The son of William Stonesifer, in 1860 he was a farmer living with and/or working for miller J. S. Trostle in Reading Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. He stood 5' 6" tall and had dark hair and dark eyes.

A Civil War veteran, he served two terms of service:

1. Enlisted at the stated age of nineteen in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, August 8, 1862, and mustered into federal service in Harrisburg August 9 as a private with Co. F, 130th Pennsylvania Infantry. He became ill at Belle Plain, Virginia, and was hospitalized at Falmouth, Virginia, "with fever and was deranged for some time." He thus was not in the battle of Fredericksburg, and he may have missed Chancellorsville as well. He honorably discharged with his company May 21, 1863.
2. Enlisted at the stated age of nineteen [sic] in Harrisburg August 12, 1864, and mustered into federal service there August 18 as a private with Co. C, 201st Pennsylvania Infantry. While camped at Chambersburg, he left without permission (although he claimed that his commanding officer had given him verbal permission) to visit home. Arrested on his return, his punishment was being forced to carry a sixty-pound stone strapped to his back for five hours a day. Not surprisingly, he complained of back problems afterward, possibly because Stonesifer only weighed about 115 lbs. He honorably discharged with his company June 23, 1865.

He married Martha Cleland July 3, 1867, in Carlisle and fathered George W. (b. 04/27/73) and Katie Myrtle (b. 07/12/82). In 1870, the Stonesifers were living in Carlisle, Cumberland County, in 1890, were residing in Carroll Township, Perry County, but he died in Carlisle from "hemiplegia" with a "hemorrhage of the brain" a contributing factor.