AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



JATHES a. STOBfE. 



One of the first bee-keepers we met at 

 the convention of the Illinois State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association here in Chicago, 

 last fall, was Jas. A. Stone, its genial 



J AS. A. STONE. 



and efficient Secretary. We had had 

 quite a good deal of correspondence with 

 him in previous months, and had thus 

 come to count him among our esteemed 

 friends ; but when we came to meet him 

 face to face, and learn of his great pop- 

 ularity among all who knew him best, 

 then It was that we began to appreciate 

 his value to bee-culture, and to prize his 

 friendship more. 



Mr. Stone has for some mouths been 



replying to questions in our department 

 of "Queries and Replies," and hence we 

 desired the more to present him some- 

 what formally to our readers in the 

 Biographical part of the Bee Joubnal. 

 Through the kindness of some of his 

 very good lady friends, we are now 

 permitted to learn something of the 

 characteristics of the man who signs his 

 name "Jas. A. Stone." Here is what 

 " One of Them " has to say about him, 

 and it doubtless will be somewhat " sur- 

 prising " to Bro. Stone when he reads it 

 in this number of the Bee Journal, : 



Visiting the wife of the subject of this 

 sketch, I heard her remark that her 

 husband was in a dilemma — wanted 

 very much to please his friend York, of 

 the Amebican Bee Joxjenal, by com- 

 plying with a request to send his picture 

 and biography for publication ; that the 

 picture had been sent, but he had noth- 

 ing of importance as biography ; could 

 only say he was born on May 6, 1842, 

 in Sangamon county. Ills., on the farm 

 his father "entered " near Springfield, 

 where he now lives with wife and only 

 son ; and also had the honor of being 

 Secretary of the Illinois State Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association since its organization. I 

 said, " Let us, the ladies of his neigh- 

 borhood or Sunday-school class, ' write 

 him up.' They don't want to wait until 

 he is dead to say what they think of him. 

 (His wife being all right, too, just let's us 

 admire him all we please.)" 



He always has the best and most at- 

 tractive displays of honey and bee-sup- 

 plies in the county; takes the first pre- 

 miums on both, at all our county fairs ; 

 and his honey is put up in such an at- 

 tractive manner that it always com- 

 mands the highest market prices. Yet 

 he does not make bee-keeping his spec- 

 ialty, but with his flock of Oxford Down 

 sheep on one of the very prettiest farms 

 in Sangamon county, we think is some- 

 thing to boast of. 



We also think it is something to have 

 been elder of the Presbyterian church 

 since he was old enough to fill the place, 

 and Sunday-school Superintendent for 

 13 years at one time, and has been the 

 Sunday-school teacher of a class of 

 young ladies for ten years, and they Say 

 they are going to keep him that many 

 more. Two of his class are missionaries 

 in Siam, and another, the third one, has 

 just offered herself to the Foreign Board. 



And glad we were, when he assured 



