Jay Stone (Athlete)

Place: Bangor

Born: 1851

Death: 1932

Biography:

Jay Stone was born in Bangor, Maine in 1851. He enlisted in the cavalry at 18 and went west. In 1877, he was chosen as 'phonographic reporter and Indian interpreter' to Gen. Alfred H. Terry's Commission sent to negotiate with Sioux chief Sitting Bull. Stone had learned the new skill of stenography, and was the first stenographer ever employed by the War Department. He continued to work at Terry's headquarters, but by 1881 was listed as the 'private secretary' to Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln in the administration of James Garfield. Stone was on Garfield's funeral train after his assassination that same year. Secretary of War Lincoln stayed on in the administration of Chester Arthur, and Stone was promoted to 'Chief of the Correspondence Division'. In 1882 he became Acting Chief Clerk during a leave of absence of Chief Clerk John Tweedale. Stone took dictation for three Secretaries of War before being sent to New York to serve as Chief Clerk of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the post from which he retired. He retired in 1928 as the department's longest-serving civilian employee (50 years).