Toney by unknown dau of Santaford Toney

TONEY

Posted By: Earle & Pat (email)
Date: 11/3/2001 at 22:06:07

Subject: Toney by unknown dau of Santaford Toney
Date: Sunday, May 20, 2001 10:32 PM

The TONEYS by an unknown daughter of Tarleton Washington Santaford TONEY.
Transcribed by Earle Koeble

[Note: Bishop TONEY married Sarah ASHLEY; son Jesse TONEY born 13 Sep 1760
in Goochland, VA, Jesse married Fannie ALFORD 7 Sep 1784, 2nd Seaneth Haines
1817; born to Jesse TONEY and Fannie Alford: Tarleton Washington Toney
1794, Tarleton married Matilda or Malinda Duncan].

Not long ago, I read an interesting article in the Reader's Digest about
North Carolina. Among other things, the article stated that the greater
portion of immigrants that poured into America from the British Isles during
the 1st decade following the Revolutionary War settled in N.C., and that a
fourth of the present population of that state are descendants of these
early arrivals. It is quite possible that some of these citizens are
descendants of my great-great grandfather who arrived there at about that
time in history. Though there is a great deal lacking in detail about the
succeeding generations, the story of great-great grandfather coming to this
country has survived. If there was nothing more to substantiate the belief,
the mans personality as revealed in this story should leave no room for
doubt that he was Irish.

The story goes that great-great grandpa (I can't call him by name, that is
one of the details that got lost) was a vain man. His manner of dress was
not appropriate to the type of ship he was sailing on, and besides his
elegant apparel, he carried a cane. This caused the fellow travelers to
look upon him with some disfavor, so they dubbed him "Toney" short for
high-toned and we may assume that Toney was not altogether dissimilar to his
real name.

In spite of his snobbish appearance, he had a winning way and so they
associated with him. He was also an expert poker player (or whatever the
gambling game was that they played) and by the time they reached N.Y. he had
relieved quite a few of them of a lot of cash; so they added more to his
title; they now referred to him as "that Toney-son-of-a-bitch." This amused
and pleased the devilish rogue so much that when he was asked his name at
the port of entry, in hearing of some of this victims, he answered
"T-O-N-E-Y" (apparently they were not to strict about passports in those
days.)

If TONEY is a corruption of our proper name, I am not overly concerned;
after a couple of hundred years it doesn't make a lot of difference. I
regret much more that here we have lost track of this colorful ancestor.

Great-Great Grandpa may have been a dude when he arrived in N.C. [Virginia]
but I doubt if he had much trouble adjusting to the rough ways of this new
country.

By the time word of mouth history picks up the family again they were real
pioneers. Though we don't have a detailed record of this individual
family's struggle for success before my grandfather's time, we know that the
American story is their story. I am proud that my ancestors played a part
in the building of this country. Though they lived in the backwoods and had
little opportunity for formal education, they gained a vast amount of
practical knowledge and somehow kept in touch with the outside world.
Several decades later when a few of them saw (or thought they saw) an
opportunity to better their lot, they didn't hesitate to brave the hardships
and dangers of covered wagon travel and left N.C.

So it was in 1853, William (Old Bill) TONEY with his wife Ary Ann MILLER
TONEY (a few Germans in N.C. too) their 3 small sons, Jim, Dolf, and Bill
Jr., and a handful of relatives joined a wagon train headed for points west.
It was their intention to settle in Indiana, but after a year spent a Terrie
Haute, the pastures looked greener farther on. Perhaps they had heard of
Horace GREELEY'S famous advice to Josiah GRINNELL and concluded it would be
well for them to follow him. However, if this was their intention they had
a poor navigator and so made a left instead of a right somewhere along the
way and wound up much farther south and in much poorer country; Decatur Co.
Iowa instead of Powesheik county where Josiah had started the town of
Grinnell in 1854.

Grandpa and his small band of relatives liked what they saw when they came
to a spot between what is now Davis City and Lamoni and settled down. They
named the town they started Terrie Haute after the Indiana City, but since
they had a Carolina accent, they pronounced it Terrie Hut, which was
probably a more fitting name. The town has long since disappeared but the
graveyard, or at least the graves are still there, though they may be hard
to find. I remember going to this graveyard once with my mother to pull the
weeds and to rearrange the muscle shells and bits of broken glass were
placed over rectangle to slow the weeds and mark the graves of the various
TONEYS resting there. I have never seen this custom anywhere else. It
wasn't a bad idea. I don't recall that there were any tombstones.

Though Ary Ann was a tiny woman, not more that 5 feet tall and weighing less
than a hundred pounds, she bore healthy children at regular intervals and
one of these intervals occurred during their story in Indiana, where she
gave birth to her fourth son whom they named Taralton Washington Santaford.
Taralton was named for his grandfather, "Old Talton," and Washington and
Santaford had political significance. ["Old Talton" was Tarleton Washington
Toney]

This boy was destined to be my father. Little Sant, as he was called for
short, was born at Terre Haute, Ind. on Oct 12, 1854 and was probably about
a year old when the family arrived in Iowa.

My information about Old Talton and the early TONEYS before Grandpa Bill is
very meager, probably because of my mother's prejudice. She was the family
historian or it could be that I was a poor listener. Family history didn't
begin to arouse my interest until all the sources of information had
vanished, so I can only gather bits and pieces and cement then together with
imagination.

The only things that I can definitely remember hearing about Old Talton were
that he was a rather unsavory character. After his good wife died (It seems
that all bad TONEYS had good wives) he married an old hellion, who was some
sort of relative by marriage (Let's hope it was by marriage relationship so
we can't add incest to his long list of sins.) She was referred to as "Old
Marge" and of course was on my mothers black list. Old Talton had a "good"
brother, great Uncle Ike, who had sick headaches, and who was married to a
"good" woman named Francis, who had one brown eye and one blue eye. These
are the kind of important facts that have stuck to the memory of a kid. I
am sure there was a great deal of good about some of the TONEYS but
information has a way of getting lost where word of mouth is the only way of
handing it down.

I can overlook the morale shortcomings of my ancestors much easier that my
mother could. I have learned that there were a few facts about the personal
lives of some of our heroes such as "honest Geo. Washington" and the author
of the Declaration of Independence that didn't get into the elementary
history books.

Mother always said that though grandpa (Old Bill) was a daunting, fighting
old reprobate, she liked him. I think I can understand why she made an
exception in his case; he had a great sense of humor and he flattered her.
She considered Ary Ann a little saint. She was often irritated at her
patience (a virtue which my mother didn't cultivate too much in herself) and
she shared their opinion of the other daughters-in-law. Like other TONEY
wives, they were good women, but not worth their salt when it came to help
or advice so Grandpa and Grandma sent for Martha (my mother) when they
needed counsel. Grandma Ary Ann died in Martha Ann BUCEY'S arms about the
turn of the century. I have heard this described very dramatically many
times.

Grandpa Bill was a "fightin' man" and when war broke out between the states
he wasted no time joining up. This meant leaving his frail wife on their
small rented farm to shift for their family that now numbered six sons
(Charley and Lew had been added since they arrived in Iowa). The gov't.
didn't concern itself much with dependents in this war and few men were
rejected for service because of small disabilities. Grandpa had lost the
2nd toe of his right foot when an oxen stepped on it. The sharp hoof had
not only severed the toe but had pulled out a couple of inches of tendon
with it.

It is regrettable that so few details are known of Grandpa's army service.
He was an artilleryman, but I don't know the name of his company. He was
with General Sherman's army in the march to Atlanta, he was captured and
spent 6 months in the infamous Andersonville prison before he was able to by
his way out. This was dangerous business. He had hidden a few dollars in
good "green" currency in his ragged clothes. The conditions of the prison
guards was almost as deplorable as that of the prisoners after their 4 years
of struggle, so a bribe wasn't hard to arrange. At the same time he bought
freedom of 2 neighbors who had fought with him and were captured at the same
time. How the made their way back to safety through hostile territory will
always remain unanswered. I have read of these escape attempts and very few
successful, as dogs were used for tracking escaped prisoners.

The two neighbor men had promised to reimburse Grandpa and pledged their
life-long gratitude. One of them, Roe ASHBURN, kept his pledge, but the
other man, (name unknown) soon forgot the whole thing. This hurt Grandpa
because in spite of his rough exterior, he was a sentimental man.

Three more children where born after his return. John, who lived to be one
hundred and died within the last 5 years at Leon, IA. and 2 daughters Lottie
and Nancy. (Nancy also lived to be over 100 years old-she died at Eugene
Oregon)

Other than Grandma Ary Ann petite ness and great aunt Francis' multi-colored
eyes, I can't describe the physical features of any of the early TONEYS. It
would be romantic to think of Old great-great grandpa being as handsome as
he was debonair. The Aunts and Uncles I remember seeing were anything but
handsome. They were all tall except Sant (my father) and Uncle Lew, but
their facial features must have resembled grandma and the MILLER side. I
never saw a likeness of grandma, but the picture we had of grandpa was one
of a very nice looking old man. Most of them had blue eyes and dark or
medium brown hair, except Lew and my father. His hair was red and curly.

All these Aunts and Uncles had large families except Jim, and Dolf was an
alcoholic. Though I remember seeing a few of my cousins, I only knew one
really well; Uncle Lew's daughter, Evy. She lived in Decatur while we lived
there and we all loved her. This was partly because my mother didn't
encourage their friendship (some were a little loose and reckless) and
partly because we left Iowa when I was 10 years old.

My father was a good man. He had none of the vices his brothers were
reputed to have had: drinking, carousing, and gambling. He never used
tobacco in any form and I never heard him swear, but he didn't set the world
on fire with his ambition. In fact, it wasn't what he did but what he
didn't do, that caused the frequent quarrels between him and my mother. He
was always satisfied with the status quo, sort of a procrastinator. Though
he was always skinny, he had a tremendous appetite. He either had the
constitution of a horse or the doctors are all wrong about cholesterol
because he loved pork and bread dunked in bacon fat was a favorite dish of
his. I don't remember his ever being sick in bed until his last illness
when he was 83. He loved music, and I don't doubt but that he had a bit of
hidden talent. He could saw off a pretty fair tune on a fiddle by ear and
stomp up an Irish jig that I used to think wasn't bad at all.

He did the best he knew how and that is all God expects of any man.

ELK

koeble@koeble.org
http://www.koeble.org

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