Priscilla Jane (West) Stone​​

 

(Printed in THE MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM-SENTINEL in the column, 'WINDOW TO THE PAST', Nov. 26, 2012)

Priscilla Jane West was born 31 Jan 1837 in Bond Co., Illinois. She was a daughter of Elder John West (1812-1890) and Sarah Smith (1812-1844). Her parents married in Bond Co., Illinois in 1832. Her father was a minister in the Primitive Baptist movement of the 19th century. They came to Miller County in 1846 when she was about 9 years old and she grew to womanhood in Missouri. 
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Priscilla married James Anderson Stone in Miller County in 1853 at the age of 16 years. James was a son of John Stone (1801-1860) and Susan Samantha Bailey ((1812-1880) who married in Barren Co., Kentucky in 1830. Susan was an aunt to my great grandmother, Lucy Ann Gardner-Smith whose family also came from Barren Co., Kentucky (daughter of Henry Paulding Gardner and Elizabeth Ann Bailey).
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Priscilla and her parents traveled to Miller County and first settled in the Iberia area where John West was active in the Primitive Baptist Church in that area and I believe it was the Iberia church known in the county’s early history as the Big Richwoods Baptist Church of Christ, an old log house organized in 1843, also known as Smyrna Church located northeast of the present site of Iberia where the congregation held revivals in brush arbors on the site of the old Iberia cemetery. For a while it was known as ‘Sulky Church’---given that name because the folks who attended were known to be ‘sulky’ toward one another. Some were Baptists while others claimed to be Methodists and it just didn’t work out !!! Eventually the church moved and built on the site of the old Nazarene church…….they separated from the church at that time because of their beliefs….no musical instruments in the church, only acappella singing, foot washing, no schooling for their preachers (only personal practice).
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James Anderson Stone and Priscilla West were parents of 5 children:
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1. Elizabeth J. Stone b. 1855 m. Samuel H. Sone (some have confused this name with Stone)
2. Lucy Ellen Stone b. 1857 m. ________Bragg
3. John Wm. Stone b. 1859 m. ??
4. James Thos. Stone b. 1861 m. Nancy Boan
5. Robt. Price Stone b. 1863 m. Mary Ann Workover
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NOTE: Robt. Price was born the day his father died (in the Civil War)—12 July 1863. It is believed that James Anderson Stone served in the Confederate Army and died at Polk’s Plantation near Helena, Arkansas.
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For some reason Priscilla West Stone and her five children moved to Jim Henry township and settled near today’s Marys Home. Her farm was near the families of Hackney, Berry, Newton, Denton, Fancher, Stapp, and Jenkins. Later they moved to Moniteau County, MO and settled near her father and stepmother (Cynthia Warrill) in Burris Fork township.
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Priscilla West Stone died 6 January 1916 at the home of her daughter, Elizabeth J. (Sone) in Jefferson City at the age of 79 years. She was buried at Riverview Cemetery in Jefferson City.

Her youngest son, Robert Price Stone, was a well-known attorney where he practiced law in Cole and Moniteau counties. He ended his career at Eldon, Miller County, and when he died, he was buried beside his wife at Eldon Cemetery……