Carl Sandburg, as well as all the other students in the Galesburg school system, benefited from the public service of a man who was neither a teacher nor an administrator. The man's name was Lester T. Stone.

Lester T. Stone was a familiar figure in Galesburg at the turn of the twentieth century. He had come west in 1855, first settling in Peoria and then coming to Galesburg. He taught at a country school near Galesburg for several years. He married Fannie Buckingham in May of 1860. She died in October of the same year.

Early in 1863, Stone enlisted in Company A, 77^th Illinois Volunteer Regiment and was discharged June 19, 1865. Because of his clerical ability he became assistant to the Provost Marshall and shortly afterward was assigned as a clerk in General U.S. Grant's headquarters during the siege of Vicksburg. An enormous amount of work was required of the clerks to supply food, clothing and ammunition for the large number of army forces around the city. They were also tasked with auditing the accounts.

Upon completion of the siege, Stone served in the signal corps at his own request. After the war he returned to Galesburg and opened a grocery store at 6 East Main Street. He would carry on the business for the next fifty years. He also married Sallie A. Ferris in 1865. They had four daughters.

He was elected to the Board of Education and was in the thirty-fourth year of his service at the time of his death in November, 1911.

Superintendent W.L. Steele wrote an editorial for The Evening Mail honoring the memory of Mr. Stone. Steele described him as a friend of the teachers as he realized the problems they faced in a classroom of forty or fifty students. He was a friend of the students in making it easier for them to complete the year's work. The custom had been to ask each student ten questions at the end of the year. One incorrect answer resulted in the student having to repeat the grade or being denied graduation. Stone succeeded in getting this rule changed.

Stone was the taxpayer's friend as well. He worked to get every penny's worth from the taxes collected. Superintendent Steele wrote that Stone was an ideal board member because he was willing to try new ideas and could be convinced when evidence was presented of their success.

Steele closed with these words: “His friends and those who knew him only in a business way always found him honest to the core and incapable of doing a mean act or taking an unfair advantage. I never was associated with a person in whose judgment I had more confidence or on whose word I would more absolutely rely.”

On November 14, 1911, the Central Congregational Church was nearly filled for the funeral of L.T. Stone. The “memorium” written by Superintendent Steele was read during the service. Burial was in Hope Cemetery.