George and Joseph Timmons were born to William and Margaret Timmons in 1849 and 1850. Sometime after 1855, William and Margaret split, leaving her to care for their four children on her own. By June 1857, George and Joseph were in the care of the Children’s Aid Society. That month, they were taken on an orphan train to Albion, Michigan, where both boys were taken in by Simeon and Martha Stone. While we don’t know exactly what their time in the Stone’s home was like, both boys adopted the last name Stone as their own, suggesting that they were probably treated well.
George enlisted in the military in 1863, at just fourteen years old. He served in the Civil War as a drummer in the Michigan Company D, 1st Sharpshooters Regiment. At the end of the Civil War, George left military service, but was known by his friends from then on as “General” Stone. He married Kitty Rice in 1870, and they had at least one child together.
Joseph married Ellen Turner in 1875, despite the disapproval of her family. The pair had two children, Gertrude and Charles.
For a few years, George and Joseph ran a grocery store together in Michigan, and both brothers were active Freemasons. Eventually, the brothers moved apart, with George’s family staying in Michigan, and Joseph’s family moving to South Dakota and later California. George died in 1921 at age 72, and Joseph died a decade later in 1931 at age 81.
I donated this statue in memory of the Timmons brothers. Unveiled June of 2023, it resides in Concordia Kansas, the home of The National Orphan Train Complex.
George enlisted in the military in 1863, at just fourteen years old. He served in the Civil War as a drummer in the Michigan Company D, 1st Sharpshooters Regiment. At the end of the Civil War, George left military service, but was known by his friends from then on as “General” Stone. He married Kitty Rice in 1870, and they had at least one child together.
Joseph married Ellen Turner in 1875, despite the disapproval of her family. The pair had two children, Gertrude and Charles.
For a few years, George and Joseph ran a grocery store together in Michigan, and both brothers were active Freemasons. Eventually, the brothers moved apart, with George’s family staying in Michigan, and Joseph’s family moving to South Dakota and later California. George died in 1921 at age 72, and Joseph died a decade later in 1931 at age 81.
I donated this statue in memory of the Timmons brothers. Unveiled June of 2023, it resides in Concordia Kansas, the home of The National Orphan Train Complex.
