It had been a little over a year and a day since Abigail Dayton buried her husband, when a fateful letter arrived dated from Gananoque. It read:
“Madam,
I hope you will have the goodness to excuse this abrupt address to you and suffer me to assure you that I am actuated by honourable and sincere motives in this proposition to you and that from knowledge I have of your character and situation since you resided in Milford, I have to beg you will inform me and in case you are not engaged I shall presume to wait on you in person for the purpose here stated. When you resided in New Milford I resided in Judea, a parish of Woodbury and had the pleasure of supplying Mr. Dayton with articles of goods etc….”
The letter, of course, was signed by Joel Stone.
He wrote again shortly after to explain himself more explicitly:
“Will you have the goodness to excuse whatever may appear impetuous in this second address to you, before I have had time to receive an answer to the first. “I have lived a widower 5 or 6 years past and am now determined to marry provided I can find a person whose age, character and inclinations etc. promise to add happiness to both. You are the person I have pinned my hopes on and pray Madam be kind enough candidly to inform me if you are married or engaged to marry, if not I shall take the liberty to come in person to see you and endeavour to convince you that our lives may be more happy together during the remainder of our time in this transitory world.”[1]
Abraham Dayton’s illness had been long and drawn out, but Abigail had been at his side the entire time. A pragmatic frontier woman, Abigail, realizing the end was near, ordered some men to acquire some fine cherry wood and construct a coffin. Ever the efficient planner, the coffin arrived in time for Abraham’s grim inspection. Abigail took over the ample estate and farm left to her by her husband, and she was well known to be quite capable of looking after her own affairs.
Joel had been informed of Abigail’s situation from Nathan Dayton, Abraham’s brother, who had settled at Gananoque. A reply came soon:
“Sir – I received you letter…which caused me to write to let you know that I am not engaged to anyone, and I know not what to say, for I have almost concluded in my own mind not to change my condition, for the World appears to be in a great tumult and I am now free from any engagement to anyone, therefore I have no one to please but myself. I lost a tender companion which I don’t forget. There is no one that knows the loss of a friend, but those that experience it. Therefore, if you think it proper to form any further acquaintance on the subject by the lines which I have wrote to you act your pleasure…”
Several more letters were passed, and the two were married sometime in the summer of 1799. Abigail brought so much into Joel’s life. She was no simple help-meet. She converted Joel to Methodism and he became a steadfast adherent to that denomination, even though it was somewhat suspect by the British authorities in Upper Canada for its lack of hierarchy. She was his partner as much in business as in their personal affairs. Although the relationship was likely cold and pragmatic at first, the two became extremely close and from all evidence lived out their lives happy with one another.[2]
The first decade of the Nineteenth Century was filled with changes for the Stones and for Gananoque. The lands along the shores of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes were quickly filling up with new settlers from Britain and the United States. In 1803, Mary, Stone’s daughter moved to Gananoque to live permanently and several other members of Joel’s family made the journey north to work on the river. In 1806, the ferry service across the Gananoque was replaced with a bridge, and huge shipments of lumber and some of the finest flour in Canada were transported to Montreal. Joel was active in politics and officiated at the Courts of Quarter Session in Elizabethtown (Brockville).
In 1809 a recent Scottish immigrant named Charles McDonald relocated from New York State and opened a general store in Gananoque. Charles soon became a major player in the little river port, and in the same year married Joel’s daughter Mary.[3]
Tragedy struck in the same year when Joel’s only son, William, took ill and died suddenly. Surviving papers show that Joel Stone, growing old and now without an heir, began to look more to religious matters and began to sell off or lease many of his assets. The family shared in Joel’s grief. His sister Hannah wrote to him, delicately avoiding the subject until the last lines: “[I] know not how to end the letter without just telling you how much we loved William… May God in his Mercy bind the broken heart.”[4]
Even greater changes were about to occur as the storm clouds of war began to form, once more, over North America.