HomeMy WebLinkAboutAUNTIE STONE STREET NAMING PLAT - 54-89 - - HISTORIC PRESERVATIONFort Collins'' Founding Mother'
blazed trail of many local `firsts'
By ROBERT BAUN
The Coloradoan
Elizabeth "Auntie" Stone is
's remembered in Fort Collins both
for her house and her place in his-
tory._ .
In 1864, at the age of 63,
Auntie Stone became the first
permanent woman resident of
then -Camp Collins. In the same
year, a new cabin was built on the
military post for Auntie Stone and x.
her husband Lewis Stone.
The Auntie Stone Cabin is now
the only remaining building from
i Camp Collins, and has survived
multiple relocations around the of L
city. Today, it sits on the grounds
1 of the Fort Collins Museum. dIEIt
At first, the cabin was located
i near the present intersection of
Jefferson and Linden streets. The
cabin was used as an officers
mess.
Later uses included Fort Col-
lins' first hotel, a school, church,
laundry and museum. It also was
reported as the birthplace of the
first white child born in Fort Col_
M liens.
A chronology of Auntie Stone's
life is available through the Fort
i Collins Museum, which dubs her
the "Founding Mother of Fort Col -
lei
13D
I
�I
lins."
Among her accomplishments,
she is recognized as an early
philanthropist in Fort Collins.
After her husband died in 1866,
Stone used her home as the first
school in Fort Collins. She also
boarded soldiers who -dubbed her
"Auntie" as a credit to her kind-
ness.
When the post closed in 1867,
Stone turned the house into a
hotel. The museum chronology
also cites her as the first midwife
in Fort Collins, the first woman
landowner and taxpayer in La -
rimer County, and an organizer of
the Fort Collins chapter of the
Women's Christian Temperance
Union.
Auntie Stone's- longevity also
was astounding.
For instance, when she helped
start the temperance union
chapter in 1881, she was 80 years
old. .
The next year she was honored
by a dance at the Masonic Hall.
"Many of the younger men fail
in a conspiracy to `dance her
down,'" reads the museum chro-
nology of her life. "Auntie Stone
further astonishes her guests by
leaving the dance at 5 a.m. to go
home and cook breakfast for ev-
eryone. She enjoys dancing until
age 86."
In 1893, Colorado women won
the right to vote, and in 1894, at
the age of 93, she cast her first
vote in the Fort Collins municipal
election.
When she died on Dec. 4, 1895,
Auntie Stone was thought to be
the oldest woman in Colorado.
She was honored in 1.991 with the
naming of Auntie Stone Street.