Doris Eckel, a researcher at the Venango County Historical Society, was surprised and delighted to see so much of the research she did featured in a recent episode of the PBS program “Finding Your Roots.”
“I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t get to sleep I was so excited,” Eckel said.
The episode — titled “Dreamers One and All” — explores the ancestries of actress Sharon Stone, who is from Crawford County, and model Chrissy Teigen. The show premiered Jan. 28.
To turn up information on Stone’s ancestors in the area last year, “Finding Your Roots” turned to the Venango County Historical Society for research assistance.
Though Stone grew up in Crawford County, it turns out her family’s roots are firmly planted in Venango County.
Eckel said that, until she saw the episode, she didn’t know how the names she had been asked to research were connected to Stone.
“I’m so happy so much was used,” she said.
After the show aired, Eckel sat down with the newspaper and divulged more details of Stone’s ancestors who called Venango County home, including early settlers, a Civil War veteran and a nurse at Polk Center.
She noted that the the PBS episode didn’t mention too much about the Stone family, who lived in Venango County for a very long time.
Sharon Stone’s grandmother, Lela Greenlee Stone, spent her entire life in the Polk area and worked as a nurse at Polk State Center for 25 years, retiring in 1961 as head nurse of the Gardenside Building, according to a family tree provided by Eckel.
The PBS episode noted Sharon Stone’s father, Joseph William Stone II, was born in Polk.
Eckel said the producer of “Finding Your Roots” asked her for pictures of what it was like to work at Polk Center in the 1940s, which she provided them, though she didn’t find any pictures of Lela Stone herself.
The producers also asked Eckel for all of Lela Stone’s employment records from Polk Center, but those records are in Harrisburg so she didn’t have access to them.
Going back a generation, Eckel found a story about the Stone family and a deadly nitroglycerine explosion on New Year’s Day in 1924 that made the front page of The Derrick on Jan. 2, 1924.
Sharon Stone’s great-grandfather, John A. Stone, had an oil lease on a farm at Semple’s Corners in Sugarcreek Borough where his son, Paul Stone, and several other men were working on an oil well during the afternoon of Jan. 1, 1924 when the nitroglycerine they were working with exploded, killing six.
Paul Stone and his wife, Edna, who were both in their 20s, were among those killed in the blast, and they are buried in Franklin Cemetery, according to family tree provided by Eckel.
According to an article about the disaster which ran in The News-Herald, Paul Stone had invited several friends to come watch the ill fated blast which cost them their lives.
During her research for “Finding Your Roots,” Eckel said she was asked for information on the Wolf Run Oil Company, Stone Oil Company, Pemeric Oil Company and Snyder Oil Company, but she couldn’t find any records pertaining to any of them.
When John A. Stone died in Philadelphia in 1943, an appraisal of his property showed he owned shares in a number of gas and oil companies totaling several thousand dollars, as well as seven shares in the News-Herald Printing Co. that were appraised at “no value.”
Going back another generation, Eckel found that Sharon Stone’s ancestor Ethan S. Stone, who was born in Venango County in 1835, served in the 4th Cavalry, Company H during the Civil War.
Eckel said a number of Ethans pop up in the Stone family due to a friendship between earlier ancestor Luther Stone, a Revolutionary War veteran who lived in Vermont, and Ethan Allen, the famous leader of the Green Mountain Boys during the Revolution.
Luther Stone’s son, John Stone, came to Venango County at some point and was buried in this county upon his death in 1864.
Eckel said she found several deeds from the 1840s to 1860s of Sharon Stone’s ancestors buying and selling land in Venango County.
Another veteran of the Revolutionary War and a veteran of the War of 1812 were also among the ancestors Eckel found living in Sugarcreek Borough long ago.
William Duffield, who died in 1827, served in the American Revolution and is buried in Pioneer Cemetery in Franklin, Eckel said.
The Venango County 1879 history notes that Duffield came to Venango County in 1800 and was among the early settlers here.
Duffield’s daughter, Isabella Duffield, married a John McQuaid of Sugarcreek, another of Stone’s ancestors, who died in 1850 and was a veteran of the War of 1812, Eckel said.
