Melville Elijah Stone (August 22, 1848 – February 15, 1929) was an American newspaper publisher, the founder of the '' Chicago Daily News'', and was the general manager of the reorganized Associated Press.

Biography

Stone's parents were Reverend Elijah Stone, a Methodist minister, 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 The ''Chicago Record-Herald'' was a newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois from 1901 until 1914. It was the successor to the '' Chicago Morning Herald,'' the ''Chicago Times Herald'' and the ''Chicago Record''. H. H. Kohlsaat, owner of the '' ...

''). 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.

Legacy

Stone's son, Herbert Stone, married Mary Grigsby McCormick in 1900 and perished in the sinking of the luxury liner RMS ''Lusitania'' in 1915. His wife was daughter of William Grigsby McCormick of the McCormick family which included her uncle Robert Sanderson McCormick who married the daughter of the founder of the rival newspaper '' Chicago Tribune''. 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 on November 25, 1869, and his daughter Elizabeth Creighton Stone. Stone's brother was the astronomer Ormond Stone. A Liberty ship is named in his honor.

The penny myth

On the March 3, 2008 edition of ''The Rest of the Story'',

Paul Harvey, Jr. Paul Harvey Aurandt Jr. (born 1948 or 1949), is an American pianist, radio broadcaster and a former host of ''News and Comment'' on ABC Radio Networks. He is the only child of Paul Harvey and his wife Lynne. Harvey's version of the show was sig ...

(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 employee theft could be reduced if the price of item was sold for 99¢ instead of $1.00 etc., forcing employee to make change for sales and less likely to steal money since it required further calculation. 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. 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.

References

External links

Melville Stone papers
at

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

Melville Stone - Pantagraph
(Bloomington, IL newspaper) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Meville 1848 births 1929 deaths American newspaper founders 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Associated Press people Chicago Daily News people People from McLean County, Illinois Journalists from Illinois

Biography

Legacy

The penny myth

References

Further reading

External links