John Marshall Stone was an American politician from Mississippi. Besides, he was the president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College.
Background
John was born on April 30, 1830 at Milan in west Tennessee, United States, the son of Asher and Judith (Royall) Stone, both natives of south-side Virginia. He was the descendant of Joshua Stone who settled in Prince Edward County, Virginia, early in the eighteenth century. When John was eleven years old his father died leaving the mother with nine children to struggle against poverty.
Education
His education was restricted to the common schools.
Career
Stone first earned his living as a school teacher. Then he was a clerk on a Tennessee River steamboat running from the Ohio to Eastport, Mississippi. After settling for a time at Eastport, he became in 1855 station agent at the neighboring town of Iuka. With the opening of the Civil War, he became captain of the Iuka Rifles in the 2nd Mississippi Infantry, and in the spring of 1861 his company reached Virginia. He participated in most of the important battles in that state during the next four years and was wounded, though not severely.
His ability and bravery obtained his advancement to the rank of colonel in the brigade commanded by Joseph R. Davis. At times, as during the Wilderness fighting, he was in charge of the brigade. Early in 1865 he was captured in North Carolina, while leading some Mississippi recruits to Virginia. Released from Johnson's Island in July 1865, he returned to his railroad agency at Iuka.
After serving his political apprenticeship in several local offices, he was elected to the state Senate and, reelected, he served from 1870 to 1876. Chosen by acclamation president pro tempore of that body, he became acting-governor of Mississippi on March 29, 1876, after the forced resignation and removal of Governor Adelbert Ames and Lieutenant-Governor A. K. Davis. The next year he was elected governor. He opposed the popular demand for the establishment of a railroad commission. Nevertheless, under his successor, Governor Robert Lowry, the commission was formed, and Stone was appointed a member in 1884.
In 1889 he was again elected governor. As his first administration marked the return of power to the white race, so his second gave a constitutional basis for the perpetuation of white control in the provisions of the constitution of 1890.
Popular approval, which has sometimes approached reverence, for this document has brightened the halo about the name of Stone. Since the constitution of 1890 added two years to the terms of those holding state office, he served a six-year term, from 1890 to 1896.
He died in 1900.
Achievements
Politics
A Democrat, he served longer as Governor of that state than anyone else, from 1876 to 1882 and again from 1890 to 1896. During this latter period, he approved a new constitution in 1890 passed by the Democratic-dominated state legislature that disfranchised most African Americans, excluding them from the political system. They were kept out for nearly 70 years.
Personality
He was an able administrator, and he was a man of substantial character who was above suspicion in all his public life. These facts, coupled with the length of his service, largely explain the great respect in which his administrations are held.
Connections
On May 2, 1872, he married Mary Gilliam Coman. After their two children died in infancy, three of Stone's nieces were adopted.