Press enter after choosing selection

Former Dexter Man 102 Years Old

Former Dexter Man 102 Years Old image
Parent Issue
Day
27
Month
March
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

FORMER DEXTER MAN 102 YEARS OLD
-
SOLON STONE WHOSE EARLY LIFE WAS IN DEXTER
-

Has Celebrated His 102nd Birthday – He Voted for John Quincy Adams for President
-
One of the oldest men in the state formerly lived at Dexter in this county. He has just celebrated his 102nd birthday, and his long life may be partially attributed to the good air he breathed in Dexter. His name is Solon Stone, and he now lives with his grandson, Frank Wescott, in Vernon. His age is so remarkable that a short sketch may be interesting:

Mr. Stone was born in Maine in 1801, but was only three weeks old when his parents moved to Groton, Mass. At the age of 12 the family moved to Sodus, N. Y., and the old man says he remembers hearing the guns of Commodore Chauncey on Lake Erie during the war of 1812.

Mr. Stone was married in 1824, and the same year cast his first vote for president, supporting John Quincy Adams. Of two sons and two daughters born to himself and wife, but one survives, Mrs. T. N. Thurber of Lansing.

When Mr. Stone came to Michigan in the early days, soon after his marriage, he settled in Dexter. In 1845 he traded his residence there for 20 acres of land in the southern part of the township; Shortly after he took a Michigan Central train from Detroit to Marshall, the terminus of the road, and staged it from there to Chicago. While there he came near selling his Michigan land to buy 200 acres now in the heart of Chicago's business center. He finally decided it was too marshy for him.

In 1848 Mr. Stone was sent as delegate to the first national free soil convention, held at Buffalo. Here Martin Van Buren and Charles F. Adams were put in nomination for president and vice president. This event is remarkable in that it connects him with the laying of the foundation of the republican party that came into more definite existence eight years afterwards.

Since Mr. Stone has been in Michigan he has been engaged mostly in farming. In 1861, however, he built a sawmill at Knagg's Bridge, a few miles south of here, and in 1867 built a carding mill at the same point.

In 1886 Mr. and Mrs. Stone settled at Vernon, where they lived together until the death of Mrs. Stone in 1888 Since that time he has resided with his grandson, Mr Frank Westcott.