Corliss P. Stone
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Corliss P. Stone was elected mayor of Seattle in 1872. Prior to election as mayor, Stone had served three terms as a city council member. The street, Stone Way, in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood is named after Stone.
The following biography appeared in a 1903 book:
Forty years have passed since Corliss P. Stone became a resident of Seattle and in this period he has contributed in large measure to the extension and improvement of the city through his real-estate operations, while his business activity along other lines has promoted commercial prosperity. He arrived here in February, 1862, and through the intervening period has steadily advanced until he now occupies a leading position among the men of prominence here.
Mr. Stone was born in Franklin County, Vermont, on the 20th of March, 1838, and is of English lineage, although for many generations representatives of the family have been residents of America, the great great great grandfather having been one of the early colonial settlers of Connecticut, while Benjamin Stone, the grandfather of our subject, served in the Colonial army during the war of the Revolution. He was identified with the Congregational church in religious faith and lived to the advanced age of eighty-six years. He married a Miss Corliss, a member of the family that became famous as the manufacturers of the Corliss steam engine. James Corliss Stone, the father of our subject, was born in Connecticut and married Miss Charlotte Lathrope, a native of Chelsea, Vermont, and she, too, was of English heritage and a representative of an old Vermont family. She attained the age of sixty-six years, while Mr. Stone reached the venerable age of eighty-four years. For a number of years he held the office of justice of the peace, and his decisions were rendered without partiality or bias. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stone were active and devout members of the Congregational church and their labors contributed to its upbuilding. Their family consisted of three sons and three daughters.
Corliss P. Stone was educated in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, attending the public schools and the academy there, and entered upon his business career as a clerk in a dry-goods store. Later he engaged in business on his own account for three years before coming to the Pacific coast. He made the voyage around the Horn in the Archer, a clipper ship, which in a gale lost a mast and was in imminent peril, but she stopped for repairs and afterward continued the voyage in safety, casting anchor in the harbor of San Francisco after one hundred and ten days.
Mr. Stone had followed Horace Greeley's advice to young men and had come to the west, hoping to find good business opportunities in this section of the country. He possessed a strong body, willing hands and a clear head, but little else to serve him as capital. His first work in Washington was at Port Madison, Washington where he was employed as a salesman in a store for five years. He was also the manager of a rooming house the Port Madison Hotel.
In 1867 he established a store of his own in Seattle C.P. Stone & Co. He merged this with Hinds, Burnett & Co. to form Hinds, Stone & Co. with Charles Hiram Burnett Sr. as their junior partner. When Hinds withdrew from the business the firm became Stone, Burnett & Co. Due to an unexpected personal problem Stone removed the partnerships liquid assets and visited San Francisco. Since this was done without joint authorization an investigation ensued. The partners made a settlement, Stone returned as an independent and he conducted a successful business until 1884, when he sold out and became interested in city real estate.
Many other enterprises have also claimed his attention and he is widely known as a man of resourceful business ability, who not only has the talent for the planning of successful enterprises but also the ability to put them into good working order. He became one of the organizers of the Union Electric Company, with hs nephew Edward C. Kilbourne furnishing light and power for the city, and is now the president of the Cascade Laundry Company, which is doing a large business in the city.
He also continues his operations in Seattle real estate and has platted several additions to the city, the first being in 1884. This was the Lake Union addition, including one hundred and sixty acres of land, on which great improvements have been made. His next was the Edgewater addition of thirty acres, which is also all built up at the present time. He then platted Stone's extension to the same addition, which has also been improved, many fine buildings having been erected there.
He is now handling the C. P. Stone home addition, of twenty acres, adjoining Lake Union. It will thus be seen that he has been a prominent factor in the improvement and upbuilding of the city and has done his full share toward the promotion of many movements which have contributed to the public welfare aside from his individual interests.
In 1864 Mr. Stone was married to Clara Boyd, and unto them were born two children, but only one is now living, Corliss L., who is now in the office of his father, and is a young man of excellent business ability. In 1874 Mr. Stone was again married, his second union being with Almira L. Crossman, a native of Montreal, Canada. In politics he has been a lifelong Republican and had the honor of being elected mayor of the city in 1872. He exercised his official prerogatives for the improvement and substantial progress of Seattle and has labored earnestly for the advancement of this part of the state. Regarded as a citizen and in his social relations, he belongs to that public-spirited, useful and helpful class of men whose ambitions and desires are centered and directed in those channels through which flow the greatest and most permanent good to the greatest number.
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Later Life and Death
Corliss P. Stone continued to be active in business and real estate finally dying in 1906.
References
- ^ "A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of the City of Seattle and County of King, Washington." New York and Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1903. p. 167. Available online at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jtenlen/cpstone.txt
"A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of the City of Seattle and County of King, Washington." New York and Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1903. p. 167.