My Genealogy Hound

W. P. Tooley, postmaster of Tipton, and an old settler of the State, was born in Howard County, Mo., in 1821, his parents being James and Nancy (White) Tooley, natives of Kentucky. The father was a farmer, and in 1816 came to Howard County, Mo., and for some years was engaged in raising tobacco. He is said to have been the first man to take a flat-boat upon the Missouri River, he taking tobacco three times to New Orleans, on which occasions he walked home, to where Glasgow now stands. A few days after returning from his third trip he took the fever and died. Our subject was then one year old. His mother died when he was born, and he was reared by an old negro woman belonging to his grandfather Tooley. He has one brother, John W. Tooley, who was a wholesale merchant of St. Louis, and died in that city in 1863. When a lad W. P. Tooley served an apprenticeship at the saddler’s trade, and continued to work at that calling until sixteen years of age, when he began clerking in a store in Fayette, serving faithfully in this capacity for three years. He then engaged in general merchandising in Versailles, Morgan County, continuing there for ten years, then in November, 1850, moved to a farm in Cooper County, where he tilled the soil for eight years. He was then made station agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which position he held six months, then resigned to re-engage in clerking, following this occupation until 1886, at which date he was appointed postmaster of Tipton, and still holds the position. He helped organize Moniteau County, and served as its deputy sheriff ten years, being elected by the Democratic party, of which he has been an active member for many years. He also served as sheriff of Morgan County for some time. Mr. Tooley has been the architect of his own fortune, and commands the respect and esteem of all who know him for his many admirable traits of character. He can well remember many instances in the early history of Moniteau County, and has hunted and killed deer on the ground where Tipton now stands. December 13, 1848, he was united in marriage to Miss Susan A. Embry, a native of Kentucky, by whom he has three children: John C. (now a clerk in Kansas City, Mo.), Laura W. (the deceased wife of William T. Redman, of Tipton), and Grace (wife of J. W. Mills, a postal clerk at Tipton).