Melville Elijah Stone

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Melville Elijah Stone, Sr.
Born	August 22, 1848(1848-08-22) Hudson, Illinois
Died	February 15, 1929 (aged 80) New York City
Employers	Chicago Daily News Associated Press
Spouse	Martha McFarland
Children	Melville Elijah Stone, Jr. Herbert Stuart Stone Elizabeth Creighton Stone
Parents	Elijah Stone Sophia Creighton
Relatives	Ormond Stone, brother

Melville Elijah Stone, Sr. (August 22, 1848 – February 15, 1929) was a newspaper publisher, the founder of the Chicago Daily News, and was the general manager of the reorganized Associated Press.^[1]

1 Biography
2 Legacy
- 2.1 The penny myth
3 References
4 Further reading

[edit] Biography

Stone was the son of a Methodist minister, the Reverend Elijah Stone and Sophia Creighton . In 1876, Stone, who started out as a reporter, founded the first Chicago penny paper, the Chicago Daily News. In 1881 he established the Chicago Morning News (renamed the Chicago Record). Stone became general manager of the reorganized Associated Press in 1893, and under his direction it became one of the great news agencies. He retired in 1921. Stone died of hardening of the arteries in 1929.^[1]

[edit] Legacy

Stone's son, Herbert Stuart Stone, perished on the RMS Lusitania. Another son, Melville Elijah Stone, Jr., also predeceased him but he was survived by his wife, the former Martha McFarland of Chicago, whom he married in 1869, and his daughter Elizabeth Creighton Stone. Stone's brother was the astronomer Ormond Stone. A Liberty ship is named in his honor.

[edit] The penny myth

On the March 3, 2008 edition of The Rest of the Story, Paul Harvey Jr. (substituting for his more famous father) related the story of Stone being responsible for the common use of pennies. The Chicago Daily News was not an initial success, as pennies were not widely used in 1876. According to Harvey, Stone convinced local merchants that customers would be more interested in an item sold for 99¢ instead of $1.00. Merchants began experimenting with a penny price drop in their goods, meeting with success among their patrons. An increase in pennies, thought Stone, would help the circulation of his penny paper. When merchants began running low on pennies, Stone purchased several barrels of pennies from the Mint, further increasing their use within the Chicago area.^[2]

This story is also related in Scot Morris' The Book of Strange Facts and Useless Information, though there is some doubt as to its veracity.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b "Melville E. Stone Dies In 81st Year At His Home Here. Counselor Of Associated Press Dies.", New York Times, February 16, 1929. Retrieved on 2008-04-16. "Melville E. Stone, founder of newspapers, one of the organizers of The Associated Press, and a leading figure in American journalism for half a century, died last night at his home, 120 East Seventy-fifth Street, in his eighty-first year."
^ The Rest of the Story. 2008-03-03.