From the book History of Walworth County Wisconsin, by Albert Clayton Beckwith, 
publ. 1912 - Pages 695 - 697
 
JOSEPH STONEALL.  There are always lessons of extraordinary interest to be 
gained through the perusal of life records such as that of the late Joseph 
STONEALL, for many years one of the honored and influential citizens of 
Walworth county, and now that he has gone to the land of the Mystic Beyond, his 
memory is reverenced by a host of friends who yet linger on "this brink and 
shoal of time."
 
Mr. STONEALL was born in Wilkeshire, England, about twenty miles from Bath, 
probably in the year 1817.  He was the son of Richard STONEALL and wife.  The 
mother died in England while Joseph was a youth.  When he was about twenty 
years old he and his father and two sisters and brother, George, came to 
America.  Another brother, Henry, and a cousin and cousin's wife had previously 
voyaged to our shores and settled at Geneva, Illinois.  In 1840 Joseph STONEALL 
and his father came to the eastern part of Linn township, this county, and 
built a small house, when Mary came and kept house for them.  She afterwards 
married Seymour HATCH.  George STONEALL remained at Geneva, Illinois, and died 
there.  While there a nurseryman set out a large stock of nursery trees on his 
land, under an arrangement for leasing or renting, but he never came back, and 
Mr. STONEALL tended it and furnished trees to the entire locality, supplying 
many orchards here in the early days.  The family experienced many hardships 
during the first year or two of their residence here.  They had been tailors in 
England and were without experience as farmers.  They were prodigious walkers 
and when they came here from Geneva, Illinois, they walked all day without 
food.  The country was sparsely settled, mostly by young men "keeping batch," 
and they found it difficult to get anything to eat.  They walked about sixty 
miles the first day.  About 1852 they bought a farm in the southeastern part of 
Linn township.  It was new land and all overgrown with hazel brush.  This they 
cleared and finally had a good farm.  Richard STONEALL died about 1859.  In 
1861 Joseph STONEALL married Mrs. Lucy (ROWE) EVERSON, widow of Hiram EVERSON, 
Jr.  She was the daughter of Lucian and Lucy (STILLWELL) ROWE, and she was born 
in Onondaga county, New York, and there she lived until the death of her first 
husband, January 8, 1857; by her first marriage one son was born.  Herbert 
EVERSON, who now lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  In June 1857, she came to 
Genoa Junction this county, and she lived in that vicinity with her brother, 
Franklin ROWE.  Daniel ROWE, her uncle and an old pioneer, also lived in that 
neighborhood.  After her marriage she made her home on the farm in the 
southeastern part of Linn township.  Mr. STONEALL cleared the ground, built a 
house and continued to improve the place, building a better house in 1880, and 
he proved to be one of the best farmers in that part of the county.  Three sons 
and one daughter were born to them: Martha Louise, who married Naynard CORNNE, 
lives in Lake Geneva; Seymour Joseph lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; 
Franklin Lewis died when three years and eight months old; George Edward 
married Anna RODEWEG, of Saybrook, near Bloomington, Illinois, and they have 
three children, Winifred Elaine, Bernice Althea and Rex Milfred; George E. is 
running the farm; they have two hundred and twenty acres of which sixty acres 
lie across the state line in Illinois.
 
The death of Joseph STONEALL occurred in 1897.  He was a member of the Linn 
Hebron Presbyterian church, now known as the Hill church, although he was 
reared an Episcopalian.  Mrs. STONEALL is a member of the Hill church; she 
still makes her home on the farm where she has resided since 1861.  Mrs. 
STONEALL's parents moved to Joliet, Illinois, when she was four years old; they 
lived there two years and there the father died; then the mother returned to 
New York state with her eight children, and lived there until the children grew 
to maturity and married.  The father had left a section of land in Michigan and 
that was the mother's support.  She came west shortly after Mrs. STONEALL came, 
probably in 1865, and lived among her children.  She was born in 1800 and she 
died in 1882, at the age of eighty-two years.
 
George Edward STONEALL was born near where he now lives in Linn township, 
Walworth county, February 23, 1869, and there he grew up on his father's farm 
and attended the home public schools and the high school at Hebron, Illinois.  
He was married in the fall of 1894 to Anna RODAWIG of Saybrook, Illinois, 
daughter of William RODAWIG and wife.  Her father was born in Prussia and came 
to Illinois about 1850 and spent most of his life near Saybrook.
 
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. STONEALL, two daughters Winefred 
and Bernice, and a son, Wilfred.  He and his wife belong to the Presbyterian 
church.  Mr. STONEALL has two hundred and twenty acres of fine land on which he 
is successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising.  He is well known 
in this part of the county and is a man of honest principles.

Submitted By:  Carol
(carolann612@charter.net)