134 Facts About Amasa Stone

Amasa Stone gained fame in New England in the 1840s for building hundreds of bridges, most of them Howe truss bridges.

The latter merged with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, of which Amasa Stone was appointed director.

Amasa Stone was a director or president of numerous railroads in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan.

Amasa Stone played a critical role in helping the Standard Oil company form its monopoly, and he was a major force in the Cleveland banking, steel, and iron industries.

Amasa Stone's reputation was significantly tarnished after the Ashtabula River railroad bridge, which he designed and constructed, collapsed in 1876 in the Ashtabula River railroad disaster.

Amasa Stone spent many of his last years engaging in major charitable endeavors.

Amasa Stone was the ninth of 10 children, and the third of four sons.

Amasa Stone worked on the family farm during the growing and harvest seasons, and attended local public schools when not engaged in agricultural labor.

At the age of 17, Amasa Stone left the farm and moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where he apprenticed as a carpenter and builder with his older brother.

Amasa Stone began working for his brother-in-law, William Howe, in 1839.

The railroad contracted with Amasa Stone to rebuild the bridge, which was 0.25-mile long.

Amasa Stone completed the work in just 40 days, much less time than most engineers believed possible.

Amasa Stone later considered this remarkable feat the major accomplishment of his construction career.

Amasa Stone had worked with Harbach and another railroad engineer, Stillman Witt, while building railroad bridges in New England.

Amasa Stone was named a director of the railroad in 1852.

Amasa Stone became construction superintendent of another railroad in 1850, one that would eventually be known as the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.

The line was completed in autumn 1852, and Amasa Stone was named a director of the railroad in August 1853 at a salary of $4,000 a year.

The railroad was in financial difficulty by mid-1873, and Amasa Stone's appointment was made in large part so that he could stabilize it.

Just one month after Amasa Stone took over as general manager, he learned that the 1873 dividend had been paid for with a loan from the Union Trust Company.

When his health failed in 1875, Amasa Stone resigned his position as director and general manager.

Amasa Stone added another important railroad executive position when he became director of the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad in June 1859.

Directorships for the road lasted a year, and Amasa Stone served one term.

Amasa Stone was elected again in June 1863 and June 1867, and served as the company's president from January to June 1868.

Amasa Stone was an ardent supporter of President Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln consulted with him on both supply and transportation issues.

Amasa Stone became a friend of Lincoln's, and raised and supplied troops for Union cause.

Amasa Stone turned down the generalship and persuaded the president to abandon the project.

The station burned to the ground in 1864, and Amasa Stone was tapped by the railroads to build a new station.

Amasa Stone both designed and oversaw the construction of the luxurious and large Cleveland Union Depot, which opened on November 10,1866.

Amasa Stone was first appointed to the board in 1867, and probably served until December 1868.

Amasa Stone believed Vanderbilt would try to charge him high freightage rates, and Rockefeller knew he could get his oil to refineries and consumers without Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt persisted and later that afternoon sent Amasa Stone to visit Rockefeller at Rockefeller's hotel.

Amasa Stone served until his health failed again in 1875, when he resigned.

Amasa Stone was severely injured, and walked with a strong limp for the rest of his life.

Amasa Stone went with his family to Europe to recuperate in 1868, and spent 13 months abroad.

Amasa Stone had a wide range of railroad interests throughout the Midwest in the late 1860s and into the early 1880s.

In February 1871, Amasa Stone was among several men appointed to investigate the feasibility of constructing the line.

Amasa Stone retained this position in 1871,1872,1873,1874,1875,1876, and 1879.

Cornelius Vanderbilt became president of the Lake Shore in July 1873, and asked Amasa Stone to become managing director and de facto president of the railroad.

Amasa Stone was managing director of the line in 1873,1874, and 1875.

In 1871 and 1872, Amasa Stone was named a director of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway.

Amasa Stone left the board after 1876 due to his 18-month trip in Europe.

Amasa Stone was a director and president of this road without interruption from 1872 to his death in 1883.

Amasa Stone was a director of this road without interruption from 1872 to his death in 1883.

Amasa Stone incorporated in 1871 to build a line from Youngstown, Ohio to Brookfield Township in Trumbull County, Ohio.

Amasa Stone was a director of the MCR for the rest of his life.

Amasa Stone hid the extent of his financial difficulties from almost everyone, but his son-in-law John Hay believed Amasa Stone neared bankruptcy.

Amasa Stone weathered the financial crisis and recovered most of his wealth.

Amasa Stone invested in the new company on January 20,1873.

Six days later, Andros Amasa Stone sold the railroad to the St Louis, Keokuk and North Western Railway, which had been formed by Andros Amasa Stone and others to acquire the assets of the bankrupt line.

Amasa Stone invested in another railroad, the Keokuk, Iowa City and St Paul Railroad, in 1875.

Amasa Stone began to suffer from undisclosed major health problems in the spring of 1875, and he and his wife went to Europe for 18 months beginning in late 1875.

Amasa Stone had personally overseen both the bridge's design and its construction.

Amasa Stone ordered the bridge built using a Howe truss design despite his chief engineer's argument that the span was too long to be safely bridged by that design.

Amasa Stone later admitted that using a Howe truss for such a long span was "experimental".

Amasa Stone categorically denied that there were any design or construction flaws.

In one of his last major railroad positions, Amasa Stone briefly became a director of two railroads, the Massillon and Cleveland Railroad and the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, in early 1883.

Twice, Amasa Stone proved crucial to the success of John D Rockefeller's oil refining career.

Amasa Stone now owned the equivalent of 5 percent of the entire outstanding stock of Standard Oil.

Amasa Stone played a major part in the success of the event.

The break came when Rockefeller approached the Second National Bank, of which Amasa Stone was a director, for a major loan in early 1872.

Amasa Stone expected the much younger Rockefeller to be deferential and suppliant, but he was not.

Amasa Stone angrily opposed the loan during a bank board of directors meeting.

About June 1872, this option expired without Amasa Stone having acted to buy the new shares.

Amasa Stone then asked Henry Flagler to change the expiration date so he could purchase the shares.

Flagler argued that Amasa Stone's support was useful, and that he should be placated.

Amasa Stone later said that he "probably saved two or three million dollars" in profit by getting rid of Stone.

At a meeting between Rockefeller and the bank's directors, Amasa Stone demanded that Standard Oil be appraised and its financial condition assessed before any loan was issued.

Amasa Stone had one more interaction with Rockefeller and Standard Oil.

Amasa Stone served as the bank's president from 1857 probably to 1864.

Amasa Stone helped reorganize the Commercial Bank on March 1,1865, after its initial 20-year charter expired.

Rechartered as the Commercial National Bank, Amasa Stone was elected a director of the bank and in 1879 served as its vice president.

Amasa Stone was a director of the Bank of Commerce.

Amasa Stone was elected president of the bank in 1873, but resigned in late 1874 and was replaced by Hiram Garretson.

Amasa Stone was a director of the Merchants Bank.

Amasa Stone was named a director of the company, and later its president.

Amasa Stone loaned his brother $800,000 to organizer the business.

At some point, Amasa Stone invested a substantial sum in the Kansas City Rolling Mill Company of Kansas City, Missouri.

Amasa Stone was placed on the board of directors of the firm.

Amasa Stone had a number of other business interests and ventures in addition to banking and metallurgy.

Amasa Stone bought large stone quarries in Berea and Independence, and built a small railroad to ship the stone to Cleveland.

Cleveland Stone Dressing furnished stone for a number of large mansions in Cleveland; the First Presbyterian Church of East Cleveland; the Ontario Legislative Building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and the residence of Senator Henry B Payne.

In 1877, Amasa Stone dabbled in real estate by constructing a building on St Clair Avenue in Cleveland's Warehouse District.

Amasa Stone had a position on the board of directors of the Western Union telegraph company.

Jeptha Wade had been president of Western Union in 1866, and Amasa Stone may have invested at this time in the company.

Amasa Stone suffered from stomach ulcers which often kept him awake for two hours each night.

Hay biographer Patricia O'Toole concludes that Amasa Stone was, by this time, suffering from severe depression.

Amasa Stone wrote to Hay constantly, his "ambivalent" letters full of muffled "cries for help".

Amasa Stone's depression appeared to worsen when several of his businesses failed in the first three months of 1883.

Shortly thereafter, Amasa Stone asked Hay to cut short his trip and return to Cleveland, but Hay declined.

At 2 PM on May 11,1883, Amasa Stone was working at his home on Euclid Avenue.

Amasa Stone spoke several times with his business secretary, and was advised by his wife to rest.

At 4 PM, Julia Amasa Stone went to check on her husband, and found his bed empty and his bathroom door locked.

Amasa Stone called for a butler, who climbed through the transom and found Stone dead.

Amasa Stone had shot himself in the heart and then fallen forward so that his head and shoulders lay in the bathtub.

Amasa Stone was temporarily interred in the Brainard family vault at Lake View Cemetery.

Amasa Stone was later interred in a plot he had purchased shortly before his death.

Amasa Stone was widely considered to be a proud, stubborn man with a powerful temper.

Amasa Stone could be arbitrary, autocratic, and domineering, and was well known for his temper and biting tongue.

Amasa Stone shunned expensive clothes and rich food, and drank only sparingly.

Amasa Stone was a Presbyterian and an active member of the First Presbyterian Church on Public Square in downtown Cleveland.

Amasa Stone purchased a home in 1850 on the corner of Superior Avenue and Bond Street in Cleveland, Ohio.

Amasa Stone lived in this nondescript house until 1858, when he purchased a plot of land at 1255 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.

Amasa Stone lived in the mansion until his death, after which it was occupied by his wife, Julia; his daughter, Flora Amasa Stone Mather; and her husband, Samuel Mather.

Amasa Stone was not a noted outdoorsman, but viewed hunting as a leisure activity of the upper class.

Subsequently, on April 19,1873, Amasa Stone purchased several hundred acres of land near the villages of Elko and Red House, New York.

Amasa Stone spent a total of $40,000 making additional purchases over the next few years, until his forest estate reached about 7,000 acres.

Amasa Stone intended to use the estate as a hunting preserve and for the breeding of short-horn cattle.

Amasa Stone married Julia Ann Gleason of Warren, Massachusetts, on January 12,1842.

The Amasa Stone's first child, Adelbert Barnes Amasa Stone, was born on July 28,1844.

Amasa Stone attended Yale University, where he studied for a degree in geology.

Amasa Stone wed John Hay on February 4,1874, at which time Amasa gifted the couple $10,000 in securities.

Amasa Stone gave Hay employment caring for investments "so safe that they require no care".

Amasa Stone constructed a Victorian-style mansion at 1235 Euclid Avenue, next door to his own home, and gave it to the Hays for their own home.

Amasa Stone had a "profound" influence on Hay's life, giving him the life of ease necessary to complete a biography of Lincoln as well as putting him on a course in business that made Hay a very rich man.

Amasa Stone married shipping and iron mining magnate Samuel Mather on October 19,1881.

Amasa Stone made major donations to Case Western Reserve University and the Goodrich House social settlement, and supported the Temperance League, Consumer's League, Day Nursery and Kindergarten Association, Children's Aid Society, and Home for Aged Women.

Amasa Stone's great-grandson was Amasa Stone Bishop, son of Constance Stone Bishop.

Amasa Stone became the director of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and the director of environment of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

At the time of his death, Amasa Stone was widely regarded by the press as the richest man in Cleveland, and modern historians have called him a nationally prominent economic leader.

Amasa Stone was well known during his lifetime for having risen from the working class to amass a very large fortune, and for having built an "empire" of railroads.

Amasa Stone educated his daughters at the Cleveland Academy, a school for girls founded in 1848, and in 1865 oversaw a capital fundraising campaign and the construction of the school's first building.

Amasa Stone donated money in 1876 to construct and endow the Home for Aged Protestant Gentlewomen at 194 Kennard Road.

Amasa Stone donated money which led to the construction in 1881 of an addition to the Children's Aid Society home for youth at 1745 Detroit Street in Cleveland.

On September 20,1880, Amasa Stone donated $500,000 to Western Reserve College for the purpose of enabling its relocation to Cleveland.

Amasa Stone attached three conditions to his gift: First, that the school become a university, and that its liberal arts college be named Adelbert College after his son; Second, that Stone be enabled to name a majority of Western Reserve College's board of trustees; and Third, that Stone be allowed to supervise construction of the new university's buildings.

The college successfully raised the funds to procure land near what is University Circle in Cleveland, and Amasa Stone named 11 new trustees to the university's board.

Amasa Stone's donation paid for Guilford Hall and Haydn Hall.

Amasa Stone left his wife $500,000 in securities, which was expected to generate a large amount of interest.

Amasa Stone bequeathed $600,000 in securities to each daughter, and $100,000 each to John Hay and Samuel Mather.

In 1921, Amasa Stone's former hunting estate formed the nucleus of Allegany State Park.

Amasa Stone was the basis for a major character in John Hay's 1883 anti-union novel The Breadwinners.

John Hay clearly inspired the main character, and Amasa Stone was obviously the basis for the grasping, cruel industrialist Aaron Grimestone.

In 1965, the Amasa Stone was scuttled along with the freighter Charles S Hebard off Charlevoix, Michigan.

In 1910, Amasa Stone's family donated money to Western Reserve University for a new chapel.