Mrs Martha Evelyn Stone (née Stevens)

Mrs George Nelson Stone (Martha Evelyn), 62, was born in January 1850 in Boston, Massachusetts. After an early marriage to John Harrington (who died young), she married Captain George Nelson Stone (born in July 1841 in New Hampshire). He had been previously married and was the father of two daughters with his first wife; Mary K. born in January 1880 and Eleanor M. born in September 1884. He was the president of Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company. In 1900, the Stones lived at 405 Oak Avenue in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio with four servants (a waitress, a maid, a cook, and a laundress). George died in 1901 after which Mrs Stone went to New York where she lived in the plush Plaza Hotel. She had no children by either marriage.

Martha Stone was travelling in first class with her maid Miss Icard, she occupied cabin B-28.

She was awake in bed when the Titanic struck the iceberg. She slipped a kimono over her night dress, put on her slippers, and went out into the corridor. She found other people similarly attired. She asked a crewmember if they had struck an iceberg. "Yes, " he said, "but there is no danger. Go back to bed and to sleep." At this time, Mrs Stone could hear the roar of the steam blowing off and she asked the officer why they were doing this. He told her they had stopped to see what damage there was and that there wasn't any danger.

She went back to bed and never received a warning. The roaring steam went on for what seemed like forever. Martha got up and dressed and stepped out into the corridor. There, the daughter of the woman across the hall came running down the corridor, telling her to put on her life preserver and that they must get into the boats. Stone hurried to deck with the woman. They found the sailors getting into the lifeboats, but that there was no real order in loading the boats.

Stone and her maid got into lifeboat 6 and were rescued. She thought there were about 20 women and two men in the boat. Her role in the boat was to stand on the plug, which she did for seven hours. Another woman waved the only lantern they had in the boat for seven hours. Mrs Stone was sharply critical of how the Titanic crew handled the dilemma they faced that night.

Martha Stone died May 12th, 1924. In her will she bequeathed a large sum of cash and other personal possessions to Amelia Icard who had been her maid on the Titanic. Her body was returned to Cincinnati and buried beside her second husband.

References and Sources
State of New York Certificate of Death
U.S. Census 1900 (Ohio, Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Enumeration District 12, page 4, line 31)
Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio), 20 April 1912

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