Santa
Clara County
Biographies
WILLIAM
P. TOLER
A
most prominent pace in the history of California is given to the memory of man
whose name appears at the head of this review; whose first deed in the
territory which so enriched the United States was to raise aloft the American
flag over the custom house at Monterey, the date being July 7, 1846. Not many
who were present then are now living to recount the happenings of that exciting
time. Fifty years afterward, on the 7th of July, 1896, he once more raised the
flag aloft in the same place, the honor being his in memory of the first time
its stars and stripes floated over the beautiful lands of California, which
have since formed one of the first states in the Union. A long and useful
career, a practical and helpful life have left behind a memory of much that was
given to the growth and development of the state, and enrolled the name of
William P. Toler among those of California’s first citizens.
The
Toler family is one that has long been connected with the history of Virginia,
the first emigrant to the western world being a native of England who settled
in the Old Dominion and there reared his children and made an honorable place
for the name. The grandfather of William P. Toler was a Baptist minister in
Virginia, while the father, Henry H., also a native of the state, in addition
to his extensive interests as a merchant, was for many years in the employ of
the United States government, being located in Caracas, Venezuela, in his
mercantile interest, as consul of Ponce, Porto Rico and other places
officially. In Caracas William P. Toler first saw the light of day, December
31, 1825, but very early in life this city ceased to be his home. When only six
years old he lost his mother by death, and he was then taken by his father to
Washington, D. C., there receiving his education in Georgetown College. At the
age of fourteen years he enlisted in the United States navy, becoming
midshipman and staff officer first under Commodore Catesby Jones, of the navy,
in 1844, and secretary and signal officer on the staff of Commodore John Drake Sloat. The proclamation issued to the people of California
by Commodore Sloat was written by Mr. Toler, half in
English and half in Spanish, and to him the honor of
raising the flag over the new American possessions was given. After the conquest
of California Mr. Toler resigned from his position in the navy and like the
great majority of people who sought the west at that time, went to the mines of
the northern part of the state. Later he returned to San Francisco and was
employed in the custom house there. After his marriage in 1853 he located in
Alameda county, where he remained a public spirited,
enterprising citizen until his death January 24, 1898, enjoying to an unusual
degree the esteem and confidence of all who came to know him in the passing
years. He was a man of culture and refinement, a scholar and a
talented artist, and many of his paintings, taken from nature, adorn the
home of his widow.
By
his marriage with Maria Antonia Peralta, who was born and married on the rancho
Peralta, in what is now Fruitvale, Alameda county, Mr.
Toler allied himself with a family of prominence among the early settlers of
California. By this union one son, James Hoyt, was born in 1880. He now makes
his home with his mother. Mrs. Toler is the representative of an old and
honored Spanish family, being the great-granddaughter of Gabriel Peralta, who
was born in Spain and came as an early settler to Mexico. His son, Louis Maria
Peralta, was born in Mexico, and came to California when about eighteen years of
age. In manhood he became sergeant at the Presidio, at San Francisco, serving
under both Spanish and Mexican rule, and to him was given the great Peralta
grant, his land extending from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains to
the Bay of San Francisco, and from what is now Berkeley to San Leandro creek,
where he had range for thousands of cattle which formed so large a part of his
interests. His son, Ygnacio Peralta, the father of
Mrs. Toler, was born in San Jose, Santa Clara county.
Mrs. Toler is a cultured and refined woman, with the inherited traits of her
ancestry speaking eloquently in her character and mode of living. The beautiful
and modern home at San Leandro owned and occupied by Mrs. Ludovina
Ivey, an only sister of Mrs. Toler, and Mrs. Toler is the center of much that
is best in the society of Alameda county.
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., Pages 310-311. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.