Thanks to baseball -

This is the 50th anniversary picture of Grandma and Grandpa Stone in 1935. I remember their little house in Humansville and it seems like I remember walking to the post office with Grandpa one day. I remember the sounds of the turtle doves,the constant sound of a near by ice plant and Grandma's pancakes for breakfast.


This picture of the house was taken a few years ago. The house has been repainted but looks just the same as I remember it.  There was a smoke house by the back door and a small barn for Grandma's goats. Grandpa as I recall, was very soft spoken, sang or whistled, and always made sure his mustache tickled when he kissed me. I recall his gnarled fingers from catching baseballs. He loved baseball and always had his ear pressed against the speakers of the radio to hear each play. The story is told that as a young man he played baseball whenever he had a chance. He farmed with his father so probably only had time to play ball on Sundays. This was not acceptable for his father who told him he could not play on Sundays. When Grandpa continued to play he was told either stop playing on Sundays or leave. Grandpa did just that and started west homesteading in Furness Co., Nebraska. I don't remember hearing that he ever returned to New York but some of his siblings did visit in Missouri.

In Nebraska he met the Larson family, who had homesteaded in Nebraska a few years earlier, and married their daughter Adla, July 3, 1885. They had seven children, all born in Nebraska before moving to Missouri sometime after 1908. I've heard that Grandpa heard about Missouri having more trees and decided that was a better place for farming.

Grandpa was born in Binghamton, New York to Aaron and Jane Temple Stone. He grew up in a house on land that had been in the family for several generations. A log house was originally on the property but was used as a barn on the property when this house was built. Grandpa had six siblings and this is a reunion picture with five,(from l to r) Leonard, Hugh, Genie (Eugenia), Jeddi (Geraldine) and Fred. There was a running joke in our family that if we mis-behaved or didn't mind our manners, "We'll never be able to take you to New York."




My memories of Grandma are of her always with ankle length dresses and usually with a cap on her head. This is a picture of them with five of their children in the early 1940s. Two of their children were left buried in Lynden Cemetery in Hendley, NE. Edith dying as a small child and Fred at the age of sixteen.


Grandma liked animals.  When living in Humansville, she had besides the goats, a little dog named Andy.  Grandma was never very well, as I remember, but she did lots of sewing, making garments by hand with beautiful buttonholes. In their last few years they lived just a few houses from us. Grandma always mended the many rips needed for us plus darning the knees of stockings I constantly ruined. I remember Grandma and Grandpa sitting on the front porch as I walked home from school.

We miss them all!