Stone, William J. (William Johnson), 1841-1923

William Stone, born in what is now Lyon County, Kentucky, joined the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War and was present at the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Chickamauga. While serving with General John Hunt Morgan's First Battalion, Company C, Stone received a severe wound in the fighting around Cynthiana, Kentucky which eventually led to the amputation of one of his legs. Stone married Cornelia Woodford, his nurse during recovery from his wound and surgery. After the war, Stone tried to assist his father in recouping some of the losses suffered by the family farm. Stone was elected to the Kentucky State legislature in 1867, 1875 and in 1883. In 1884 he was elected to represent Kentucky's First District in Congress, serving in that capacity until 1895.

Stone was one of the three Democratic gubernatorial candidates for governor in the 1899 Convention that eventually nominated William Goebel. Reportedly, Stone's supporters had made a deal with those of Goebel and were quite angry when Goebel's adherents failed to deliver what they had promised. Stone aided in lobbying for a Confederate Pension Fund in Kentucky. When this was established in 1914, Stone was appointed Commissioner of the Confederate Pension Department by Governor James B. McCreary. He remained in office until his death in 1923.

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