Sacramento County
Biographies
THOMAS O’TOOLE
THOMAS O’TOOLE, deceased, was born in Ireland
in 1833, his parents being Patrick and Bridget (Burke) O’Toole. The father
was a tenant-farmer in Galway. The boy received a
fair education in his youth. Left an orphan by the death of both parents,
he was invited to this country by an older brother, James, living in Massachusetts,
and came in 1848. Being acquainted with farm work he followed that line
for some years after his arrival in the United
States. He was married in Roxbury,
Massachusetts, February 12, 1856, to Miss Margaret Tympany,
also a native of Ireland,
a daughter of John and Mary (Flaherty) Tympany, both
now deceased. The father was over seventy when he died, but the mother died
before she was sixty. Mrs. O’Toole came to America
in 1853, having been preceded by an older sister. Immediately after their
marriage Mr. and Mrs. O’Toole set out for California by
the Panama route, and arrived in San
Francisco on Good Friday, 1856, with
just $100. Both went to work in that city for six months, the wife
receiving $5 a month more than the husband, owing to the scarcity of good
female help. The husband then went to mining for two or three months at Drytown, Amador County. They
afterward worked for two years on a milk ranch in Yolo
County. Mr. O’Toole then
rented 400 acres of John Rovney, In Brighton
Township, in this county. He had two partners in that venture, and they
raised wheat and barley. The following year Mr. O’Toole rented a farm on
his own account, and put in a crop of wheat and barley, but lost it all by the
flood of 1862. He then rented eighty acres and again put in wheat and
barley, which came out all right, and sold for five cents a pound for wheat,
and four and a half for barley. In 1866 he bought 160 acres in the same
township, and now owned by Rovney. There they
lived seven years, when they sold out and went to Kansas. Not
liking that State they returned to California, and
bought the 288 acres now occupied by the family at Freeport. Wheat,
barley and alfalfa are the chief products. They carried on an extensive
dairy at one time, but now milk only ten cows. They also own 413 acres at Saulsbury Station, devoted chiefly to wheat and barley, and
now in charge of the oldest son. Mr. Thomas O’Toole died September 15,
1885, much respected in the community, and without an enemy anywhere. He
was a model man in all the relations of life. He had worked hard for a
living from an early age, and knew how to keep upright and honorable through
all the hardships as well as the successes of life. The wife and five children
survive him. These are: John Thomas, born May 4, 1860; James Joseph, February
17, 1866; and three daughters, Agnes, Maggie and Nellie. Both sons belong
to the Y. M. I. of Sacramento, and the oldest to the N. S. G. W., Parlor No.
3. All the children received an academic education in college or convent,
and the daughters are all accomplished musicians, while Maggie is an artist in
painting of decided ability. John T. is married to Miss Mary Connelly, a niece
of Mrs. Catherine McAnally, of Courtland. They
have one child, Francis Joseph, born December 2, 1888.
Transcribed 9-6-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 627-628.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.