Frances Manette Pearce Stone
29 June 1835 – 12 March 1854
Frances was the second wife of grain tycoon Horatio Odell Stone, a man who was 24 years her senior. They appear to have married when she was just 16 years old. Stone’s first wife had died just a year before after many years of marriage but apparently no surviving children.
Frances was 18 when she died. Annotation on @findagrave says it was in childbirth, but the timing doesn’t work for that. One presumes she died of some postpartum illness, and then her only child, also named Frances, died just two months later and was buried with her.
This beautiful, over-the-top monument memorializes both of them, standing out not only as a stunning piece of art but as a bit of overcompensation IMO.
Stone’s other two wives are also buried here, though with no effusive memorials marking their places of rest. Stone’s third wife Augusta (who was almost 30 years his junior) outlived him by 36 years and apparently had the only children who survived to adulthood from his three unions. She never remarried, and lived a long and wealthy life. Which good for her!
Stone was much admired in his time, but I am giving him the side-eye.