I. C. Stone, is of English, Irish and Scotch descent. His ancestors settled in the colony of North Carolina. Their descendants mainly kept pace with the tide of immigration to the new States and Territories. The paternal grandfather, Thomas Stone, probably of English, and Scotch origin, married Miss Sally Corder,of Scotch family, about 1789 in North Carolina on the waters of the Yadkins River, and not long after settled in Tennessee, where the father, C. H. Stone, was born December 22, 1796. The maternal grandfather, Joseph Allison, supposed to be partly of English and known to be partly of Irish origin, married Jane Donaldson, a native of Ireland, and settled in Orange County, N. C., about twelve miles northwest of Hillsboro. Here the mother, the youngest child of her parents, was born about 1793. Here she lived until maturity and obtained an ordinary education. The grandfather Allison had settled in White County and grandfather Stone had settled in Jackson County, Tennessee, before 1818. At the home of the former in White County, the father and mother were married in October 1818. They had five children of whom our subject was the fourth and the only son.
In 1826 our subject was taken to Smith County, two miles from the mouth of Hickman Creek, and they’re reared, and received a county school education. The father was an independent farmer of ordinary education for frontier life. In June 1846, our subject was a volunteer in the Tennessee Mounted Rifles in the Mexican war. After marching from Memphis, by Little Rock, Arkansas, Washington and Victoria, Texas, he arrived at Matamoras late in the fall. He was attacked by a severe case of measles at Washington but kept up with the regiment. In Mexico, although not recovered, he was given night duty by J. F. Gardner, and in a severe norther, after standing his time, convinced that he would die if he staid on duty, he told the officer his condition, returning to camp in the face of the officer’s threats, but the next morning he was so sick he was sent to the hospital and afterward discharged.
Reaching home almost dead, April 19, 1847, he has never fully recovered. Having earned his money he entered Irving College, March 11, 1848, and graduated in June, but remained until September 19, 1851. Returning home he taught ten consecutive months there, then the same at Granville Academy in Jackson County almost immediately after. Three days after the close of this he entered the Lebanon Law School, Tennessee, and thus paid his way, and after fifteen months graduated. Soon after he began to practice law at Smithville, Tennessee. In 1861 he entered the Southern Army, and served as a private mostly. He was one of Jefferson Davis’ escorts from Greensboro, N. C., to Washington, Georgia. He heard the statesman speak and saw much of him, and says he appeared as the great man and statesman only. November 7, 1864, he married, in Merriwether County, Georgia, the beautiful and accomplished Sarah E. Faulkner, at her grandmother, Mrs. Martha Allison’s residence, and returned to his command in seven days, and saw her no more until after he was paroled in 1865. She died May 9, 1866, at Manchester, Tennessee.
February 28, 1876, he married Mrs. Dora Huggins a native of Hanover, Germany, and whose maiden name was Shroder. Their five children are Ada Flora, Ella Jane, Iraby Clairborn, Sally and Albert Marks. Late in the fall of 1865, he located at Manchester. January 19, 1866, at their instance, he formed a partnership at Winchester to practice law in Coffee County, with Cols. A. S. Colyer and A. S. Marks, continuing with the latter until he was elected chancellor, and resuming with him when his governorship expired. Treated kindly by these gentlemen, he expresses gratitude to them. His practice with them has been a fair proportion of Coffee County business, while before it was moderate. He is a member of the Disciples of Christ, and a democrat.