Albert Lee Stone

The above 8×10 photograph has a small note taped to the back:

Albert Lee Stone (1881-??) married Carrie S. Wade ( 1884-1942) in about 1905 and they had seven children, one of whom was Randolph L. Stone (1908-1964).

After weeks of not being able to find out who Albert’s parents were (the 1890 Census is lost to us and I cannot find him in the 1900 Census), it dawned on me that the unnamed Grandpap looked familiar. See the resemblance to Daniel and Ella who were subjects of an earlier post:

Daniel Louis Stone had only one daughter, Jessie E., so she was probably the author of the notes on the back of each of these photographs, but I have not been able to find her after the 1900 Census when she was about 15 years old.

Here is another, undated photograph of Albert Lee Stone:

This head shot appeared in the  The Baltimore Sun of 29 August 1935 accompanying an article entitled “Man Missing For Week Is Sought By Family.” According to that article and others, the police were called when customers at Albert Lee Stone’s meat market in the 1100 block of Light Street in Baltimore waited for over an hour without being served on the morning of 22 August 1935. “Occupants of nearby stores told the police that Stone had delivered an order to a nearby restaurant then dropped out of sight, leaving his automobile parked in front of the store.” On 24 August 1935 the Sun reported that “His wife, Mrs. Carrie Stone, was in a highly nervous condition at her home, in Glen Bernie, fearing that her husband, who was in good health, had met with foul play.”

Equity docket case 18523, which I read at the Maryland State Archives, informs that Carrie Stone received a divorce from her husband in 1941. Albert was declared “judicially dead” in 1969 when his children sold some land he had owned. In depositions it was said “he went to work and didn’t come home” that day and was never heard from again. (msa_cm96_000005)

Here is the kicker: According to the Social Security Applications and Claims Index, an Albert Lee Stone who was born in Maryland on 12 February 1882 died on 29 September 1944. According to Albert’s WWI draft registration card he was born on 12 February 1881, and it isn’t uncommon for there to be such a discrepancy in these dates.

Same man? I didn’t try all that hard to prove it one way or the other. Sometimes mysteries never get solved.