Florida Virginia Stone Westmoreland (1875-1963)
Florida Virginia Stone was born on July 12, 1875, in Yadkin Township, Stokes County, North Carolina, the eldest daughter of John Julius Stone, a farmer, and Temperance "Tempy" Minerva Wall. Florida's father died in 1881, when she was six, and after her mother's second marriage to George Washington Vest in 1885, Florida spent her childhood on their farm in Stokes County along with her sister Martha Stone and half-siblings Allie Vest, Ella Vest, and Craven Vest. They raised hogs and grew tobacco and other crops.
When she was 18 years old she married Samuel Lee Westmoreland, a neighbor who worked as a miller at Spainhour's Mill in Stokes County. He was the son of Jasper Westmoreland (a farmer) and Elizabeth Harriet Keiger. Florida and Sam were married on September 24, 1893, in Stokes County, and Florida became stepmother to Sam's three children from his previous marriage to Stacy Savage: Silas Cleveland Westmoreland, Cora L Westmoreland, and Cletus E Westmoreland. In 1900 they were living in the Old Richmond district of Forsyth County, NC, close to Stokes County.
Samuel and Florida had eight children together: Dora Ellen Westmoreland, William Vestal "Bud" Westmoreland, Nora Blanche Westmoreland, Beulah Westmoreland, Martha Jane Westmoreland, Ann Leta Westmoreland, Minnie Lou Westmoreland, and Mary Minerva Westmoreland. In December of 1908, however, while Florida was pregant with Mary, Samuel died. His children from his previous marriage, now almost adults, left home to fend for themselves, while Florida was faced with the challenge of caring for her son and seven daughters on her own.
The solution was to keep some of the children at home while others went to live at the I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) Children's Home in Goldsboro, NC, cycling their attendance so they could all benefit from the home's outstanding educational and cultural opportunities. In addition to a firm foundation in standard academic subjects, the children were given lessons in elocution and music, and during the summers select groups toured the state giving musical and dramatic performances.
Florida returned to Stokes County, where she apparently helped out on her in-laws' neighboring farms and raised her own livestock and vegetables. According to Minnie Lou Westmoreland Mayberry, they lived near Jasper Westmoreland's farm in a house on land owned by Samuel Westmoreland's uncle (John Wesley Keiger, Harriet Elizabeth Keiger Westmoreland's half-brother), who allowed them to live there. The house was surrounded by pasture where cows grazed, near to a spring where they got water, and close to a creek where they swam and played. The house was a simple structure with one room, a fireplace, and an upstairs loft, its walls lined with newspapers. When Minnie and her sister Mary were little girls, they slept in a trundle bed with their mother in the main room, while their Aunt Martha Stone, who often visited, slept upstairs. On Sundays they attended the nearby Trinity Methodist Church in King, NC.
In 1919, Florida's son Vestal and daughters Nora and Dora chipped in and arranged for their mother to live in Goldsboro in Wayne County, so that she could be closer to the younger children at the Odd Fellows' Home. Florida left Stokes County and moved to 412 South William Street in Goldsboro at the same time that the youngest children, Minnie and Mary, began their stay at the Home. Later, after her elder three children married, she moved to 710 East Walnut Street, and finally, around 1932, she moved to a new brick bungalow at 1103 Evergreen Avenue, built through the Building & Loan Association, next door to her daughter Dora at 1101 Evergreen. Florida lived in this house in Goldsboro, along with her unmarried daughter Ann, for the rest of her life. A devout Methodist, she attended St. Paul's church, and over the years became active in the social sphere of the church and the town. She was much beloved by her many grandchildren, who described her as the gentlest and kindest person they had ever had the privilege of knowing. She died on April 6, 1963, at the age of 87, and was buried in Willow Dale Cemetery in Goldsboro.
Florida Virginia Stone's place in the Stone family tree as it pertains to this archive can be seen here. Her position in the Westmoreland family tree is shown here.
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