Z 1777.000 Stone (William A.) Papers

William A. Stone was born March 12, 1804, in Livermore, Maine, the son of Polly Chase and Jesse Stone. He received an A.B. from Bowdoin College in 1825 and studied law with Peleg Sprague in Hallowell, Maine. Admitted to the bar in 1828, he began his practice at West Prospect, Maine. Some time later, he moved to Holmesville, Pike County. While there, he was appointed by Governor McNutt to fill the unexpired term of circuit judge Walker. He served as a Pike County member of the state House of Representatives from 1838 to 1839. In 1839 he moved to Natchez, where he married Hannah M. Merrick, widow of Phineas P. Merrick. She died on June 14, 1841, and in that same year, Stone moved to Monticello. He served as a state senator from Marion and Lawrence counties from 1848 to 1854 and again from 1856 to 1858. In 1860, he moved to Hazlehurst and served as mayor of that town. He was also a Copiah County delegate to the 1865 Constitutional Convention. William S. Stone died on November 13, 1877.

Little is known about Thomas A. Burditt. He was born February 5, 1827, and died in Hazlehurst, December 31, 1886. In 1855 he established with Samuel Sanger a mercantile business in Boston, Massachusetts, but by 1864, at least, was in Hazlehurst, presumably farming and in business. Possibly he was Stone's son-in-law.

This collection can be divided into two parts: papers of William Stone and diaries of Thomas A. Burditt containing entries about Stone. The papers consist of correspondence related to Stone's legal practice (collection of overdue debts, contracts, bankruptcy, etc.); one letter is written to him by a stepson, C. F. Merrick, who was attending Bowdoin College; and there is a manuscript copy of a Stone letter to Jefferson Davis requesting Judah P. Benjamin's address and a photocopy of a letter of introduction to Benjamin from Davis on Stone's behalf. A few of these items relate to T. A. Burditt. Also a part of this collection is a newspaper, Lewiston Evening Journal (Lewiston, Maine) June 28, 1894, devoted to Bowdoin College. In this issue is a memoir of the 1875 reunion of the class of 1825, including Stone.

The second part of the collection consists of three diaries kept by Thomas A. Burditt in Hazlehurst, beginning in 1864 and continuing until a few days before his death. The diary entries are made in volumes that were also (or had been) used as account books. Entries are terse, and weather observations predominate. However, crop notes, family news and the peregrinations of Stone, referred to as Judge, are also included. Interspersed are short phrases commenting on the Civil War and Reconstruction. One of the series of account entries deals with piano and organ sales.

Series:

1. Diaries. 1863–1886. 3 vols.
• Volume 1: Diary Entries (1864–1865), Receipts (1863–1865)
• Volume 2: Diary Entries (1867–1877), Receipts (1866–1867; 1870)
• Volume 3: Diary Entries (1878–1886), Receipts
2. Correspondence. 1841–42; 1845; 1847–48; 1855; 1857; 1872–73; n.d.
3. Newspaper. 1894. 1 item. Lewiston Evening Journal (Lewiston, Maine), June 28, 1894