The Stone Bible: Betsey Fay and Moses Stone
THE FAY FAMILY HOMEPAGE

GENEALOGIES
   
THE STONE FAMILY BIBLE
   
RELATED PAGES
Betsey Fay and Moses Stone
Alonzo Stone
Selections from the Bible and other sources
The list of children born to Moses and Betsey Stone
Three pages of Anc. and Desc. of Gregory Stone
photographs
   
This 1849 copy of the New Testament belonged to Alonzo Stone. Alonzo was about 26 when the Testament was published, and he was living with his widowed mother Eliza (Betsey) Fay Stone. We do not know if the Testament belonged first to Eliza and then to Alonzo, or whether it was Alonzo's from the beginning.
   
Laid in the front of the book, between the cover and the first pre-title page, are some pieces of paper. I see no sign that pages have been removed from the Bible; and to an uneducated eye, the paper does not look the same. The pieces of paper contain verses from the Bible and a couple of selections from other sources. It looks as if they were copied onto available paper, and then laid here for safekeeping. These verses are shown on a separate page. There is, in addition, a small copy of an advertisement for Alonzo's medicinal cure (shown on Alonzo's page).
   
The most important piece of paper contains the birth record of the children of Moses Stone and Betsey Fay. The handwriting is very clear, the ink well preserved. It is the sort of list one sees on the pages of a larger family Bible in the special section allotted to births, deaths and marriages. The entries agree exactly with the information found in Ancestry and Descendants of Gregory Stone, even to the presence of the month but absence of the day for Peter. Added, however, is the day of the week, a nice touch. One is reminded of the old poem
Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child works hard for a living
Thursday's child is loving and giving
Friday's child is full of woe
Saturday's child has far to go
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is blythe and bonny and good and gay.
   
The subsequent history of the Bible is unknown. If Alonzo died in the poorhouse, his few possessions might have been passed on to others in the poorhouse. If he was not the Alonzo in the 1870 census, where was he? All we know is this: somehow the Bible was taken to Maine. The story continues in the words of the woman who sent me the Bible:
   
"In 1966, ... my family owned a summer home on a lake near Windham, Maine. I found the bible in a second hand store near Windham. The bible had some water damage but it was the hand written pages that caught my interest. I purchased the book for 25 cents and it has moved with me from Maine to California and ...to Arizona."
   
Thanks to the kindness of this woman, the Bible will now find its way to the hands of the 3rd great-granddaughter of Moses and Betsey Fay Stone and the 2nd great-grandniece of Alonzo.