Guide to the Copley-Stone Family Papers 1835-1992
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Copley-Stone Family Papers
- Creator
- Copley-Stone Family
- Collection Number
- MSS 923
- Extent
- 2.0 linear feet (2 boxes)
- Date
- 1835-1992
- Abstract
- The Copley and Stone families lived for several generations in Kittanning, Pa. The two families became connected when James M. Stone married Mabel Singleton Copley in 1903. The Copley family was known for the Copley Brick and Clay Company which supplied fire bricks to many Pittsburgh steel mills and industries as well as a family member in the 19th century that wrote for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and printed the Kittanning Gazette. Genealogical research has connected various lines to the Bossinger, Buchholtz, Coe, Funk, Hohenschilt, McClelland, Monks, Mores, Nulton, Rathbone, and Smith families. The collection includes research documents, correspondence, and various family photographs.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Sponsor
- This collection has been made accessible as part of an NHPRC-funded Basic Processing grant.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
The Copley and Stone families resided in Kittanning from the late 1800s through the 20th century. The families became connected in 1903 when James M. Stone married Mabel Singleton Copley. Various lines of the families are connected to the Bossinger, Buchholtz, Coe, Funk, Hohenschilt, McClelland, Monks, Mores Nulton, Rathbone, and Smith families.
The Copley family line has been traced back to William (W.C. I) and Jane Copley of Leeds, England in the early 1700s. W.C. was a merchant and manufacturer of woolen goods. Two of his sons immigrated to America and during a visit in 1798, W.C. I became ill and died leaving his widow and several children in England and two sons in the United States.
William Copley (W.C. II), grandson of William Copley of England (W.C. I), was born in Centre County in 1796 and worked as the postmaster in both Centre Line and Water Street, Pennsylvania. He was also a partner of a firm in Hollidaysburg known as Copley and Lloyd. In 1846, W.C. II received a letter from his brother Josiah (J.C.) who lived in Manorsville. J.C. had been born in 1803 in Shippensburg and at the age of 15, was indentured to a printer, John McCahan, of Indiana, Pa., who published The American. In 1825, J.C. started a business partnership with John Croll of Kittanning to print the Kittanning Gazette. J.C. printed the newspaper for the next eight years, earning a reputation as a writer both in Kittanning and Pittsburgh. He started a position at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but was forced to leave due to ill health. Shortly after having to retire from his position, J.C. urged W.C. II to move to Manorsville to start a brick making company. The proposed business deal became the Copley Brick Works in 1847. The company supplied fire brick to many small Pittsburgh iron companies that later merged into U.S. Steel Company.
When W.C. II died in 1876, the brickworks passed to his son William Shadrick Copley (W.S.C.) who changed the name to Copley, Thomas and Company. He expanded the company to also include the shipment of high quality clay to be used in the ceramics and glass industry such as at Fort Pitt Glass Works, Dithridge and Company and Keystone Flint Glass Manufacturing Co. In 1880, he sold the business to Isaac and George Reese. His wife Rosalind (R.C.) acquired a loan from William Thaw, a Pittsburgh industrialist, to build a row of factory homes in Butler, Pa. as an investment in rental property. W.S.C. was then hired as a mail clerk on a small railroad line but was killed in a railroad accident in 1897. R.C. stayed in Kittanning until her death in 1904.
Mabel Singleton Copley (M.S.C.) was born in 1877 and upon her marriage to James M. Stone (J.M.S.) in 1903, moved into the family home in Kittanning. M.S.C. was known as an organist and choir director. She and her siblings formed the Copley Quartet and sang at numerous church services and events in the Kittanning area. Even after her marriage, M.S.C. continued to act as choir director at her church.
The Stone family lineage can be traced back to Jacob and Henrietta Nulton Stone. Jacob was born in Bedford County before moving to Kittanning in the early 1800s. James (J.S.), born in 1832, was a clerk in several different stores in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. J.S. moved his family to Kittanning when his son, James M., born in 1867, was still a child. After finishing school, J.M.S. held a number of different jobs such as store clerk, Pennsylvania Railroad employee, and an associate of T.W. Phillips Gas and Oil Company. In 1902, J.M.S. entered into a partnership with John Fox to start a general insurance and realty business, known as Fox and Stone Agency. The following year, he married Mabel Singleton Copley.
J.M.S. and M.S.C.'s youngest son, Roger Copley Stone (R.C.S), was born in 1916, grew up in Kittanning and was a musician, first with the alto horn and later the violin. During the Great Depression, he worked at his father's insurance firm to earn money. In 1941, R.C.S. gained employment at the Union Switch and Signal Company in Swissvale, Pa. R.C.S. then moved his family to Wilkinsburg to be closer to his work. However, R.C.S. moved again, this time to Ohio, so that he could take a job with Goodyear Aircraft Corporation. However, when that plant closed in 1947, R.C.S. moved back to Kittanning and applied for his insurance license so that he could join the family insurance agency with his father and brother. By 1950, he became the sole proprietor of the Fox and Stone Agency.
Scope and Content Notes
The Copley-Stone Family Papers is a collection of materials related to the genealogical research conducted by members of the extended Stone and Copley families, Roger Stone, George J. Buchholtz, John McClelland, and Caroline Monks. The collection consists of correspondence, newspapers, books, a scrapbook, unpublished manuscripts and family photographs.
Box 1contains the genealogy records of the Bassinger-Hohenschildt, Coe, Copley, McClelland, Nulton, Rathbone, Sibbet, Stone, and Tillinghast families. Two unpublished manuscripts were compiled by the researchers and include information about the Copley and Stone families. Also included in box 1 are pamphlets that were distributed in the years leading up to and during the Civil War. The pamphlets pertain to various subjects including the Civil War, Slavery, the national Constitution, letters from the President, secession doctrines, black soldiers, and the uncertain future of the old Northwest. Many of the pamphlets bear the signature of a Stone family member to show ownership of the pamphlet. Box 1 also contains family photographs that show several generations of the Copley, Stone and Monks families. There are several small tintype photographs housed with the other photographs.
Box 2 contains numerous newspapers, most of which date between 1850 and 1890. Local Kittanning and Pittsburgh newspapers are included because a member of the Copley family, Josiah Copley, was a writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and printer of the Kittanning Gazette. A scrapbook has been included that holds a few obituaries and personal notations about more recent relatives from the 20th century.
Conditions Governing Access
None
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift from Roger Stone in 1994.
Archives accession # 1994.0101
Preferred Citation
Copley-Stone Family Papers, 1835-1992, MSS 923, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
Preliminary processing by Meghan Hall on 02/27/2013.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Subjects
- Copley Brick Works (Manorsville, Pa.)
- Copley, Josiah
- Copley, William
- Copley Family
- Stone Family
- Armstrong County (Pa.)--Businesses
- Armstrong County (Pa.)--Newspapers
- Kittanning, Pa.
- Kittanning, Pa.--Genealogy
- Kittanning, Pa.--Newspaper
- Manorsville, Pa.
- Pittsburgh, Pa.
- American newspaper--Pennsylvania--Kittanning
- Brick trade--Pennsylvania
- Brickworks--Pennsylvania
- Clay industry--Pennsylvania