Joseph E. Stone, president of the Home National Bank, of Caney, Kan., and a prominent agriculturist and live stock man, was born in Waldo county, Maine, July 26, 1842. He is a son of Jonathan and Sarah (Stevens) Stone, natives of Maine. Jonathan Stone was a son of Jonathan Stone, who was born in Massachusetts of English and Irish descent and followed the sea for many years, but in later life resided in Maine, where he followed farming, to which pursuit his son, Jonathan, was reared. Jonathan and Sarah (Stevens) Stone became the parents of five children, of whom two are deceased. Joseph E. Stone was reared in Maine and when a boy attended the public schools of that state, being at one time a pupil of Hon. Nelson Dingley, the author of the famous Dingley Tariff Law. When sixteen years of age he became a school teacher and was engaged in that profession four consecutive years, being thus employed when the Civil war come on. In the latter part of 1862 he enlisted in Company B, Twenty-Sixth Maine infantry, but soon after his enlistment, with others, he was permitted to attend a military academy at Philadelphia, Pa., three months, in order to prepare for and become an officer of colored troops. After having successfully passed a test examination he was commissioned second lieutenant and as such went forward to the field of active war service with the Forty-First United States Colored infantry. Some four or five months later he was promoted to first lieutenant in the same command, which saw its first service in the breastworks before Richmond, Va. He continued to serve in the Army of Virginia, Twenty-fifth corps, and won a splendid war record, having been several times in command of his company. He won an enviable reputation as a driller of recruits and soldiers and won an equal reputation as a fighter. He was present at Appomattox Courthouse when General Lee surrendered to General Grant, April 9, 1865, and in the following May, with his corps, was ordered to Texas to protect the Rio Grande, or the border, from troubles that might arise on account of Mexican hostilities. Later, the command was ordered to Louisville, Ky., where its members were honorably discharged in December, 1865. Mr. Stone then returned to his Maine home, but in January of the following year was commissioned first lieutenant of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth United States Colored infantry, which was sent westward to contend with the hostile Indians on the Great Plains. The regiment proceeded to Fort McRey, N. M., and after a service of twenty months returned to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where it was mustered out of the United States service, in November, 1867. Mr. Stone is familiarly known as "Captain Stone," which title comes not from his Civil war service, but from being captain of a "wideawake" company at Independence, Kan. After receiving his honorable discharge at Fort Leavenworth, he again visited his parental home in Maine, but after a short stay there returned west, early in 1868, and located at Lee's Summit, Jackson county, Missouri, where he engaged in the commission business. He remained there until 1870, when he removed to Caney, Kan., and there engaged in farming, breaking the wild prairie land with an ox team and thus beginning what has subsequently become a very successful business career. He has continued his farming interests up to the present time, and for years has been extensively dealing in cattle, raising also large herds. He owns over 1,000 acres of valuable land, and besides is a holder of interests in many other business enterprises. He has materially contributed to the upbuilding of the flourishing city of Caney, where he has so long resided and where he has held different positions of honor and trust. He was one of the very first to take an active part in securing the glass factories for Caney and to support his interest by taking stock therein. For the past four years he has been president of the Home National Bank of Caney, one of the largest and soundest of like financial institutions in the state, and under his conservative, yet energetic management it has continued in safe channels that have proved profitable. Politically, he is a Republican and has always taken an active part in party affairs. As early as 1871 he was elected sheriff of Montgomery county, and was reëlected in 1873, giving in all four years of most efficient service to his county. He is a Royal Arch Mason and is styled the "father" of the Masonic order in Caney. Mr. Stone was married in 1874, at Independence, Kan., to Miss Anna Van Sandt, who was born in Missouri and died in 1897. To Mr. and Mrs. Stone were born six children, five of whom survive their mother—Arthur F., Hurbert G., Myrtle M., Roy M., and Edward Earl. Mr. Stone's successful business career, due wholly to his own individual efforts, and the commendable interest he has taken in all movements for the general welfare and public interests of his community, unite to win him the deserved respect and universal esteem of his fellow citizens.