N. Stone Ave. between Pennington Street and Alameda, Tucson, in 1903. Church at the far right is now the site of the Pioneer Hotel. Dark building at upper right is the San Xavier Hotel, now the historic Southern Pacific train depot.
Stone Avenue is one of Tucson's oldest streets and is the dividing line between east and west.
The street is named for John Finkle Stone, who was born in New York in 1836 and left home at age 15. He spent the next 14 years in the Southwest and served in the Civil War.
Stone moved to Tucson in the mid-1860s, and in 1868 he helped organize the Apache Pass Mining Co., near Fort Bowie, and was elected president and superintendent.
On Oct. 5, 1869, while traveling in a mail stagecoach from the Apache Pass Mine to Tucson, he was attacked by Apaches. The deceased - four soldiers, the driver and Stone - were found by a wagon train headed to Tucson and buried at the site of the attack. His body was reportedly moved later to the Fort Bowie Cemetery.
The Weekly Arizonian, Arizona's first newspaper, reported on Oct. 16, 1869: "The Eastern mail arrived on Wednesday carried by the coach on which Col. John F. Stone and party were murdered. The sides of the coach are splintered and perforated from the action of lances and bullets, and in many places bespattered with blood."
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In the early 1900s, The Tucson Post newspaper, published from 1901 to 1917, printed the following:
"Stone Avenue was named for John F. Stone. Just how or why he came to the country no one now living seems to know. He was a man of considerable means and of magnificent physique. Of powerful build and wearing a heavy black beard he stood distinguished among his fellow men. ... Sometime in the early sixties, he built the first house on Stone Avenue. It was situated on the southwest corner of Stone Avenue and McCormick Street, and is still standing.''
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Sources: Chiracahua National Monument Visitors Guide and history: www.wnpa.org/freepubs/CHIR/Chiricahua_News.pdf
Thomas Edwin Farish, "History of Arizona - Filmer Brothers Electrotype Company," 1915
Dan L. Thrapp, "Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography - The Arthur Clark Company," 1988
Weekly Arizonian newspaper, Oct. 16, 1869
Oral history of an (unknown) Stone descendent, Arizona Historical Society
Marvin Alisky, April 1959, New Mexico Historical Review, Arizona's First Newspaper, The Weekly Arizonan 1859, Vol. 36, pp. 134-143
Probate court records of Pima County filed by George Stone (brother) on Dec. 9, 1869
If you have streets to suggest or stories to share, contact writer David Leighton at streetsmarts@azstarnet.com. Stone Avenue was suggested by Star reader Konnor W. Drennen.
