Stoner - David
Source: The Family of Jacob Stoner II of Botetourt Co VA Ladoga, Ind McClelland, 1965 p 26 (sorry, I do not know the author and usually don't put such up to date things on here but I absolutely loved this - "Pap" -- the information about the stepmother priceless ! KBZ)
Stoner, Vera Barnhart Told by Samuel D. Stoner
It was the custom in VA for a son to work for his father until age 21. "Pap" as his children called him, left home the day he was 21 - went from Roanoke, VA to Huntington W VA and took a steamboat down the OH River to Cincin. Walked north to Eaton, OH and across the Ohio State Line to Four Mile, IN where there was a settlement of German Baptist Brethren who had moved there from VA. Had some schooling (Samuel had his father's textbooks - arithmetic he left diaries, letters, cancelled notes, reports of the estates of his father, stepmother and brothers, Joel & William in his large estate (father's) there was much happening -- large building for carding, spinning wool and weaving it into blankets/coverlet..Hide tanning - shoe making - baking in large brick ovens - dressed & cured own meat -- David knew the shoemaking business well Ate from a common dish, all dipping in - this was unusual in those days but David was so messy that others objected & his stepmother gave him a tin pie plate Went back to VA for awhile - then entered govt land 5 miles east of Ladoga 12-27-1831 $1.25 / acre -- opposed to slavery David's father saw the beauty of a move for his whole family but sick - couldn't make trip - in his will he directed the family moved to the Hoosier State David made shoes for the Deardorff family in Eaton OH for quite sometime and became acquainted while there with their dau Ann -- late years from Indiana he drove a carry-all wagon driven by his old horse, Jack Most all of the children came p 28 - several Botetourt Co VA people already in area so not strangers belonged to German Bapt Church - Stovers; Myers; Frantz; Peffleys; Harshbargers; Himes His stepmother found the home of her dreams but it was $1000 higher than allowed in his father's will he bought it for her over objections of some of other kids and farmed it for her for several years)
Source: 1881 HW Beckwith History, Chicago: HH Hill,
p 460
David STONER, farmer, Ladoga --
this highly esteemed and generous hearted citizen was born in Botetourt Co, Va,
May 25, 1806. His early years were spent in farming and attending the old hilly
country of his native state the district school. In 1831 he came to IN and
entered land in Clark Twp. In 1851 he was married to Miss Ann DEARDORFF, a native
of Preble Co, Ohio and became the father of six children: Catharine, w/o
William HIGGINS; Benjamin, Caroline, Samuel, Christena, w/o William HICKS;
Saloma A. Mr. S's life is an example worthy of the following of many young men
of our county: beginning life a poor boy, but full of energy and a stirring
will, he constantly rose in the estimation of friends and in the accumulation
of this world's goods. It was an invariable practice of his in his younger days
to make one shoe every evening after his day's work was done. Thus his start in
life was among hardships and industry, the fruit of which is 1,000 acres of
fine farming land in this and in Boone Co. Mr. Stoner traces his ancestors on the
paternal side to the English, and those on the maternal side to the Germans. in
1837 he came with his stepmother to this township from Va, and has since
remained a leading citizen. In an early day he erected a sawmill, which did
good service in furnishing building materials to the pioneers. Oct. 14, 1878,
Mrs. S. died with a cancer. As honest labor (in the slave state of Va) was
considered dishonorable for a white man, Mr. S. sought a home in a free state
early in life.