STONE HISTORY Written by Norma Stone Briner Updated as of November 1, 2005 This is the story of our Stone Family as it developed along with the Development of our country from 1743 to 1859. It covers the lives of: Benjamin Stone, 1743-1833 Elijah Craig Stone, 1775-1859 Stone History BENJAMIN STONE (1743-June 4, 1833) Benjamin Stone was born in 1743 to Thomas Stone and Mary (Butler) Stone, possibly in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The father or our country, George Washington, was also born in Westmoreland County some eleven years earlier (1732). Later on, at the time of the Revolutionary War, when militias were being formed to defend the colonies, our Benjamin was a part of the Culpeper Minute Men. We do not know what battles he may have been in, but do know he was among the soldiers who spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge with General Washington, serving in the First, Sixth, and Ninth Companies as a Private. He reenlisted in 1779-81 in Col. Roebuck's Virginia Regiment as a Sergeant and served in the Second South Carolina Regiment under General Francis Marion, the famous "Swamp Fox." Our Stone family had been in America for over a hundred years by the time Benjamin was born in 1743. They were landowners and very active in politics and religion. At the time of the Revolutionary War, Benjamin's cousin, Thomas, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, from the state of Maryland. Thomas (the signer) was living at Haberdeventure located on the Potomac River at Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland. Directly across the river lay Stafford County, Virginia, where Quantico (Marines, F.B.I., CIA) now is. In addition to Stafford County, the Virginia counties of Westmoreland, Culpeper, Orange, Fauquier, Madison, Frederick, and Hampshire were in close proximity and are places that we know Benjamin's family was at one time or another. County boundaries back in Benjamin's time differed from today's boundaries somewhat with some counties being carved out from larger ones along the way. All of the Maryland and Virginia locations of our early Stone ancestors in America were in the environs of what is now Washington, D.C. Benjamin married Anna Asbury (born in 1748; daughter of George and Hannah (Hardage) Asbury; granddaughter of Henry Asbury) by 1772, near Culpeper, Virginia, where the Asburys lived, and became an ordained Baptist minister. Benjamin and Anna had three children before Benjamin left to join the militia. The Asbury grandparents were apparently able to take in and care for Anna and the three young children while Benjamin was away. (An interesting aside regarding the formation of the Culpeper Minute Men reports that men were placed with "their own kind" as much as possible. An indication of the importance of religion to the early colonials defines "their own kind" as "Baptists with Baptists; Methodists with Methodists, etc." So, I think it is safe to assume that Benjamin was closely associated with other Baptist ministers and laymen during at least his first enlistment.) We know that Benjamin was closely involved with other Baptists before his military service because he named his first-born son for a fiery itinerant preacher, who was active in Virginia at the time of the child's birth. Elijah Craig Stone, born July 30, 1775, was named for Elijah Craig, whose unorthodox preaching eventually caused him to be run out of the area by the conventional Baptists, who claimed that he had not been properly ordained. (Apparently Patrick Henry, first Commonwealth Governor of Virginia and speaker of the famous "Give me liberty or give me death" quotation, defended Elijah Craig's right to speak his mind and for "daring to worship God in his own way.") Nevertheless, Elijah Craig was forced out of Virginia, migrated to Kentucky, where he founded Georgetown, and, along with some other settlers invented bourbon whiskey,---and continued to preach! Resourceful fellow! A word about Anna Asbury before we move on with Benjamin's story. Apparently, Anna had more than one brother in the same Culpeper unit (perhaps under a Colonel Marshall) as her husband, Benjamin, was in. (John, George, Jeremiah, and William are names I have run across as possible brothers of Anna.) There is an intriguing story handed down orally from generation to generation of Stones and eventually written by the historian of the Anna Asbury Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Cambridge, Ohio. The story was that Anna, hearing of the dreadful hardships at Valley Forge, determined to take what supplies she could manage (blankets, clothes, food) to the troops. The journey by horseback required three weeks coming and going through hostile (British-controlled) territory, also populated by Indians. Some accounts of the adventure include Anna's carrying a secret message to George Washington as well and having to outrun (on horseback) a British spy who discovered her mission. At any rate, Anna is now considered to be an American patriot in her own right. (Her name is appar- ently among those engraved in stone on the interior walls of the Bell Tower of the Washington Memorial Chapel located within the Valley Forge National Historical Park off State Rte.#23, east of the village of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.) Children of Benjamin and Anna (Asbury) Stone: Rhoda (married Cornelius Williamson) Elijah Craig (married (1) Miriam Gassaway (2) Mary Sudduth) William (married Margaret Gustin) Hanna (married John Williamson) Mary (Polly) (married George Richardson) Anna (married John Galinton) Jeremiah Asbury (married Hannah Reed) Benjamin L. G. (married Sarah LaRue) Thomas (died unmarried) Nellie (married Thomas Reed) Rebecca (married Joseph Hughes) Benjamin, who had grown up in Fauquier County, Virginia, returned there in 1781, at the completion of his military service. Records indicate that Benjamin had acquired some land in Fauquier County in 1772, before his military service. He had leased 264 acres from Jeffery and Johnson for the lifetimes of himself, his wife, Anna, and his daughter, Rhoda. In 1783, after his military service, deed books show that he acquired more land, from a John Moffett, but this time in Frederick County, Virginia. In 1785, Benjamin moved his family to Hampshire County, Virginia, where he acquired some 1,500 acres of land along the North River. While living in Hampshire County, Benjamin founded at least two Baptist churches (maybe more). The two that we have records of were the North River Baptist Church in Hampshire County in 1787, and the Crooked Run Baptist Church in Frederick County, in 1790. Benjamin's Crooked Run Church was built on a mountain site along the Great Wagon road somewhere between Winchester in Frederick County and Romney in Hampshire County. (This appears to be present Route 50.) In 1790, "Malinda Monroe, James MONROE [sic], John Monroe of James Monroe [sic], and William Monroe" were listed as members of Crooked Run. (No word on possible presidential connections.) The church was renamed Union Primitive Baptist Church about 1814; and in 1861, the original building burned to the ground. Apparently, ruins of a metal churchyard fence were still visible well into the 20th century (may still be there.) Growing up in Fauquier County, Benjamin apparently had three brothers named Thomas, John, and William (or Spencer). (I believe that William and Spencer were the same person. There are male descendants in the family bearing the double name of William Spencer.) As adults, the brothers were reported to have held differing views regarding slavery. Benjamin was strongly anti-slavery. Family records suggested that this difference led to their separation with Thomas, John, and William/Spencer migrating south to North Carolina or west to Kentucky and Benjamin moving north as far as Hampshire County, Virginia. (Hamp- shire County, Virginia became Hampshire County, West Virginia when West Virginia became a state--and that is where you will find it on the map now.) Fauquier County, Virginia, is located in the Shenandoah Range of the Allegheny Mountains. A look at the map will reveal the present-day Appalachian Trail running through a small corner and along the western border of Fauquier County. In September of 1792, Benjamin received a call from Mount Moriah/Great Bethel Baptist Church, located west of Uniontown in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, which he accepted. He sold his Hampshire County, Virginia land and, in 1794, moved his family to Pennsylvania. Land sales between 1792-1794 were the following: 152 • acres to Cornelius Williamson 18 acres to William Martin (described as being 4 miles above the North River) 172 acres to Samuel Williamson 721 3 acres to Henry Asbury 270 acres to Azariah Smalley 180 acres to William Martin One's first impression might be that Benjamin made a major change in moving from one state to another when he went from Virginia to Pennsylvania. However, another look at the map shows that the distance would have been less than 100 miles "as the crow flies." Travel by horseback with carts or wagons down out of the mountains and across some more level land was no doubt something more than "as the crow flies." Still, Benjamin's North River property in Hampshire County, Virginia, was only 30-40 miles south of an east-west trail that eventu- ally became the Cumberland National Road, also known as the Old National Road (now Route 40) between Cumberland, Maryland and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (The Old National Road was built between 1811-37, the first federally-financed roadway. It crossed Ohio, Indi- ana, and Illinois, ending in Vandalia, Illinois. It played a major role in the extension of the young country's western frontier from the Appalachian Moun- tains to the Mississippi River.