William Joel STONE, Congress, MO (1848-1918)

STONE William Joel , a Representative and a Senator from Missouri; born near Richmond, Madison County, Ky., May 7, 1848; attended the public schools of Richmond, Ky.; graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1867; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1869 and commenced practice in Bedford, Ind.; moved to Columbia, Mo., where he was city attorney for a few months in 1870, and later in the same year moved to Nevada, Mo., and continued the practice of law; prosecuting attorney of Vernon County, Mo., 1873-1874; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1876; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1891); was not a candidate for renomination in 1890; chairman, Committee on War Claims (Fiftieth Congress); Governor of Missouri 1893-1897; moved to Jefferson City, Mo., in 1893; member of the Democratic National Committee 1896-1904, serving as vice chairman 1900-1904; moved to St. Louis in 1897 and continued the practice of law; returned to Jefferson City in 1903; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1902; reelected in 1908 and 1914 and served from March 4, 1903, until his death; chairman, Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Library (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Foreign Relations (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Indian Affairs (Sixty-third Congress); died in Washington, D.C., April 14, 1918; interment in Deepwood Cemetery, Nevada, Vernon County, Mo.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Towne, Ruth. Senator William J. Stone and the Politics of Compromise. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1979; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 65th Cong., 3rd sess. 1918-1919. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present