Stone, Nathan

NATHAN BEACH STONE, LL. B., M. S. A.

     Nathan Beach Stone, president of the Stone Business College, is stamping his intensely practical ideas upon the educational system of the state. Such careers are too near us now for their significance to be appraised at its true value, but the future will be able to trace the tremendous effect of their labors upon the society and the institutions of their times. Mr. Stone brings to his work a habit of study and research that enables him quickly to recognize the needs of the hour in the training of the young and he has displayed a spirit of marked initiative in planning the work of the school.
     A native of Connecticut, he was born in Cheshire, July 9, 1882, a son of Rienzi H. Stone, who was born at West Cornwall, Litchfield county, Connecticut, and was a representative of one of the old families of the state, of English lineage, founded on this side the Atlantic by Dr. Samuel Stone, of Hereford, England, who came to the new world in the early part of the seventeenth century. He established his home at Hartford Connecticut, while his two sons, John and William, became residents of Guilford in 1639 and were members of Governor Leete's colony. There both devoted their lives to agricultural pursuits and John Stone became the first constable of his town. History shows that several of his descendants took part in the Revolutionary war and one of them captured several British soldiers. Later descendants have been more or less prominent and active in state and national affairs and the Stone family, moreover, is connected with many of the other notable families of the state. Rienzi H. Stone devoted years of his active business career to agricultural pursuits, but is now living retired at Wallingford, Connecticut. He was elected from Cheshire to represent his district in the state legislature and in other ways has left the impress of his individuality upon the upbuilding and further development of the state. He married Esther Lucy Beach, who was born in Wallingford, a daughter of Nathan Beach and a direct descendant of Jason Beach, who was of English birth and settled at Milford in 1638. Mr. and Mrs. Rienzi Stone became the parents of two sons and a daughter: Carrie Lucy, the wife of Clinton Peck, of West Cheshire, Connecticut; Walter Howard, who is connected with the Oakville Pin Company of Oakville, Connecticut: and Nathan Beach.
     The early educational opportunities accorded Nathan Beach Stone were those offered by the public schools and the high school of his native town. He later received instruction in the Yale Business College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1901, while in the Yale Law School he won his LL. B. degree in 1911. His first position was that of office manager with the Cutaway Harrow Company of Higganum, Connecticut, exporters of farm implements, with whom he remained for a year. For a time he was connected with the circulation department of the Pacific Monthly Magazine at Portland, Oregon, and later became associated with the Pike Manufacturing Company in a secretarial position. He purchased the Yale Business College and has since been at the head of that educational institution, which is now conducted under the name of the Stone Business College. The school has an annual enrollment of five hundred students, and is the largest as well as the oldest business college of the state, having been established in 1864. He was one of the founders of a school of law, and afterwards organized a school of auditing and accounting, conducted in connection with the Stone Business College. Instruction is also given in business law. The school is situated at No. 116 Church street, occupying two floors of the Glebe building and covering approximately twelve thousand square feet. It is equipped with all modern facilities for teaching and has graduated many men who today rank high in public and business life, including mayors, senators and others.
     On the 26th of April, 1907, in New York city, Mr. Stone was married to Miss Katharine Jane Littell, a native of Winfield, Kansas, and a daughter of the late Stephen Littell, of an old family of Albany, New York. Her mother, who bore the maiden name of Evelyn Grey, was a direct descendant of the Greys and Wallaces, prominent in Scotch history. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stone: Nathan B., born in New Haven, April 22, 1910; and Littell Rogers, born July 29, 1911.
     Mrs. Stone is a member of the New Haven Bird Club of the Woman's Club and is also active in church and charitable work. Mr. Stone also takes a helpful interest in religious and benevolent activities and is foremost in support of those interests which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. He is a director of the Chamber of Commerce and has been president of the New Haven Publicity Club, of the John and William Stone Association and the Commercial Business Educators' Association. He belongs to Hiram Lodge, No. 1, F. & A. M., of New Haven and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party, while both he and his wife hold membership in the Plymouth Congregational church. They are highly esteemed in those social circles where intelligence and true worth are accepted as the passports into good society. Mr. Stone had the honor of being chosen one of thirty-five out of New Haven's 175,000 population to serve on the citizen's commmittee having in charge the Yale Bi-centennial celebration.
 
 

Modern History of New Haven
and 
Eastern New Haven County

Illustrated

Volume II

New York – Chicago
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 
1918

pgs 405 - 406

 
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pages / text are copyrighted by
Elaine Kidd O'Leary & 
Anne Taylor-Czaplewski
May 2002