Stone, John Marshall, 1830-1900

John Marshall Stone served as governor of Mississippi two separate times, from 1876 to 1882 and from 1890 to 1896. Born in Milan, Tennessee, on March 29, 1876, Stone grew up mostly in poverty but worked for his education and eventually became a school teacher. He moved to Mississippi in the mid-1850s and found work as a railroad station agent at Iuka, Mississippi. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Stone joined the Confederate army. He was placed in command of Company K of the 2nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment. Proving capable in battle during campaigns in Virginia, he was promoted in 1862 to colonel of the regiment and received high praise from his superiors during the rest of the war. Stone led his regiment until near the end of the war, when he was captured in North Carolina and sent to Ohio as a prisoner.

Upon his release after the Civil War, Stone returned to Mississippi and resumed his work with the Mississippi and Ohio Railroad at Iuka. He married Mary G. Coman in 1872 and had two children, both of whom died before adulthood. Stone and his wife also adopted and raised three of his nephews.

He entered politics in 1869, winning election to the Mississippi state senate as a Democrat. In 1873 and 1874, Democrats in Mississippi gained majority power following campaigns of voter intimidation and violence against African Americans and Republicans. Stone worked his way to president pro tempore of the Senate during this period. In 1876, the Democrat majority in the state legislature carried out an impeachment campaign against top Republican officials, including Governor Adelbert Ames and Lieutenant Governor Alexander K. Davis. When Davis was impeached and Ames was forced to resign to avoid a costly lawsuit against politically-driven impeachment charges, Stone became next in line for governor. He was sworn into office in March 1876.

Stone served as acting-governor for a year and a half and then won the gubernatorial election in 1877, running as the sole candidate. He lost reelection in 1881 to Robert Lowry, but retained his interest in the governor’s office and ran again—and won—in 1889. Mississippi adopted a new constitution in 1890, which in part extended Stone’s gubernatorial term until 1896 to aid the transition of new policies. The new constitution prohibited successive gubernatorial terms. Thus, Stone could not run for immediate reelection. Upon leaving office, he received an appointment as president of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Mississippi State University) in Starkville. He died in 1900 and is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Iuka, Mississippi. (Wikipedia; Dan Sansing, “John Marshall Stone: Thirty-first and Thirty-third Governor of Mississippi: 1876-1882; 1890–1896,” Mississippi History Now)