In December 1964 , she moved to Dracut , Massachusetts , where her mother was then living . Working as a seamstress and laundress in Lowell , she battled depression . After the war ended and Lincoln 's assassination , Stone received a letter from her sister-in-law Ellen Merrill advising her of her husband 's death . Late in 1865 , she and the children left her mother 's and moved back in with William 's family , who were at that time living in Vermont . Settling in Morristown , she hired Clarence out as a farm laborer , while she did cleaning and washing for neighbors and kin . When or where Stone met Smiley Connolly , a mulatto sailor from the British West Indies colony of the Cayman Islands is unclear . Having already pushed the boundaries of respectability , being poor , husbandless and working class , her engagement to Connolly in 1869 , pushed her into being a social outcast , though her immediate family was supportive because of Connolly 's ability to provide for her and the children
Lincoln 's assassination
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Eunice Connolly