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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Prof. M. A. Stone, president of Little Rock Commercial College, is a native of Prairie County, Ark., and was born on September 18, 1861. He supplemented his common-school education by an academic course, graduating at about the age of nineteen years, after which he became a student in Little Rock Commercial College, serving as teacher of telegraphy in the institution from which he had previously graduated. He remained in this capacity until December 28, 1885, when he purchased the institution and became its president. His first effort was to do away with the old routine method of book-keeping, and to introduce regular office work into the school. In order to succeed in this he was obliged to become author of a new series in book-keeping, and this contains many admirable changes which students from other commercial colleges are obliged to learn from actual experience, after having completed a regular course. In order to accommodate his students, Prof. Stone has greatly enlarged the capacity of his school, and has added to the regular commercial course a classical course. The enrollment of students for the scholastic year of 1880-89 was 465. The Professor was married in Little Rock, in 1887, to Miss S. E. McAlmont, and the result of this union was one child, Leona. Prof. Stone is the son of Mancil and Mary V. Stone, of Pulaski County [See sketch of Mancil Stone]. Little Rock Commercial College is the only college of the kind in the State, and is patronized from several different States. The history of the institution is about as follows: It was founded in 1874 by Prof. Aaron Bales, who began on a comparatively small scale, but success attended him in all his efforts. Aided by a strong corps of teachers, which included the present president, he built up a large and flourishing school. Foreseeing what might be its future needs, he made wise and liberal provisions for the growth of the college by securing for its use the pleasant, convenient quarters it now occupies, in one of the finest buildings in the State. On January 1, 1886, Mr. M. A. Stone purchased the property of the college, and was elected president by its board of directors. The school had already acquired a good standing all over the Southwest, and annually prepares a large number of young persons for the duties of the counting-room. To his advantage, the new president was familiar with the course of study pursued and the methods of instruction when he assumed the management, and was consequently able to take up and continue the work without interruption. The faculty is: M. A. Stone, president and superintendent of the course of instruction; E. M. Chartier, teacher of penmanship, book-keeping and mathematics; E. G. Johnson (assistant secretary of State), commercial law; W. J. Terry (Little Rock bar), civil government and political economy; George M. Hodges, telegraphy and electrical sciences.

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This family biography is one of 156 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Pulaski County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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