Elizabeth Dye Walker, former Stone House resident, donor, has died in Indiana

By Ronda Wertman
Tribune Correspondent
ELKHART, Ind. – Mary Elizabeth Dye Walker, who was a West Virginia History Hero and a saving force behind the restoration of Traveller’s Rest, the Stone House in Burlington, died Dec. 19 at her home.
Walker was born in Ridgeville, W.Va., in the early part of the 20th Century to William "Daddy Bill" Dye and Mary Homan Dye in The Stone House.
The Stone House, a former stagecoach inn built in the early 19th century, was the birth place to not only Walker, but her father, aunt, uncle, brother and sister.
It was Walker who convinced the former owner John Glad to sell the property to her so that she could give it to the Mineral County Historic Foundation to preserve. Glad later donated the remaining property, giving the site a total of 4.4 acres.
The roots of the Stone House can be traced back to the early 1800s when it was built by the Isaac Kuykendall family. The Stone House was an inn and became a regular stage coach stop on the trek from Winchester to the end of the turnpike.
In the mid 1800s the property changed hands five times, with George Russell Dye (Walker’s grandfather) as the owner in 1870. From 1870 to 1875 the Stone House continued to operate as an inn. Dye then decided to close the inn and utilize the property as a working farm.
It was in 1852 that the Dye family donated one acre of land for the Stone Chapel Church. While the church was torn down in 1937, the cemetery remains, with many of the Dyes buried there.
Elizabeth Dye Walker lived in the Stone House until 1923 and had many memories of growing up there from picking berries, feeding chicken and making mud pies to Thrashing Day and Ice Harvest Day.
Her father got tired of farming and sold the farm in 1923. He moved the family to Indiana, where he sold building supplies. Walker continued to live in Indiana from moving there as a child until her recent death.
Walker shared her memories of the Stone House in her book, "The Old Stone House 'Traveller’s Rest: A History in Bits and Pieces.’"
“I felt it deserved some recognition. It needed to be restored and preserved for the state of West Virginia so it could tell its story to present and future generations,” she said of her home place.
Sales of her book continue to benefit the restoration of the Stone House as the stories are handed down to new generations. The book is available by calling Frank Roleff at 304-788-5129. Books will also be available at the Stone House Traveller’s Rest during the annual Route 50 yard sale May 18-20.
 

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Elizabeth Dye Walker, former Stone House resident, donor, has died in Indiana