Alfred Stone Field 
pages 190-191

ALFRED Stone Field, for many years known in Cleveland as an expert accountant, was a man of refined manner and quiet demeanor but of such strong character that all who came in contact with him recognized his noble qualities. He was a born worker, always busy, determined, resolute, and could "rise to any emergency." He was the type of man who inspires confidence in his method, going at his business in a capable, quiet way, and making a success of his work, whatever the line of endeavor.
He lived in Cleveland from 1876 to 1899, when he died in the very prime of life and the ripeness of accomplishment, being but fifty-eight years old. He was Ohio born, his parents John and Elizabeth (Stone) Field coming to Ohio in the second quarter-century of the State's history, when settlement and progress came so fast. His mother was a new Englander, born in Worthington, Massachusetts, his father a native of eastern New York, born at New Berlin. The name Field is more than usually honorable, as this family has given many sons to the country who have arrived at distinction. The descendents of Captain Thomas Field of the Revolution have been notable as clergymen, lawyers, merchants, and men of action since early times. The projector of the Atlantic cable, Cyrus W. Field, and the Chicago wizard of merchandising, Marshall Field, are connections of this same family. John Field settled near Columbus, Ohio, and here his son Alfred Stone Field was born January 8, 1842. The lad graduated from the Columbus High School when fourteen years of age. He was an apt pupil, a serious student, and his father—himself a man of liberal education—gave him the advantages of a college education at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Almost immediately on graduation young Alfred S. was put in his father's lumber office where he gained his taste for accounting. Here he showed the same eager industry as at his books and made excellent progress. John Field and his business were exceedingly well known in central Ohio as he was the pioneer lumber merchant of Franklin County. In his day it was necessary to travel by slow stage to Cleveland to do his buying in the lumber yards there. These trips would consume four or five days of time, coming one way. It would then require several weeks stay in Cleveland selecting, buying, and loading the timber and lumber to ship by canal to the center of the State. John Field lived a busy, active life but retired at the early age of sixty-five, believing that his two well-trained sons could take his place in the successful business he had established. With them was still associated his own old partner R. B. Adams. The elder Field was a stalwart defender of abolition in the early and unpopular days of its history. He was on friendly terms with Horace (freely and others prominent in the anti-slavery cause; and worked for the success of the famous "Underground Railroad" which brought so many fugitive slaves to freedom and individual responsibility. He was New England in his temperament and up-bringing, and was prominent in the early Universalist Church of Columbus. He lived a useful, strong, dominant, respected life and died at the age of ninety-two years, rejoicing in the many good things his long life had viewed and accomplished.
Under the management of the two young brothers and their father's former partner, the lumber business continued with great success. In 1876, after sixteen years in this line of work, Alfred S. Field withdrew from its management and came to Cleveland where he saw there were good opportunities for himself as an expert accountant. He was entirely successful in these plans and from that time Cleveland became his permanent home. Here he died while still in middle life, December 9, 1899, and is buried in Lake View Cemetery.
Mr. Field was a man much beloved by his friends and his untimely death was a shock to all. He left a widow and one child Grace, just entering her teens when her father died. Mrs. Field's maiden name was Mary E. Scofield. She is the daughter of the late William B. Scofield, early pioneer, architect and builder of Cleveland. With her brother Levi T. Scofield she is the only representative of the immediate family of William B. and Mary Coon Scofield, who came to Cleveland when it was but a village of a few hundred inhabitants. The Scofield family is one well ll connected in alines, and identified with the national as well as local history of the country. Her Revolutionary forefathers have a distinguished niche in the annals of American history as is shown by her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. In religion, Mrs. Field has always remained a member of the family church, the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, in which her father was so earnest a worker.
The little daughter of Mr. Field, already referred to, has since grown up and married Mr. George Dana Adams, of Cleveland, and is the mother of one child, Margaret.
Like his father before him, Mr. A. S. Field was inclined to liberal views in religion, and politically was a strong Republican —of the "true blue" type.
In manner most quiet, in actions invariably kind, in all things marked by refinement, the late Alfred Stone Field was very tenacious of purpose once conceived and forcefully though quietly carried his object. He made many friends in his all too brief life. He was honored in his profession above the average. He was a man of unquestioned probity, of keen intellect, broad minded, tolerant in religion, faithful in political principles, efficient in business—a truly representative citizen.

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