vault until a time suitable for interment.
[Berkshire Evening Eagle, Tuesday, April 10, 1906, page 3, col. 2]
2.
Becket...
Francis E. Stone, 73 years of age, a veteran of the Civil war, being a member of the 27th Massachusetts cavalry [sic; infantry], died at his home in this village, Friday at 3 a. m.; after an illness of several months with a complication of diseases incident to advanced age. Mr. Stone had been a resident of this town for eight years, and was well known in this part of the county for his quick wit and apt repartee. He has always been fond of horses and usually kept several and has done a livery business in Hinsdale, Chester and this town. He was born in Windsor, this state. He is survived by a wife, who has the sympathy of the community. The funeral was held at the home Sunday morning at nine o'clock, Rev. Edwin F. Mitchell of the Baptist church officiating. Mr. Mitchell referred very feelingly to the deceased's service during the war, his confinement in a southern prison pen and his uncomplaining suffering. The remains were taken to Hinsdale and placed in the vault, to remain until a suitable season for interment.
[The Sun, Pittsfield, Mass., Thursday, April 12, 1906, page 2]
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