The Tooles and Saint Joseph: Full-Length Articles of Interest

History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Missouri, p. 362-364

ALPHA WIGGLESWORTH TOOLE was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, October 28, 1862.  Received his education in the public schools and high school of St. Joseph and Bryant's College, is an expert bookkeeper and accountant; was for twenty years manager of the Wood Mfg. Co., one of the largest manufacturers of clothing in the country, is a staunch Republican, is now assistant treasurer of St. Joseph, is a member of the Sons of the Revolution, Modern Brotherhood of America, Lincoln Club, and commerce Club.  Married in 1891, Miss Ann Egner, daughter of Charles Egner of St. Joseph, two children by this union, Leslie, a son born in 1893, Erma, a daughter born in 1895.  Mrs. Toole died in 1904.  Mr. Toole married his second wife, Miss Maud Curtis, in 1910, a daughter of Ben F. Curtis of Doniphan County, Kansas; a daughter Vivian born in 1912 by this union.  The Toole family was one of the pioneer families of Missouri, consisting of four brothers, Edwin, Walter, Daniel, William and three sisters, America, Nancy and Mary, sons and daughters of Dr. Daniel Toole, of Christianburg, Shelby County, Kentucky.  All came to Missouri and had large families.  Edwin, born in 1808, married Lucinda Porter, and came to St. Joseph in 1887 [!], was appointed by Austin A. King, first Circuit Clerk of Buchanan County in 1839, was a Justice in 1860, and in the City Council in 1871-1873.  Edwin moved to Montana, married a daughter of General Rosecrans, and another son Warren, became a noted railroad lawyer.

Reverend Walter Toole, born in 1820, married Virginia Lyle, settled at Macon, Missouri, and was a noted circuit preacher in the South Methodist church.

Reverend Daniel Toole was born in 1822, married Lydia Rookwood [sic], settled at Bloomington, Missouri, and was also a South Methodist preacher.

America Toole born in 1812, married John Bramel.

Nancy Toole born in 1814, married Robert Barkhurst.

Mary Toole born in 1824, married Wm. Woods.

Judge William C. Toole, the father of A. W. Toole, came to St. Joseph in June, 1838, from Shelby County, Kentucky, where he was born in 1818.  On arriving here he went to Joseph Roubidoux' house to stay all night.  Robidoux not having any extra beds gave him some buffalo robes and told him to roll up on the floor in front of the fireplace.  Judge Toole killed wolves on the spot where the Metropole Hotel now stands and was chased by a band of Indians between St. Joseph and Savannah.  Attended the first court held here, joined the Methodist Church in 1836; was ordained a minister in 1838; was charter member and preached in the first log church here in 1841.

In 1841 he married Miss Elvira Wigglesworth and had ten children.  Was trustee appointed to collect money from the state to start the schools here, was superintendent of city and county schools before the war; admitted to the bar in 1848, judge of the Court of Common Pleas 1853-55 and 1870-73, city register 1856-65, city recorder, 1862-64.  When recorder fined Joseph Robidoux for striking his daughter-in-law; was circuit clerk 1862-64, city assessor 1855-56; 1st Lt. enrolled Mo. Militia, Co. G, assistant provost marshall 1862-63, afterwards appointed brigade commissary with rank of major by General Hall; assistant postmaster in 1876, ran for mayor in 1880.  In 1849 he drove an ox team all the way to California without swearing an oath.  In 1908 he was presented with a gold headed cane by the bar of St. Joseph, on his 90th birthday, as their oldest member.  Judge Toole died in St. Joseph, February 17, 1909, aged 91 years.

Dr. Daniel Toole, the father of the Toole families of Missouri, was born in Virginia in 1775, died in Savannah, Missouri, in 1850.  He was the son of William Toole of Culpepper County, Virginia, a planter and Revolutionary soldier.  Wm. Toole's wife was Ann Roberts, daughter of Major Wm. Roberts, who commanded four companies in the Revolution; his son Roberts, was also a major in the Virginia Continental Artillery.  The Toole family trace their lineage back over a thousand years through the Colonial families of Virginia, through the Milesian line of Irish kings to King Tuathal (pronounced Too-all) of Ireland, whence the name.

Mr. A. W. Toole's mother was Elvira Wigglesworth, born in 1820 in Clark County, Kentucky, married Judge Wm. C. Toole in 1841, died in St. Joseph in 1899.  She was a daughter of Wm. Wigglesworth, son of James Wigglesworth of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, planter and Revolutionary soldier, whose wife was a daughter of Wm. Thompson of Richmond, Virginia, son of Samuel, son of Wm. Thompson of Blair Manor, Ayrshire, Scotland.  This Wm. Thompson of Richmond had a son, Gen. David Thompson, who was in the war of 1812, and was commander of the 2nd battalion at the battle of the River Thames in Canada, where Tecumseh was killed.  Col. Manlius V. Thompson, son of Gen. David was colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Volunteers in the war with Mexico, was in the battle of Buena Vista and the fall of the City of Mexico, was Lt. Gov. of Kentucky in 1840.  President of the Baptist College at Georgetown, Kentucky, his body lies buried in the college campus where an elegant monument is erected to his memory.  Gen. David Thompson moved to Missouri in 1833.  This Wm. Thompson of Richmond, Virginia, married Ann Rodes, daughter of John Rodes, of Amherst County, Va., who is third in descent from Baron Francis Rodes of England.  John Rodes' wife was Mary Crawford, daughter of Capt. David Crawford of Amherst County, Virginia, who lived to be 100 years old and belonged to the Earls of Crawford of Scotland.  Francis Crawford, wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt belongs to this family.

The Wigglesworth family are old English stock from the town of Wigglesworth in Yorkshire, England.  Edward born in 1604 in England came to America in ship James of Bristol in 1638, with his family; his son Michael was known as the Puritan Poet, author of "The Day of Doom" which had a larger circulation than the Bible in its day.  Michael's son Edward was professor of divinity at Harvard College; a grandson Edward also a professor at Harvard; a great-grandson one of editors of the Encyclopedia Americana.  Eleven sons of the Wigglesworth family were graduates of Harvard College.  John Quincy Adams stayed at the Wigglesworth home while attending Harvard girls [sic].  The Wigglesworth branch runs back to Abbot De Wigglesworth in the year 1100.

Mr. A. W. Toole's grandmother was Frances Bush, born 1789 in Clark County, Ky., wife of Wm. Wigglesworth and died in St. Joseph in 1870; was the daughter of Phillip Bush Jr., a Virginia planter and Revolutionary soldier of Orange County, Virginia.  The Bush family was the first to settle in Kentucky.  William Bush came to Kentucky with Daniel Boone in 1774, then went back and gathered together forty families, all relations, including the families of the five brothers, Phillip Bush, Wm. Bush, John Bush, Ambrose and Francis Bush, and started back to Kentucky in 1780, fighting Indians every step until they reached the garden spot of Kentucky called Clark County.  They were all Baptists and built the first church in Kentucky.  Capt. Wm. Bush was with Gen, Geo. Roger Clark in the conquest of the northwest, fought at Kaskaskia and Vincennes.    William and John were in Lord Dunsmore's war with the Indians and fought at Point Pleasant; all of the brothers were in the Revolution.  On the tombstone of the grave of Capt. Wm. Bush is engraved these words, "The Friend and Companion of Daniel Boone".  The Bush family descend from John Bush who came from England in the ship Neptune in 1618, having bought 300 acres of land from the Virginia Land Company in England before starting.  He settled in the corporation of Elizabeth City, Virginia.

Sarah Bush, cousin of Frances Bush, was the second wife of Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham Lincoln, made his clothes and reared him and taught him to be one of the greatest men in the world.  Abe's mother, Nancy Hanks, died when Abe was nine years old.  Dennis Hanks, brother of Nancy, gives Sarah Bush great praise in rearing of Abe.

Mr. A. W. Toole's great-grandmother was Frances Vivian, wife of Phillip Bush Jr., and daughter of Col. John Vivian No. 4, a Revolutionary soldier of Orange County, Virginia, who came to Kentucky with his family in 1780 at the close of the Revolution.  The Vivian family is of great antiquity in the County of Cornwall, England and fourished there for seven centuries.

Lord Vivian is of this branch.  Frances Vivian is sixth in descent through the Thacker family from Col. Edwin Conway, who was born in 1610 in Worcestershire, England, and came to America with his wife Martha Eltonhead in 1640 and settled in Lancaster County, Virginia.  The Conway blood traces through the historic families of Virginia.  Nellie Conway, daughter of Francis Conway, was the wife of James Madison Sr., and was the mother of President James Madison Jr.  James Madison Sr. is a cousin to President Zachary Taylor, his daughter Sarah Taylor married Jeff Davis.  Mary Conway, daughter of Edwin 2nd married Major James Ball, the cousin of Mary Ball, mother of Geo. Washington.  Major James Ball's grandson, Lieut. Col. Burgess Ball, married Frances Washington, daughter of Charles Washington, the brother of George Washington.  The Conway family descend from Sir Henry Conway of Ragley, from whom the Lords Conway descend. 

The St. Joseph News Press, 17 Jun 1945, p. 18A

 TOOLE FAMILY ARRIVED 109 YEARS AGO TO SETTLE HERE

 One Son, Judge William Toole, Attended First Court in Buchanan County

Just 109 years ago today, on June 17, 1836, a family of seven – four brothers and three sisters – arrived in the Platte Purchase of Northwest Missouri, just about to be opened for settlement to white persons.  This agricultural paradise beckoned to thousands of pioneers, among them the Toole family of Kentucky.  The members of that family were held below Weston, then a prosperous river town, where they waited for the treaty with the Indians to be signed for the settlement of a land of milk and honey.

The late A. W. Toole, St. Joseph resident of the second generation of this family, who died recently, traced back the paternal side of the family 1,000 years to the ancient kings of Ireland, and the maternal side to an illustrious secession of churchmen, statesmen and warriors in England.

The family produced many notables of the Revolutionary War period.  On the maternal side, a cousin of his grandmother, Frances Bush, was Sarah Bush, who married Tom Lincoln, and who had much to do with the early rearing of Abraham Lincoln.

The Toole family arrived June 17, and it was just two months later, on Sept. 17, 1836, that William Clark, agent for all the Indians west of the Mississippi, made a treaty with the Sac and Fox and Ioway Indians at Fort Leavenworth which ceded the Platte Purchase, comprising the present counties of Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway, and Atchison, for white settlement.  The Indians were paid $7,500 in cash and were given 400 sections of land in Kansas in the present Doniphan and Brown counties and some other small concessions.  The white people were then ready to develop this agricultural district, one of the finest in the entire country. 

Some months before his death, Mr. Toole prepared and filed with the newspaper friend a record of the Toole family and an account of some of its accomplishments in the Platte Purchase and other parts of the great West in the last century.  The four brothers listed were Edwin, Walter, Daniel Jr. and William, and the three sisters were America, Nancy and Mary, the children of Dr. Daniel Toole and Elizabeth Bruner of Shelby County, Ky.

Edwin Toole, who was born in 1808 in Shelby County, married Lucinda Porter.  They had nine children.  He was the first circuit clerk of Buchanan County in 1839 and made the first entry on the books in the recorder's office.  He was a justice of the peace in 1860 and a member of the city council in 1871-73.  A son, Joseph K. Toole, was governor of Montana and twice a member of Congress.  His likeness is painted inside the dome of the Montana capitol in Helena.  He married Lillie, a daughter of Gen. William Rosecrans of civil War fame.  Another son, Warren, was a noted lawyer.  He received a fee of $100,000 in a suit in which he was pitted against the famous Robert Q. Ingersoll. 

 The Rev. Walter Toole, born in 1820 in Shelby County, Ky., married Virginia Lyle of Virginia and had seven children.  He was a noted preacher of the Southern Methodist Church.  His record appears in the history of the Methodist Church in the St. Joseph Public Library.  He also had many descendants. 

Also in the ministry was the Rev. Daniel Toole Jr., born in 1822 in Kentucky, who married Lydia Rockwood, had 10 children, and also many descendants.  His record is also included in the history of Methodism in the local library.

Judge William C. Toole, born in 1818 in Shelby County, Ky., was probably the best known of the family in St. Joseph.  He married Elvira Wigglesworth of Clark County, Ky., and had 10 children.  The Wigglesworth ancestry traces back to the year 1100 in England through royal families.  Judge Toole attended the first court held in Buchanan County.  He joined the Methodist Church, and in 1836 was licensed to preach.  He was a charter member, and preached in the first log church in St. Joseph.  He was a trustee appointed to collect money from the state to start the first schools in St. Joseph.  He was the first superintendent of city and county schools in 1855-57.  Judge Toole was judge of the court of common pleas 1853-55 and 1870-73, was city register 1856-64, city recorder 1864-66, when he fined Joseph Robidoux, founder of the city, on a charge of striking a daughter-in-law.  He was a circuit clerk, city assessor, and held rank as major in the Civil War.  He drove an ox team to California in 1849 with a record of not uttering an oath.  The St. Joseph bar presented him with a gold-headed cane on his 90^th birthday as their oldest member.  He died in St. Joseph Feb. 17, 1909, at the age of 91.

America Toole, born in 1812, married John Bramel, had five children and left many descendants.

Nancy Toole was born in 1814, also in Kentucky, and married Richard M. Barkhurst, sheriff and tax collector of Holt County, in 1841.  They had one daughter, Isabell, who married J.O. White, a mayor of Weston, and who attained a great age.

Mary Toole, born in 1824, married William Woods and had five children.  Like the other members of the family, they had many descendants.

There are about 500 descendants of the seven brothers and sisters who came to the Platte Purchase more than a century ago.  Many of them live in Missouri.  Several live in St. Joseph.

The Toole family was traced by A. W. Toole, who devoted much time to genealogy, 1,000 years through the Colonial families of Virginia to the first settlement at Jamestown, then through the O'Toole family of Ireland through the Milesian line of Irish kings to King Tuathal in 935.  The name was pronounced Too-all.

In his genealogical delvings Mr. Toole found 50 allied families in many parts of this country.

The following paragraph was slightly indented and judging from its context and style, was probably appended by the transcriber.

Judge William C. Toole and his wife Elvira Wigglesworth Toole had the following family: Octavius, William, (Bubber) A.W., Kate, Elizabeth, Alice, Laura, and Emma.  Elizabeth Toole married Dr. Marcus Alexander Gaugh and had three children: Eva, Lula, and Charles Russell.  Charles Russell married Grace Rimby in 1905, May 3.   They had three children: William Russell, Lucile, and Helen.  William Russell Gaugh married Audrey Estherella Stiwalt, 1928, March 12 . . . the rest involves people born after 1909.

St. Joseph News Press,  September 31, 1943

Octogenarian Recalls Old Time Hotel Center of City

By Charles J. L. May

A St. Joseph octogenarian,  A. W. Toole, genealogist, 809 North Fourth street, has climbed on the knees of more Indian chiefs and braves than any other person in St., Joseph.

His acquaintance with the Indians dates back to the time he was three or four years old, when his father Judge W. C. Toole was proprietor of the Hotel, housed in a large four-story frame structure at the northeast corner of Eight and Olive streets, and Indians were guests.

That district was an important hotel center at the time of the Civil War, flourishing around Hannibal and St. Joseph passenger station which was built on the west side of Eighth street, just south of Olive street.

On the northwest corner of Eighth and Olive streets was the hotel operated by T. K. Maguire, which was a brick structure built largely of materials from the Great Western Hotel in Elwood a pretentious building erected before the Civil War when Elwood had population and prospects.  Starting as the International, the hotel later became the Windsor and as such was operated until recent years.

Other Big Hotels

About two blocks south at the northeast corner of Eighth and Seneca was the Huxley House, operated by P. H. Huxley, also well known, and a few blocks away at Twelfth and Penn was erected the Patee House at a cost of nearly $200,000, at the time known as the second hotel in the entire United States in size and Equipment.

St. Joseph was the Western terminus of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, now part of the Burlington system, and the railroad was the first to connect Missouri and Mississippi rivers.  The first passenger train with Edgar Sleppy at the throttle and Benjamin J. Colt at conductor, steamed into the passenger station Feb 14, 1859.  Judge Toole was among the passengers.

 Indians were Traveling

It was in this environment that Mr. Toole remembers  the coming and going of the Indians.  About the Civil War period many Indians were being sent to reservations in Kansas and other Western states.  They came to St. Joseph by train and were quartered at the Olive St. Hotel during their stay here, Judge Toole having the contract with the government to care for them while they were here.  The trekking Indians provided a colorful pageant for the youngsters who climbed their knees and became a favorite with them during their brief stay.

"My father was an early settler," said Mr. Toole, coming to St. Joseph in 1838 from Kentucky.  He was 20 yrs old.  His first night here he could find no place to stay so Joseph Robidoux permitted him to wrap himself in a buffalo robe and sleep near the fireplace in the Robidoux home. 

 A Civil War Mayor

"My father shot wolves on the site of the old Pacific, later the Metropole, which was razed a few years ago and was chased by Indians between St. Joseph and Savannah."

Judge Toole, after studying law entered public life and was an early judge of the court of common pleas and held numerous other offices.  When acting as recorder for the city he found it necessary to fine Joseph Robidoux, founder of St. Joseph, for striking a daughter-in-law.

Judge Toole was an ardent Methodist.  He gained some fame in the gold rush days of California by driving an ox team from here to California mines in 1849 without swearing an oath on the entire way.  In the Civil War he rose to  the rank of Major.

Of the hotels of pioneer days which clustered around old passenger station, the most famous was the Patee House, built by John Patee in 1856 to 1858, with the belief that passenger station would be located near the hotel.  Mr. Patee also gave 40 acres as a terminal for the railroad, west of Eighth street, from Olive to Mitchell avenue, much of which is still used as railroad property.

 Hotel Involved in Lottery

The hotel was never a big success, as such.  it was turned into a female academy.  About the time of the Civil War it was placed in a lottery and tickets sold all over the United States.  The builder, John Patee, himself won the hotel on a ticket he held.  At one time the building housed the World's Epileptic Sanitarium and was also the World's Hotel.  It was taken over as a manufacturing plant by R. L. McDonald and Co. in 1885 and since has been used as a factory, being the home now of Sun Manufacturing Company. 

The glory has departed as a hotel and business center of Eighth and Olive streets neighborhood and its part in the development of the city is known personally now to but a few citizens.

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