San
Joaquin County
Biographies
LEVI M. TOAL
Among the enterprising and
public-spirited citizens of San Joaquin County is Levi M. Toal, who is serving
as justice of the peace of O’Neal Township since 1902 and who is also connected
with agricultural interests, being accounted one of the active and successful
business men of Stockton. He was born in
Kansas in November, 1872 and was a small child of two years when he accompanied
his parents to California. His father,
David Toal, was born in Scotland in 1831, and in 1844 came to America and
settled in the forests of northern Wisconsin, where he remained until the early
’50 when he removed to Kansas and homesteaded a tract of land near Fort
Scott. David Toal served the Government
at Fort Scott for two years as a blacksmith and for his services he received no
remuneration. He married Miss Jane
Pitman, a native of Ohio, and they are the parents of six children, three of
whom now survive, Levi M., Jennie J., and Cora.
David Toal brought his family to
California in search of a milder climate and located at Stockton in 1874, where
he was employed with John Rock at Main and Market streets in a blacksmith shop;
later on he was employed in the Phil Davis boat yard, following his trade until
1886, when he removed to Stanislaus County and there became foreman for Dr. Tynan, owner of the Empire ranch, where he continued for
two years. He then returned to San
Joaquin County and farmed the Delta ranch, raising large quantities of grain
for several years; in 1892 he put the first plow into the soil on newly
reclaimed land in the Capt. Moss tract and the Boggs tract adjoining
Stockton. Meantime, he had purchased
twenty acres of land on South American Street, Stockton, where he built a
residence and where his family resided while he carried on his grain
farming. David Toal reached the advanced
age of nearly ninety years passing away at the family home in Stockton in
December, 1920, his wife having preceded him in 1918.
Levi M. Toal was reared and educated
in Stockton and from an early age was associated with his father in ranch
work. In 1902 he was elected justice of
the peace of O’Neal Township where there were 405 registered voters and in 1922
there were 5,868, an indication of the growth and development of this
locality. In connection with his
official duties, Mr. Toal was in the contract business for nine years, during
which time he did much of the paving of the streets of Stockton. The twenty-acre ranch purchased by his father
many years ago is fast becoming very valuable as a choice residential section
of South Stockton. This locality has
made a remarkable growth and Mr. Toal has had much to do with its
advancement. Where
farming and stock raising was once carried on, now stand school buildings and
residences. He is a member of
Charity Lodge No. 6, I. O. O. F., is a past grand and has been a delegate to
the Grand Lodge many times. Elected in
1902, he is now serving his sixth term as justice of the peace and has made a
fine record.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1300. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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