California Biographies

Source:
History of Napa and Lake Counties
San Francisco, Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1881

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


THOMAS P. STONEY.  Was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 25th day of April, A. D. 1835. He is 
the second child of P. Gaillard Stoney and his wife, Anna Maria Stoney, nee Porcher. His ancestors 
settled in the low country of the Colony of South Carolina about one hundred years before the 
Revolutionary War. By the father's side he is of Irish extraction. His mother's ancestors were French 
Huguenots, who sought refuge in the flourishing Colony of South Carolina from religious persecution in 
France, which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Thomas P. Stoney received a liberal 
education. He was prepared for college at the celebrated preparatory academy of J. W. Hudson, 
Mount Zion College, at Winnsboro, in South Carolina. After being prepared, he spent some years as a 
student at the South Carolina College and the Universities of North Carolina and Virginia. He applied 
himself closely when at school and college. He has never been of robust physique, and his precarious 
health interfered in some degree with the prosecution of his studies. Notwithstanding the 
disadvantages under which he labored, he, however, left college with an amount of culture and 
learning attained by few students, even among those possessed of physical powers of such a 
character as to enable them to devote all their time to study. He was, when at school and college, as 
he continues to be through life, of unimpeachable moral character. He wasted no time in frivolities of 
doubtful propriety, and his force of character was such that he could not be led by youthful associates 
from the path of .duty. Lithe year 1856 he left the paternal roof to seek health and his fortune in 
California, and made Napa his home in December of that year. His first business effort in the new life 
upon which he had entered was as a quartz miner, in Eldorado County. The fickle goddess did not 
smile upon him, and he made no fortune. He had not found the occupation for which Nature designed 
him. His well-trained mind was not to be lost to his fellow countrymen, amid the glitter of coin and 
cares of private business. In 1858 be left the mines and returned to Napa City, where he commenced 
the study of law in the office of Hartson & Edgerton. He was admitted to practice by the District Court 
of the Seventh Judicial District in 1859, and subsequently by the Supreme Court of the State. He soon 
demonstrated the fact that he had found the profession for which he was designed, and in which he 
was destined to make his mark. It was not long before the subject of this sketch, by his application to 
business, strict integrity, and an unostentatious display of his legal attainments, put himself in the 
front rank at the bar. He formed a partnership with Hon. C. Hartson, his legal preceptor. This firm did 
their full share of the legal business of Napa and Solano Counties. Thomas F. Stoney continued a 
member of this firm till the breaking out of the war between the States. In 1861 he married Miss Kate 
M. Allen, a native of New York, and the daughter of Joseph Allen and his wife, Catherine Allen, nee 
Walker. Mrs. Stoney's ancestors are of English and Dutch extraction. She was then residing in Napa 
County. This lady is in every way worthy of her husband. The offspring of this marriage were three 
sons and two daughters, all of whom are still living except the eldest daughter. If these children fail to 
make valuable members of society, it will not be for lack of careful, intellectual and moral training. 
Having been trained in the school of politics taught by the States Rights politicians of the South, and 
having imbibed a religious belief in the doctrines of the strict constructionists of his native State, when 
the war commenced he felt that his allegiance was due to South Carolina, and that as a patriot he was 
bound to respond to her call in the time of her great extremity. In May, 1863, he went East, and, 
leaving his family in New York, succeeded in crossing the Potomac and the Federal lines. He reached 
Richmond, the Confederate capital, from which city he soon took his departure for his native State. 
Arriving in Charleston, he at once enlisted in the Marion Artillery, a light battery then in the 
Confederate service. He served faithfully as a private soldier till the close of the war, and was with the 
army commanded by General Joseph E. Johnson when he surrendered to the Federal hosts, led by 
General Sherman. His wife, who, with the only one of their children then born, was left for safety with 
her relatives in New York, had resolved that "his country should be her country," and that even grim-
visaged war should not separate her and her child from the husband of her choice, went to Nassau, on 
the Island of New Providence, then the great entrepot for the Confederate fleet of merchant vessels 
engaged in running the blockade. Orders had been given by the Confederate Government at 
Richmond, forbidding the taking of ladies and children on board of vessels engaged in the service of 
that government. Mrs. Stoney found that she and her child would not be taken. After great difficulty 
and much urging on her part, a kind Captain agreed to make an exception in her case if she would 
consent to share all the dangers and hardships incidental to the hazardous service in which this 
adventurous seaman was engaged. She was told that the vessel would be burnt rather than allowed 
to be captured by Federal cruisers. She cheerfully agreed to risk all the dangers of the voyage and 
embarked on board a blockade-runner. She reached Wilmington, North Carolina, safely, and soon 
joined her husband in the land of Sumter and Marion. After the disastrous failure of the Confederate 
cause in 1865, Thomas P. Stoney removed to New York City and was for some time employed on the 
Metropolitan Record, a weekly Democratic journal then published in that city. Many of the ablest and 
most conservative articles that appeared in the columns of that paper were from his pen. In May, 
1866, he returned to Napa. Not being able to practice law in his own name, owing to the test oath 
which practicing attorneys were compelled by the Act of the California Legislature of 25th of April, 
1863, to file, he was employed in the office of Hon. C. Hartson, who has always been his steadfast 
friend. He rendered that gentleman much valuable assistance in the preparation of his cases, during 
the time he was employed by him. After the repeal of the test oath act he formed a partnership with 
the late W. W. Pendegast, so well known both at the bar and in the Legislative Councils of the State as 
one of California's most eloquent sons, as well as one of her ablest lawyers. Such a firm could not fail 
to be leaders at the bar nor to draw to itself large practice. In October, 1871, Thomas P. Stoney was 
elected County Judge of Napa County. It would be impossible for any man to receive a higher 
compliment than the people of his county paid him by this election. The county had at the general 
election in September, gone Republican by a majority of about two hundred. Judge Stoney was, and 
continued to be, a pronounced Democrat and was the nominee of that party. His opponent, Judge 
Crouch, was the incumbent, an able lawyer and incorruptible Judge; a man against whose private and 
official character the voice of detraction was stilled even in a heated political campaign. Yet Judge 
Stoney was elected in October by over one hundred majority. His people bore witness to the ability 
and fidelity with which he discharged the duties of his office by electing him to a second term in 1875. 
With the close of his second term the Constitution of 1849 was numbered with the things of the past, 
and he was therefore the last County Judge of Napa County, and one to which her people may always 
point with pride. He contributed his full share in creating the high character of California's judiciary of 
which her people are justly proud. After the adoption of the Constitution of 1879, it occurred to 
Governor Irwin, who was then in office, and Governor Perkins, the Governor-elect, as well as to many 
of the ablest lawyers in the State, that the work of the incoming Legislature would be greatly lessened 
and the body of our laws much improved, by appointing three gentlemen of high character and ability 
to prepare such changes of the codes as the new organic law made necessary. In looking among the 
lawyers of the State for talent and legal lore competent and adequate to the task, the eyes of these 
two Governors naturally fell on Thomas P. Stoney, and he with Hon. L S. Belcher, an ex-justice of the 
Supreme Court, and Mr. A. C. Freeman, a distinguished legal author, were selected. The work assigned 
to this Commission was ably done, and had not the jealousy of some lawyers who had been honored, 
unfortunately, with seats in the Legislature, prevented the adoption as a whole of the work of this 
Commission, the laws of the session of 1880 would not have been found so defective, nor would so 
many of them have failed to stand the test of judicial criticism. In 1879 he was nominated by the State 
Convention of the Democratic party for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, but the break in the 
ranks of that party, caused by the organization of the New Constitution party and the Workingmen's 
party, led to the defeat of the regular ticket and he was not elected. In January, 1880, Judge Stoney 
removed with his family to the city of San Francisco and is now a member of the well known firm of 
Stanly, Stoney & Hayes. In early life Judge Stoney became a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. His culture and intelligence would entirely preclude the idea of bigotry in his religious views. 
His convictions are, however, pronounced, and both he and his wife are active and useful members of 
the cause which they have espoused.