Statue unveiled during NOTC celebration

As part of the National Orphan Train Complex's 20th Annual Celebration, an Orphan Train Rider statue honoring George Washington Timmons Stone and Joseph Benjamin Timmons Stone was unveiled at Hood Park on Friday.
The statue is sponsored by author Sherry A. Burton, who has written five historical fiction novels based on the history of the orphan train movement.
During her study of the movement, Burton came across the story of orphan train riders to Michigan, George and Joseph Timmons.
George and Joseph were born to William and Margaret Timmons in 1849 and 1850.
Sometime after 1855, William and Margaret split, leaving her to care for the boys.
By June 1857, George and Joseph were in the care of the Children's Aid Society.
George and Joseph were taken on an orphan train to Albion, Mich., where both were taken in by Simeon and Martha Stone. Both boys adopted the last name Stone.
George enlisted in the military in 1863 and served in the Civil War as a drummer in the Michigan Company D 1st Sharpshooters Regiment.
At the end of the Civil War, George left military service was known to his friends from then on as General Stone. He married Kitty Rice in 1870 and they had at least one child together.
Joseph married Ellen Turner in 1875. The couple had two children, Gertrude and Charles.
For years, George and Joseph ran a grocery store together in Michigan.
Eventually the brothers moved apart.
George's family stayed in Michigan and Joseph's family moved to South Dakota and later to California.
George died suddenly at age 72, during an Armistice Day celebration where he marched and played the drum.
Joseph died a decade later in 1931 at age 81.
The National Orphan Train Complex celebration concluded on Saturday with an open house.
It was announced in May 2003 that the Orphan Train Heritage Society had selected Concordia to house the National Orphan Train Museum, at what was the Union Pacific Depot. The first Orphan Train Rider Celebration was hosted a month later.
The National Orphan Train Complex had its grand opening in September 2007. It is one of only two Orphan Train museums in the country.
The first Orphan Train Rider statue was unveiled at the Broadway Plaza in 2016.