Researching William Stone

Born in Shawangunk, New York, Stone attended the common schools.He moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1848 and engaged in the manufacture of iron.He became president of the St. Louis Hot Pressed Nut & Bolt Company upon its organization in 1867.He served in the Missouri House of Representatives.He served as member of the St. Louis Board of Water Commissioners from July 5, 1871, to November 15, 1873, when he resigned, having been elected to Congress.

Stone was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1877).He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Forty-fourth Congress), Committee on Manufactures (Forty-fourth Congress).He was not a candidate for renomination in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress, instead resuming business interests.He died in Asbury Park, New Jersey on July 9, 1901.He was interred at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Stone was born in Derby, Connecticut, to a prominent family. He studied under Nathaniel Jocelyn in New Haven from 1848, until Jocelyn's studio suffered a catastrophic fire in 1849. Stone moved to New York in 1851, where he opened his own studio, and became a successful portrait painter. He became an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1856, and full member in 1859, exhibiting in each of the Academy's annual exhibitions from 1861 through his early death, in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1875. Two of his better-known portraits are of Cyrus West Field (in a private collection) and of William Wilson Corcoran (in the Walters Art Museum).

He was inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity on April 1, 2003.

William Stone is a Vocal Instructor at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Curtis Institute of Music. He was Professor of Voice and Opera at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, from September, 2005 through June, 2010.

Stone was the son of William Stone of Dulwich Hill and his wife Mary Platt daughter of Thomas Platt of Hampstead. He was educated at Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge graduating BA as 30th Wrangler and 8th Classic in 1857 and MA in 1860. In 1859, he was a Fellow of Trinity College. He was a merchant and East India agent and a director of the London and County Banking Co. He lived at Godalming and was a J.P. for Surrey and Hampshire. At the 1865 general election Stone was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth. He was re-elected in 1868 held the seat until his defeat at the 1874 general election.

He was chairman of the Girl's Public Day School Company and gave evidence to the Royal Commission on Secondary Education in 1894, with Mary Gurney.

Stone died at the age of 62.

Stone married Melicent Helps daughter of Sir Arthur Helps in 1864.