Samuel Kreider Stoner

Born on October 26, 1940, I was welcomed by my parents, Grace E. and Joseph A. Stoner, my five-year-old sister, Mary Ann, and my three-year-old brother, Ronald. I was the fourth child; my next older brother, Joseph Andrew, born with a heart defect, had lived only one day.

I was taken to Sunday school as a very young child. It was held in the Morning Hour Chapel (also the Victory School House), only a few hundred yards from our home.

Around the age of five, I fell from the haymow of our barn to the concrete floor about twelve feet below, landing on my face. I don't recall being taken to the doctor or the hospital; but I'm sure that Mother, being a nurse, checked me carefully for any fractures!

In 1946, I started school at the Victory School. It was a one-room school with eight grades. Mary Ann, Ronald and I went together and walked home for lunch. The next year I rode the bus and carried my lunch to Hampton School for second grade. I attended Round Hill School for third grade. (Both were one-room schools with only two grades.)

A big change came in fourth grade when I went to Canton, Ohio, and lived with Aunt Martha (my dad's sister) and Uncle Paul Bechtel during that school year. My parents had decided I should go there because Mother didn't want me to have the fourth grade teacher at Round Hill. It was a little difficult leaving home because we had just added more rooms to our house, including an additional large bedroom. But it was also exciting because they had cows, sheep, ponies and horses on their farm. (I was still too young to be very productive on my family's farm). I enjoyed living at Uncle Paul's, but I did get homesick. Laona, their youngest daughter, who was in eighth grade, was a good playmate for me. At times we caused plenty of activity in the house!

One day while Uncle Paul was milking the cows, a stranger came in to look at one of his horses. Uncle Paul asked me to show the prospective buyer a gentle old horse. I was reluctant at first, but I understand now that Uncle Paul wanted to show the man how gentle and cooperative that horse was even for a young child; and the man did buy the horse!

It was good to be home again, attending Victory School for fifth and sixth grades. Again I walked home for lunch and also gathered eggs. I helped to fire the coal stove at the school and kept it going over the weekend so we could have Sunday school there on Sunday.

After finishing grade school there, I attended East Berlin High School, continuing to work on the farm. I was student council president in my senior year, and that year I worked for a neighbor, Walter Lemmon, milking cows before and after school. (I now had six younger brothers to help at home.) Graduating as a senior in 1958, I started college that fall at Messiah College, Grantham, Pa.

I stayed out of school the next year in order to earn more money to finish college, working for the neighbor that I had helped while in high school. Then I again enrolled at Messiah, graduating in 1963 with an A. B. degree in Natural Science. Near the end of my last year at Messiah, I was attracted to a very nice freshman girl, Elizabeth A. Oldham. She was next to the youngest in a farm family of ten girls, from New Paris, Bedford County, Pa. We were married on August 22, 1964, at Spring Hope Brethren in Christ Church in Bedford County, Pa.

When Elizabeth and I married we lived at 1064 Germany Road, East Berlin. My father owned the farm where the house was situated. Nearly all the time that I taught school, I helped milk my father's cows at least once a day.

After graduation I taught two years at Gettysburg Junior High School, teaching seventh and eighth grade math and science. All my education courses were completed by graduation except student teaching, which I did through Messiah College during my second year of teaching. From 1965-1969 I taught algebra and geometry at New Oxford High School. I earned my Master's degree in Math through five years of summer school--four at Bucknell University and one at Lafayette University.

Elizabeth and I had three sons: Larry Eugene, born on September 23, 1965; Allen Edward, born on October 2, 1968; and Nathan Eric, born on August 5, 1970. We welcomed three daughters-in-law: Sharon, Kelly and Shondra respectively. Our family has now grown to include six granddaughters and three grandsons.

At the beginning of 1969, I went into partnership with my father in dairying and crop farming. In August of 1972 my parents and my family exchanged houses. We moved to 540 Germany Road and took over sole ownership of the farm at the end of 1972. I was in partnership with my brother, Gerald, from 1977 to 1988.

In 1989 I went into partnership with my son Larry and in 1997 turned the farm over to him. That fall I started working in maintenance at two Nell's Grocery Stores in Carlisle. I wanted to have more time to spend with my wife, Elizabeth, who had colon cancer. Her cancer was diagnosed early in 1995. On April 17, 1995, she had colon cancer surgery followed by several rounds of chemotherapy. She had some cancer spots on her lungs and liver for some time, but they didn't seem to grow much. Then in October 2001, tumors were found in her brain which led to her death on April 17, 2002.

Following my wife Elizabeth's suggestion, I began dating Rosalyn Huntoon in August of 2002. Rosalyn had been widowed since 1990 and I had known her and her family since the late 1950s. We were married on March 22, 2003, at the Dillsburg Brethren in Christ Church. We are now members there and serve as a deacon couple. In January, 2003, I semi-retired, working only two days a week. We currently reside at 605 Germany Road, East Berlin, Pa., adjacent to the Stoner farm.