Alameda
County
Biographies
JAMES J. O’TOOLE
The position of the real estate
and insurance man in a rising community is too well understood to require
detailed comment, and it has long been known that, possessing the required
business ability, tact, thorough knowledge of the nature and extent of the resources
of his territory, and sufficient enthusiasm to impress others with its
desirability as a home and business center, he is able to accomplish more
toward advancing its general interests, and enlarging its boundaries, than
almost any other class of promoters. James J. O’Toole has the advantage of
being the first, and, since the starting of his business in October, 1902, the
only man directly interested in general real estate in Elmhurst. Mr. O’Toole is
a man of experience and affairs, and for years had been engaged in the lumber
business in different parts of the state, to which he came in 1862, and of
which he has since been a continuous resident.
Born in New York City, December 6,
1861, Mr. O’Toole is a son of John and Catherine (Rheider) O’Toole, natives of
Ireland, who immigrated to the United States in 1859. The elder O’Toole, was a
shoemaker by trade, and followed the same in New York until coming to
California by way of the Isthmus in 1862. He was fairly successful as a boot
and shoe manufacturer in San Francisco until 1868, when he located in Virginia
City, Nev., starting the trade business which he continued until the time of
his death, October 25, 1875. His wife survived him until January, 1891, when
her death occurred in Oakland. She left two sons and two daughters, of whom
James J. is the third. He was educated principally in the public schools of
Nevada, and in 1882 became interested in lumbering in Sonoma county. Soon after
he became tallyman in lumber yards, and was thus employed with several firms in
the county until 1887. Assuming charge of the yards of Yandle & Glynn, of
Santa Rosa, he remained with that firm until 1891, in which year he became
identified with the Puget Sound Lumber Company as collector and solicitor for
three and a half years, making his headquarters in Oakland. In 1894 he accepted
a position as manager of the Eagle Box & Manufacturing Company, and in 1899
filled a similar position with the E. B. & A. L. Stone Company at Elmhurst.
Leaving the employ of the latter company, he began to buy and sell town and
county property, his partner being S. R. Chapin, although the entire management
of the business rests with Mr. O’Toole. In 1902 he established the Elmhurst
Lumber Company, of which he is manager, succeeding the E. B. & A. L. Stone
Company, handling all kinds of building material. He is also a notary public.
Mr. O’Toole is actively interested
in the advancement of social and business interests in Alameda county, and is
fitted by nature and training to be a leader in both of these capacities. He is
president of the Improvement Club of Elmhurst, and is second vice-president of
the Alameda County Association, an organization which tends to the general
improvement of the county. He is prominent fraternally, and has passed all of
the chairs of the Oakleaf Lodge No. 35, A. O. U. W., of Oakland, and is a
member of the I. D. E. S. of San Leandro. With his family he is a member of the
Catholic Church, and in political affiliation he votes the Republican ticket.
In Santa Rosa in 1888 Mr. O’Toole married Minnie Hession, who was born in California,
and who died in April, 1901, leaving a son James Lawrence, who is living with
his father. In the city of Oakland Mr. O’Toole married, in May, 1902, Julia
Koch, a native of Amador county, Cal. Mr. O’Toole is a popular and influential
business man, an enthusiastic admirer of Elmhurst as a place for both business
and home, and a citizen whose every action is dominated by conscience and high
regard for the rights of others.
Transcribed by: Cecelia M.
Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 776. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Cecelia
M. Setty.
BACK TO GOLDEN NUGGET LIBRARY'S ALAMEDA DATABASES