Melville W. Stone [RG4346.AM]

HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID

RG4346.AM:  Melville W. Stone, 1837-1913

Papers:  1870-1907

Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska:  Physician

Size:  0.25 cu.ft.; 1 box

BACKGROUND NOTE

Melville W. Stone was born in Delaware, Ohio, on December 11, 1837, son of Stephen W. and Emily Moore Stone.  In 1853 the family moved to Washington, Iowa, where he received his preliminary education, and took a two year course in the local academy.  He went to Bellevue College, New York City, where he graduated from medical college in 1861.  On July 15^th he enlisted in the 7^th Regiment of the Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was discharged in April of 1862 to receive the appointment as assistant surgeon, U.S.A.  He accompanied Sherman on the march to Atlanta, then returned with General Thomas for the battles of Franklin, Tennessee, and Nashville, Tennessee.  After the close of the war he was ordered to the Department of the Platte, and he moved to Omaha with his wife, the former Margaret Conn of Keokuk, Iowa, whom he had married in August of 1863.

Dr. Stone was surgeon to General Carr’s expedition which ended in the Battle of Summit Springs.  He was stationed for a time at North Platte, Nebraska, where he was instrumental in the organization of Lincoln County.  In 1868 he was made first surgeon of the Union Pacific Railroad, a capacity in which he continued for twenty-two years.  Also in 1868 he was made county judge of Lincoln County, and in the fall of the year he resigned from the Army.  In 1877 he moved with his family of five children to Wahoo, where he continued the practice of medicine.  Upon his appointment as surgeon-general of Nebraska, by Governor Nance, he moved his family to Hastings, where he also served as director of the state asylum.  He was reappointed to the position of surgeon-general, serving another four years under Governor Thayer.  In 1890 he returned to Omaha, where he retired in 1893.  Dr. Melville W. Stone died in Chicago, Illinois, on May 8, 1913, and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park at Omaha, Nebraska.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists of one box of papers dating from approximately 1870 to 1907.  The collection includes correspondence, medical class notes, autobiographical information, financial notes, bills and receipts, certificates, a manuscript (and typescript) reminiscence, and a folder of clippings.  The correspondence is very scant and relates to family and personal matters.  Notes include:  medical class notes not signed or dated but apparently Stone’s own; a brief autobiography which is ended during the Civil War; random notes relating to financial affairs and to his practice.

The various bills and receipts document various goods and services both given by and received by Dr. Stone.  The reminiscence gives details of a skirmish with a small group of Sioux Indians near North Platte, Nebraska, in 1868.  The last folder includes a clipping about a Spanish-American War memorial dedicated at Fort Wayne, Indiana with William Jennings Bryan as the guest orator, as well as an obituary for Maude Stone Tallant.

INVENTORY

Box 1

Folder

1. 1. Correspondence, 1894-1904

1. 1. Medical school notes

1. 1. Autobiographical notes and some medical notes

1. 1. Medical and financial notes

1. 1. Bills and receipts, 1870-1907

1. 1. Certificates, 1889-1905

1. 1. Reminiscence

1. 1. Clippings

Subject headings:

Indians of North America — Wars — Nebraska

Medicine — Study and practice

Physicians — Nebraska

Stone, Melville W., 1837-1913

United States — Army — Iowa Infantry Regiment, 7^th (1861-1865)

United States — History — Civil War, 1861-1865 — Personal narratives

DAB/HEK/jlc          05-05-1966

Revised TMM        06-06-2019