Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/533

494 during which time she was chairman of a committee to secure an amendment to the poll tax law of the state of Texas. The effect of this was to better enforce the poll tax, one-fourth of which is paid to the school fund of Texas, and it was wholly through the efforts of Mrs. Stone that the amendment was carried, increasing the school fund by many thousands of dollars. As chairman for two years of the committee on education in the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, she contributed many papers on educational interests, secured scholarship in several colleges of Texas and recommended in her report the provision of a fund by the clubs for the maintenance of the beneficiaries of these scholarships when unable to pay board and lodging. She has held offices of trust in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and as first vice-president has served as acting president at their convention. Although Mrs. Stone loves the cause represented by the Daughters of the Confederacy and as guiding hand for it gave her best efforts of pen and brain, she is moreover an enthusiastic Colonial Dame and patriotic member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and is known prominently among the womanhood of her state as a Daughter of the Republic of Texas. It was largely through Mrs. Stone's efforts that the name of Jefferson Davis was restored to the tablet on Cabin John's Bridge, near Washington—this great historic arch having been erected while Davis was secretary of war.

While Mrs. Stone was serving as president-general of the Daughters of the Confederacy, affliction laid a heavy hand upon her, through the loss of her only son, Doctor Harry D. Stone, a brilliant and most promising physician, who after the death of her husband had become the very. soul and joy of her life. But this did not embitter the strong woman. With her sorrow still upon her heart she took up her work with renewed zeal. When her term of office expired she was known and loved by each of her sixty thousand daughters, and as a token of their appreciation of her sterling worth she was presented with many beautiful and valuable badges, each inscribed with a legend of the esteem and honor in which she was held by the daughters. Only a few of the present inhabitants of Millen know that it was once famous as the location of a Confederate Wayside Home, where, during the Civil War, the soldiers were fed and cared for. The home was built by public subscription and proved a veritable boon to the soldiers, as many veterans now living can testify.

The location of the town has been changed slightly since the 6o's, for in those days the car sheds were several hundred yards farther up the Macon track, and were situated where the