William Joel Stone died 100 years ago
By Johannes Brann
Across its history, he is arguably Nevada’s most distinguished citizen. The largest monument and statue in town is devoted to him. And he died 100 years ago today.
To date, William Joel Stone is the only person who has served Missouri as governor, a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator.
Oh, and he also served as Vernon County Prosecutor.
Even after he was serving in Jefferson City and Washington D.C., he long maintained one of the grandest homes in all of Nevada at 527 S. Cedar.
Stone was born in 1848, 13 years prior to the start of the Civil War, near the town of Richmond, Kentucky, the youngest of four children by William Stone and Mildred Ann Stone.
Senator Stone’s grandfather was a pioneer of Kentucky, having moved from Virginia. Before that, one ancestor, Thomas Stone, signed the Declaration of Independence, another fought in the Continental Army while the first members of the Stone family in this country, were part of the colony at Jamestown.
At the age of 15 – while the Civil War was still going on – Stone left his parents and Kentucky as he relocated to Columbia, Missouri, to live with a married sister. In just three years he earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri (1867) and attended Stewart’s Commercial College, a business school, in St. Louis.
Returning to Columbia in 1869 and desirous of becoming an attorney, Stone followed the time-honored practice of studying under the tutelage of a lawyer, who in this case was his brother-in-law, affectionately known as Squire Turner. Stone was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1869.
Taking advantage of what he hoped was an opportunity, Stone practiced law with a judge in Bedford, Indiana but personality differences and his preference for Missouri and its more Southern leanings led to his return.
Stone spent a few months in Columbia and briefly served as the city attorney before heeding another opportunity and settling in Nevada, in 1870. Between his knowledge of the law and ability with people, Stone was elected Vernon County prosecuting attorney in 1872 and held the position until 1874.
At this time, prosecutors not only filed charges and tried cases in court but often, they played a hands-on role in investigating cases.
An example of this was the prosecution of James A. “Dick” Liddle, an associate of Jesse James. Charged with horse stealing, Stone’s own detective work led to two things. First, Liddle was sentenced to 10-years in the state penitentiary and second, Stone was given the nickname of “Gumshoe Bill.”
Interestingly, Stone was instrumental in securing a pardon for the surviving members of the Younger Gang. This included Frank James, who, for several years, was an upstanding citizen of Nevada.
As he neared the end of his term he decided not to run again but instead formed a partnership with Nevada attorney C.R. Scott and the firm of Scott and Stone existed for many years on Nevada’s square.
On April 2, 1874, Stone married Sarah Louise Winston; the couple would have two daughters and one son.
A staunch and active member of Missouri’s Democratic Party from 1872-76, Stone was selected as a Missouri delegate to the 1876 Democratic national convention which nominated Samuel J. Tilden.
In that election, while Tilden garnered more popular votes, a “compromise” between the parties let Rutherford B. Hayes win the Electoral College by one vote.
In exchange for this outcome, Hayes and the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the south. These troops had helped enforce the Thirteenth (abolishing slavery), Fourteenth (all people deserve equal protection under the law) and Fifteenth (granting voting rights regardless of race or color) Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
While Stone helped Tilden win Missouri, he supported the withdrawal of federal troops which he called “an alien occupation force” and quietly supported the rise of so-called Jim Crow laws, which made segregation the law in many states.
Meanwhile, in Nevada, in 1877, Stone purchased a significant interest in the local newspaper known as the Vernon County Democrat. He would go on to pen many an editorial for his paper.
Having become well known in state Democratic Party politics, in a state which was then heavily Democratic, Stone secured the nomination and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1884 and twice again before not seeking re-nomination in 1890.
While he returned to practice law in Nevada, the “political bug” had definitely bit him and in 1892 he was elected to a four-year term as Missouri’s 28th governor.
The Stone administration paid off the balance of the state’s 6% bonds, further reduced state debts, saw the passage of laws to protect union workers from harassment by employers and improved mine ventilation.
Stone did not seek re-election but beginning in 1896 he served as a member of the Democratic National Committee until 1901.
In 1897, Stone did not return to live in Nevada but rather moved to St. Louis, where he practiced law, returning to Jefferson City in 1903.
Until the 1913 ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, U.S. Senators were elected by state legislatures. Stone, who would be Missouri’s first directly elected U.S. Senator in 1914, was first elected to the Senate in 1902, re-elected twice and served till his death.
As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Stone worked with President Woodrow Wilson in trying to protect neutral American commercial ships as they came under increasing attack by the German Navy. In 1916, Stone campaigned hard for the President under Wilson’s slogan, “He kept us out of war!”
A series of American vessels were sunk by German naval ships and that nation refused to stop; Wilson termed this “an undeclared war on the U.S.”
On April 2, 1917, the President addressed Congress, rehearsed recent events and asked for a declaration of war against the German Empire.
Two days later, during the debate, Stone was one of six U.S. Senators to speak in opposition to the war resolution. Yet Stone was a realist, knowing both the mood of the country and that of his fellow lawmakers. Accordingly, his speech reflects his ideals and the realities of the time.
Referring to the resolution Stone said, “I shall vote against the monstrous mistake, to prevent which I would willingly lay down my life. But if the powers constitutionally authorized to speak for the people on this momentous issue shall decide for war then my eyes will be blind to everything but the flag of my country borne by American boys through the storm of war and my ears deaf to everything save the call of my country in its hour of peril.”
Stone zealously supported the war and was proud that the commander of U.S. forces sent to Europe, General John J. Pershing, hailed from Laclede, Missouri.
On April 14, 1918, Stone suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died in Washington D.C; he is interred in Deepwood Cemetery in Nevada.
His son, Kimbrough Stone, would go on to be a judge, first in Missouri circuit court, then rise to be presiding judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit (Kansas City), remaining active until his death in 1958.