According to his probate file (Box 499, file 23 in the
Hampshire County Registry of Probate), John
Burdick Stone died intestate on Feb. 13, 1932, in
Worthington or perhaps in Northampton,
MA (where there was a hospital). One town clerk or the other should be able to provide a death certificate, and a death notice may also have appeared in the
Daily Hampshire Gazette, printed in Northampton. His last residence was in
Worthington.
On April 30, 1932 the Town of
Worthington, acting as a creditor owed money by Stone, filed a petition asking that
Wells W. Magargal of
Worthington be appointed administrator on Stone's estate. That petition was granted on May 17, 1932. It named Ruth R. Nevins, his daughter, then of 16
Davison St., Springfield,
MA, as Stone's only heir-at-law and next of kin. When the estate was inventoried, it was found to consist of $2.50 in cash and an interest in the estate of an Everlyn C. Handy of Newark, NJ, the value of which interest was estimated to be $200, for a total personal estate of $202.50. Stone owned no real estate at the time of his death, and had no personal belongings of any value.
The administrator's first and final account of the estate, filed in 1933, recorded payments to the undertaker of $156, the gravedigger $7, notary's fees $1, "transportation of deceased to Northampton" by Magargal $6, administrator's services $20, out-of-pocket expenses $6.90, and a shortfall in the actual value of the
Handy legacy, or whatever it was, of $5.60 (the earlier estimate of its value had been a little high), for a total of $202.50, matching the total of the inventory. Ruth had received nothing from her father's paltry estate.
In Box 318, file 59 at the Probate Registry, I found that on October 8, 1900, Jennie L. Stone, being separated from John B. Stone, petitioned the Probate
Court to be appointed the legal guardian of her daughter Ruth. This was, according to the probate registry staff I talked to about it, quite an unusual request for a still-married mother to make. There is no record of the reason for it or the way it was discussed in court. On May 7, 1901 the petition was dismissed, again without any comment or details appearing in the record.
On August 10, 1903 Jennie
Reed petitioned in behalf of Ruth Stone for Ruth's name to be changed to Ruth
Reed, her parents having been divorced "on the ground of the gross habits of intoxication of the said John
Burdick Stone." It was noted in the petition that the divorce decree in Superior
Court had allowed Jennie Stone to resume using her maiden name, Jennie L. Reed. The petition for Ruth's name change was allowed on October 6, 1903. Ruth was said in the petition to be living with Jennie, and to have resided since the divorce decree in Cummington (just north of
Worthington) and in Meriden, CT.
The divorce, which evidently occurred between 5/7/1901 and 8/10/1903, is not on record at the probate registry, but a record is probably on file at the
Hampshire County Superior
Court Clerk's office, also in Northampton. I didn't go there, and I don't know why the divorce decree was issued in Superior
Court instead of Probate
Court.
Downstairs at the Registry of
Deeds, I found the following transactions recorded:
Book 503, p. 19. Oct. 2, 1897: J. Perry
Cady of
Worthington for $200 to John B. Stone of
Worthington, one parcel in Cummington and
Worthington on the Peru town line containing 140 acres +/-, one in Peru containing 50 A. +/-, and one in Cummington containing 60 A. +/-. Subject to a $700 mortgage held by William
Cady of West
Brookfield,
MA.
Book 533, p. 189. March 20, 1900: Heirs of John Clark
Reed of Cummington (including Jennie
Reed Stone and husband John B. Stone) to
Emory L. Reed, parcels of 109, 62 and 8 A. +/-. This was land in which Jennie held an inherited but undivided interest in common with the other heirs. They were disposing of their undivided interests for cash.
Book 693, p. 77. A similar conveyance by the heirs to Luther Trow of Cummington, involving 3/4 of an acre in Cummington.
Book 574, p. 89. Sep. 2, 1903: John B. Stone, by deputy sheriff's auction, to Jennie L. Reed of
Greenwich,
MA for $375, the 140 A. and 60 A. parcels that had been conveyed to Stone in 503-19 above.
Book 654, p. 331. May 11, 1910: Jennie L. Reed of
Greenwich to Jared J. Stearns for $700, the mortgage deed for the 140, 50, and 60 acre parcels purchased by John B. Stone in 1897.
Book 655, p. 7. Also May 11, 1910: Jennie L. Reed to Jared
Stearns for $1.00, the three parcels themselves.
I don't understand exactly what went on here with title to the land John Stone bought in 1897. Clearly he didn't keep up his mortgage or his marital obligations, and whether it was by divorce decree or by auction or a combination of the two, Jennie got the land and held it until 1910, when she was living far away and finally decided she had no further use for it. What it had been used for, and by whom, during the seven years of her absentee ownership is not recorded.
By a very odd fluke, it happens that about nine years ago, I represented a land conservation trust in negotiating the gift of a conservation easement on a 100-acre parcel of land very near where the boundaries of
Worthington, Cummington and Peru come together. Some of the land we protected (in
Worthington and Cummington) may even have been part of the old Stone farm. The immediate area is all woodland now, containing a scattered handful of houses, two or three dating back at least to 1850 or 1860 and one of them much older. There are also a few old cellarholes where other houses once stood. Somewhere within a quarter or a half mile of that town boundary corner is the place where the
Stones lived during their short, unhappy marriage - and where Ruth was born to them on January 1, 1899, according to her mother's unsuccessful guardianship petition.
If you'd like photocopies of any of the documents I've mentioned, they can be requested (as specifically as possible, of course) from the Registry of Probate at 413-586-8500, the Registry of
Deeds at 413-584-3637, the Superior
Court Clerk at 413-584-5810, the Town
Clerk of
Worthington at 413-238-5577, and the City
Clerk of Northampton, 413-587-1224. I have no idea how long any of those offices might take to supply copies by mail, or what they would charge. I live in
Williamsburg, about halfway between Northampton and
Worthington, and I combined today's research with other errands in town. I didn't spend any money I wasn't going to spend anyway, but I've put about three hours in, and that's as much as I can do without asking for payment.
