Historic leaves, volume 8, April, 1909 - January, 1910

Her daughter, Elizabeth Perry Tufts, one of seven children, was born February 20, 1818. She was one of the teachers of the first Sunday School in Somerville, and her daughter claims that she had as much to do with the starting of it as Miss Whitredge, whose name now bears all the honor. She was one of the first to join the church when it was organized under the title of the First Congregational Society in Somerville. She was married by its first pastor, Rev. John Sargent, to James M. Coburn May 30, 1847. This couple had three daughters, all of whom have lived in Somerville in recent years. One of them still lives here.

John Stone was married April 13, 1780, to Mary Tufts, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Pierce Tufts (son of Nathaniel, son of Captain Peter, son of Peter). One source of information says he and his wife joined the church at Menotomy August 27, 1780, that they were dismissed from that church to the First Church of Cambridge December 30, 1803. So it would seem that they lived in Menotomy for a time. According to Wyman, they came to Charlestown from Cambridge with their family in 1782. He bought at various times, in large or small lots, land on the southerly side of Prospect Hill. The combined area of these lots formed a tract which extended from Vinal Avenue to and including the Prospect Hill Schoolhouse lot, as it is still called; and from the line of the Thorpe land on Walnut Street, some 100 or more feet north of Boston Street, and for about half the length of Columbus Avenue, along the northerly bounds of the lots on that avenue, to Bow and Washington Streets. Later, through his wife, Mary, who inherited from her father, the area was extended to School Street, as far north as Summer Street.

The situation of the house he lived in when he first came to this locality is a matter of uncertainty. An early purchase (1783) was a lot of land above Columbus Avenue, where possibly