Lucinda Tann Stone

Quick Facts

Significance:

Nebraska Homesteader

Place of Birth:

Buxton, Ontario, Canada

Date of Birth:

November 15, 1858

Place of Death:

Pittsburg County, Oklahoma

Date of Death:

February 27, 1923

Place of Burial:

Oak Hill Memorial Park, McAlester, Pittsburg County, Oklahom

Lucinda Tann Stone was a black woman homesteader who could read, write, and sign their name. Lucinda came from Buxton, Canada at the age of twenty-one with the intention of becoming a citizen of the United States. She received her citizenship December 18th, 1886.

Lucinda Stone made a preemption for another parcel of land but forfeited it because she said she couldn’t occupy it. It appears this time though, Lucinda hired Elijah Tann to build her a sod house, measuring at fourteen feet by twenty-four feet, at a cost of $25 in September of 1881. They got married on November 16th, 1881 with the Baldwins as witnesses. The Baldwins were the folks she worked for as a domestic to raise enough money for her claim.

She never signed over or added her husband to the deed/title.

Over the next five years, Lucinda and Elijah had three children. The farm provided them with good crops of corn, wheat, and oats and a healthy garden. They added a fifty-six foot deep well, six fruit trees, planted forest trees worth $250. Lucinda and her husband built a sod stable, a six foot by fifteen-foot granary, fifty acres of broken ground all at a value of $591.

Lucinda reported that her home had two doors, three windows, and a board roof at a value of $150. She had a full set of dishes, a cooking stove, a table with six chairs, a clock, a bed frame, a cupboard, and other furniture. As she wrote all the items and accomplishments the reader gets the sense of how proud she was.

Here was a woman of twenty-eight with three children—Ada, Clinton, and Ida—a husband, a thriving working farm with a wagon, two cultivators, a harrow, two plows, and have owned them all over two years. To their credit, they also own two horses, three head of cattle, six hogs, and fifty chickens. At the time of proofing, they had five acres planted and fifty acres prepared.

Witnesses: William Walker, Robert I, Allen, William A. Small, & Joshua Emanuel were listed in proofing ad dated February 19th, 1887. Although only William P. Walker and Joshua Emanuel had testimonies written on her behalf, each would attest to her never being absent from the property and constantly improving upon her claim which apparently was enough for Lucinda Tann formerly Lucinda Stone as she wrote on every page, acquired her patent #7385 on April 5th, 1887, for 160 acres in Section 10 Town 9 range 19.

“Nebraska in the early 1890s suffered from protracted drought, and farm prices fell to new lows”1, so Lucinda and her husband Elijah first mortgaged a small parcel of land he had prior to their marriage. But soon it became apparent they wouldn’t be able to meet that note. So Lucinda agreed to sell her land and home, and along with close friends; the William Small family moved to Mustang, Oklahoma to begin again. This time it was 160 acres under her husbands’ name.

Her husband passed shortly after 1910. Lucinda directed her joy in watching her children grow and achieve but in 1923, at age 65, surrounded by her six children, Lucinda passed away.

What a full life.

Patent Details - BLM GLO Records

~ Contributed by Joyceann Gray, SSG USA RET

Joyceann Gray
Photo Credit: J. Gray

~ More about the contributor: Joyceann is the great-granddaughter of William P. Walker, one of Lucinda’s witnesses. Once retired from the Army, she has devoted much time to family history research and writing. She is the author of; ‘Yes We Remember’ which is devoted to the historical accountings of her ancestors, and ‘DeWitty and Now We Speak’ which is a historical fiction about the women of DeWitty, Nebraska. Joyceann is a Contributing Writer of many Notable African Americans and Ambassadors on BlackPast.org. She holds memberships in local genealogical societies and the Charles Town, WV Researchers. Joyceann was an integral part of the Descendants of DeWitty who not only helped raise money but facilitate the erecting of the Historical marker in honor of the Homesteaders of DeWitty along Hwy 83, near Brownlee, Nebraska, April 2015.