William M. Stone

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American politician and 6th Governor of Iowa

title: "William M. Stone" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1827-births", "1893-deaths", "people-associated-with-the-assassination-of-abraham-lincoln", "republican-party-governors-of-iowa", "deaths-from-pneumonia-in-oklahoma", "iowa-state-court-judges", "republican-party-members-of-the-iowa-house-of-representatives", "union-army-colonels", "people-of-iowa-in-the-american-civil-war", "politicians-from-jefferson-county,-new-york", "people-from-knoxville,-iowa", "union-army-officers", "commissioners-of-the-united-states-general-land-office", "people-from-coshocton,-ohio", "union-(american-civil-war)-state-governors", "american-lawyers-admitted-to-the-practice-of-law-by-reading-law", "19th-century-iowa-state-court-judges", "19th-century-members-of-the-iowa-general-assembly"] description: "American politician and 6th Governor of Iowa" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Stone" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician and 6th Governor of Iowa ::

::data[format=table title="infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	William Milo Stone
image	Willstone.gif
birth_date
birth_place	Jefferson County, New York, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory, U.S.
restingplace	Graceland Cemetery, Knoxville, Iowa
order1	6th
office1	Governor of Iowa
term_start1	January 14, 1864
term_end1	January 16, 1868
party	Republican
lieutenant1	Enoch W. Eastman
preceded1	Samuel J. Kirkwood
succeeded1	Samuel Merrill
office2	Member of the Iowa House of Representatives
term2	1877–1878
office3	Judge of Iowa's 11th Judicial District
term_start3	April 1857
term_end3	May 1861
spouse	Caroline Mathews (m.1857)
children	1
allegiance	Union Army
serviceyears	May 1861-August 1863
rank	Colonel
battles
unit
::

American Civil War
- Battle of Blue Hill
- Battle of Liberty
- Battle of Shiloh
- Vicksburg Campaign
  - Siege of Vicksburg | unit=
3rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company B
22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment William Milo Stone (October 14, 1827 – July 18, 1893) was the sixth Governor of Iowa (1864–68).

Early life and education

Stone was born in Jefferson County, New York, and moved with his family to Coshocton, Ohio in 1834. He read law there and was admitted to the bar in 1851.

Career

In 1854, he moved to Knoxville, Iowa, where he opened a law practice and bought the local newspaper. In 1856, he was a delegate to the convention that formed the Republican Party, and he was an elector for 1856 Republican presidential nominee John C. Frémont. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Abraham Lincoln at the 1860 Republican convention, and was so again in 1864. From 1857 to 1861, he served as a state district court judge. He married Caroline Mathews in 1857; they had one child, William A. Stone.

After the attack on Fort Sumter in 1861, Stone enlisted as a private in the Union Army. He was quickly promoted to captain, and then major, of Company B, 3rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He fought and was wounded at the Battle of Liberty, but returned to fight at the Battle of Shiloh, where he was taken prisoner. Stone was paroled by Jefferson Davis and sent to Washington, D.C. to negotiate an exchange of prisoners; after initially failing to reach an agreement, he returned to Confederate captivity, was again paroled, and was released after an exchange agreement was reached. In 1862, Stone was promoted to colonel of the 22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He led that unit in the Vicksburg Campaign, and was again wounded on May 22, 1863, during a major Union assault undertaken as part of the Siege of Vicksburg.

Stone was named the Republican nominee for governor in June 1863, and resigned from the Union Army in August. He was elected by a large margin in the general election, defeating Union general James M. Tuttle. He was reelected in 1865. During his tenure, he dealt with several difficult issues, including making sure Iowa met its 1864 draft quotas, and supporting voting rights for black Iowa citizens. It is reputed by some sources that Stone was present in April 1865 when Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, and that Stone helped carry the wounded Lincoln across the street. However, no known primary or contemporaneous accounts describe that happening, and in fact, it is otherwise known that four members of a Pennsylvania artillery regiment actually handled the President. On February 22, 1866, Stone appointed Emily Calkins Stebbins as a notary public which made Stebbins the first such woman to hold that position in the United States.

After leaving the governor's office in 1868, Stone served one term in the Iowa House of Representatives (1877–78), and was appointed Assistant Commissioner and Commissioner of the United States General Land Office.

Death

He died of pneumonia in 1893 in Oklahoma, where he had moved to practice law and live with his son. He is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Knoxville, Iowa.

References

[http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=0dec224971c81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD National Governors Association]
Lawrence Kestenbaum. "The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Stone".
"The Pittsburgh soldiers who carried the dying president". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"Full text of "The assassination of Abraham Lincoln"".
Winona Evans, Reeves. (1914). "The Blue Book of Iowa Women". Mexico, Mo., Press of the Missouri Printing and Publishing Company.
"Representative William Milo Stone".

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