Early Years
Stone was born in Pekin, Illinois to Methodist minister Elijah Stone and Sophia Creighton. While attending Chicago High School, he met Truman Henry Safford, an astronomer at the recently completed Dearborn Observatory and Stone became his pupil, quickly beginning his lifelong interest in astronomy. In 1866 Stone enrolled at the University of Chicago, graduating with a degree of master's degree in 1870. Working his way through school, he served as an instructor in 1867-1868 at Racine College in Wisconsin, then at the Northwestern Female College (which is now a part of Northwestern University) at Evanston, Illinois in 1869. Also that year, he participated in what would be the first of three eclipse expeditions in his lifetime. It was on this trip to Des Moines, Iowa with Safford that he met astronomers from the United States Naval Observatory. He would end up being in charge of the later two expeditions, the first in 1878, when he led the USNO expedition to Colorado, and the May 28, 1900 eclipse, when he led the McCormick Observatory expedition to Winesboro, South Carolina. Upon graduating from the University of Chicago in 1870, he accepted an assistantship at the USNO where he stayed until 1875. He was assigned to the Meridian Circle, under William Harkness. His tenure there coincided with the arrival of the 26-inch (660 mm) Alvan Clark refractor at the Naval Observatory. This telescope was essentially a twin to the future McCormick Refractor. In 1871, he married Catherine Flagler of Washington, D.C..
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