The Tucson Post prints the following concerning John F. Stone:
“Stone Avenue was named for John F. Stone. Just how or why he came to the country no one now living seems to know. He was a man of considerable means and of magnificent physique. Of powerful build and wearing a heavy black beard he stood distinguished among his fellow men. A rich gold vein had been discovered in Apache Pass, and upon this he built a small reduction mill. While en route to Tucson with the proceeds of the first month’s run, he was killed by Indians in Dragoon Pass, about 1500 yards east of the old stage station. The driver of the stage, two soldiers and two other civilians were killed at the same time. Sometime in the early sixties, he built the first house on Stone Avenue. It was situated on the southwest corner of Stone avenue and McCormick Street, and is still standing.”
Mr. A. F. Banta, in the Apache County ” Observer” gives the following account:
“General Stone, as he was known in New Mexico, was Adjutant General of New Mexico under Governor Henry Connelly, appointed Governor in 1861. After the battle of Apache Canyon, the defeat of the Texans under Sibley, and their expulsion from the territory, via Fort Bliss, Stone resigned the Adjutant Generalship, and came down to Albuquerque, where, in partnership with a man named Ewing (not sure if his name was Tom or not, he was a large man but not so tall as Stone), and opened the Union Hotel, situated facing the east wall of the old Catholic Church and on the east side of the church plaza, in old Albuquerque. When the writer left Albuquerque in 1863 for Arizona, Stone and Ewing were still running the Union Hotel. As to this last statement, we are not absolutely certain, they may have closed out before we left and started for Arizona, via Las Cruces.”