AMANDA MALVINA BRODIE STONE (1825-1912):

Amanda Malvina Brodie was a daughter of Lodowick Brodie, who established his home near Fayetteville in 1835.  Her father who was born at Oxford, North Carolina, September 22, 1800, was a son of Dr. John Brodie, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, who graduated from the University of Edinburgh and in young manhood came to the United States.  He wedded Mary Taylor, a cousin of Zachary Taylor, who later became president of the United States.  Malvina's father left Clarksville, Tennessee, with his family and traveled by wagon to Arkansas in 1834, spending one year in Benton county.  He afterward engaged in general merchandising at Fayetteville from 1840 until 1842 and then took up the occupation of farming.  Following the discovery of gold in California, he made his way to that state and spent two years on the Pacific Coast, making the return trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama. While en route, however, he became ill and died, being buried at sea.  Daughter Malvina was but twelve years of age when she on horseback accompanied her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. James Brodie, to Hopkinsville, Kentucky where she attended school, returning to Fayetteville in the same manner in 1840.

Stephen K. Stone (1819-1909) was a farm-bred boy and his education was obtained in the military school at Bingham, North Carolina.  When fifteen years of age he left home and started out to provide for his own support by clerking in a store at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  Subsequently he became bookkeeper in an auction store in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He then proceeded north by way of the Mississippi as far as Vicksburg and there he again was employed as a salesman and bookkeeper.  On 11 June 1840, he arrival in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at which time his cash capital consisted of but $450.00. 

On 22 September 1842, Amanda Malvina Brodie married Stephen K. Stone and in 1850 her husband established a family grocery store, to which he constantly added other lines of goods until he was engaged in the sale not only of groceries, but of dry goods, hardware and implements, his original establishment having thus been converted into a small department store.  At one time he retired from active business but later joined a son in another venture, becoming a partner of the firm of B. H. Stone & Company.  He possessed marked ability as a financier and displayed sound judgment in everything that he undertook.  In order to meet the demands of a constantly expanding business he erected buildings and he also improved vacant property around the Fayetteville Square as an investment, realizing the growing importance of the county seat.  From time to fine he made purchases of property which constantly increased in value as the district became more thickly settled.  "He was a systematic and methodical businessman and gave strict attention to every detail of his business," the Arkansas Sentinel wrote in Stone's obituary.

The home in which the Stone family lived during the Civil War, still stands at 207 Center Street in Fayetteville.  It was built in 1847 by Judge David Walker and sold to Stephen K. Stone in 1840.  Struck during the Civil War while the Stone family was there, the property was then bought by Edward K. Stone, a grandson of Stephen Stone and being an architect, he began the structure�s restoration process in the 1970�s.

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen K. Stone, had a family of seven children: Mary, who became the wife of George S. Albright of Fayetteville; Stephen R. a merchant of Olathe, Kansas; Benjamin H. of Fayetteville; William C. of Altus, Oklahoma; Lodowick Brodie of Fayetteville; Amanda M. and Albert Brodie who was engaged in the practice of law.  Mrs. Stone gave the block of ground where the City Hospital of Fayetteville now stands.  Then, it contained only a small brick building and it was her wish and will that this ground be used for the sake of humanity.  On the board of trustees she appointed one member from every denomination represented in Fayetteville.  Her husband, Stephen, was not a party to any of the events of the Civil War but was in sympathy with the Southern cause and gave it his moral support.  He was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church and fraternally he was affiliated with the Blue Lodge of Masons.

Malvina and Stephen are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Fayetteville, Arkansas.