Gillum Solon Toliver and Belle Salome "Sonoma" (Blake) Toliver are buried in Jefferson Cemetery, Jefferson, Grant Twp., Greene Co., IA. Thanks to Find-A-Grave for making these images available.

Gillum Solon Toliver Death Record.

Biographical and Historical Record of Greene and Carroll Counties, Iowa
Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago  1887

Greene County Index

ISOM TOLIVER, one of Greene County's worthy farmers, resides on section 33, Bristol Township.  He came to the county April 16, 1854, locating first on section 11, Franklin Township, at the south end of the Raccoon Valley, where he bought 240 acres of Government land, his being one of the very first entries made in the county. At that time the nearest mill was at Panora, Guthrie County, and their trading was done at Des Moines.  Mr. Toliver lived on his farm in Franklin Township until 1869, when he moved to Bristol Township, buying the farm where he now lives, which contains 180 acres of choice land.  From a small capital of $400 brought to Greene County, he has accumulated a large and valuable estate.  Mr. Toliver was born on the top of Big Bald Mountain, in Ashe County, North Carolina, July 29, 1814, the son of John and Anna Toliver.  His grandfather, Jessie Toliver, was a man of great force of character and ability, and served seven years in the war of the Revolution, five years as a Captain of the line.  His father, John Toliver, died in North Carolina, and in 1834, the mother with her family moved to Owen County, Indiana.  Isom was the second of twelve children.  He was married in Owen County in 1836 to Matilda Reynolds, a native of North Carolina, born in 1819.  Her mother was Sally Greene, a granddaughter of General Greene, the friend of General Washington.  In 1847 Mr. Toliver moved from Indiana to Richland County, Illinois, and thence to Greene County, Iowa, in 1854.  Mr. and Mrs. Toliver have had eleven children, nine sons and two daughters.  Four sons and one daughter died before coming to their majority.  The following are the names and order of birth of those who lived to maturity: John H., Gillum S., Jacob M., James C., Doctor R., Tarry J. and Isom M.  Four of the brothers served their country during the war of the Rebellion.  John H. was a member of company E, Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry Volunteers, and Fife-Major of his regiment.  He died at Davenport, Iowa, soon after enlisting.  Jacob M. was Second Lieutenant of the same company.  He has served eight years as District Attorney in Northwestern Iowa, and is now practicing law at Lake City, Iowa.  Gillum S. was a member of Company H, Tenth Iowa Infantry Volunteers.  He was three years county surveyor, two years county treasurer, and a member of the Thirteenth General Assembly of Iowa, but his true sphere was rather that of a lawyer than of a politician.  In the spring of 1870 he formed a law partnership with the Hon. John J. Russell, at Jefferson, Iowa, under the firm name of Russell and Toliver.  The firm soon built up a large and lucrative practice, which they have ever since maintained.  James C. was a member of Company H, Tenth Iowa Infantry Volunteers.  He was two years deputy sheriff, and four years county recorder of Greene County, Iowa.  After that he was engaged in the real estate and abstract business at Rockwell City, Iowa, and is now a real estate dealer at Ainsworth, Nebraska.  Doctor R., the seventh son, is a substantial farmer, now living in Bristol Township, Greene County, Iowa.  Tarry J. and Isom M., the two younger children, are living at home, unmarried.  Isom Toliver loved a new country, and always kept his family on the border, if not sometimes beyond, of what may be called the limits of civilization, so that his older sons possessed few educational advantages, but became thoroughly familiar with the arts and hardships of pioneer life. They are all self-made men.

Stillman, E. B.

Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa
Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1907, 662  pgs.

Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa

Gillum S. Toliver

Gillum S. Toliver, the oldest practitioner in years of continuous connection with the Greene county bar and one whose marked ability has long given him prestige as a representative of the profession, was born in Owen county, Indiana, February 11, 1840. He is a son of Isom Toliver, a farmer, who was born in Ashe county, North Carolina, July 29, 1814. The grandfather was John Toliver, a farmer of Ashe county, North Carolina, and the great-grandfather was Jesse Toliver, a soldier from Virginia, who served for seven years in the Revolutionary war, five years as captain of the line. Nothing is known of the ancestors of Jessie Toliver save that they came from England.

When a young man Isom Toliver emigrated to Owen county, Indiana, where he was married August 6, 1836, to Miss Matilda Reynolds, who was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, a daughter of James and Sally (Greene) Reynolds, the latter a relative of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary war fame. Isom Toliver and his wife began their domestic life in the locality where they were married. That part of Indiana was then a timbered country, almost a wilderness, and after struggling on together for several years, deadening the timber and clearing up the land, planting and cultivating the small fields thus prepared, in which work the wife assisted her husband, and finding it hard in such a country to provide for their growing family, they determined to seek a home in the west. Accordingly in the spring of 1848, with five children and a single yoke of oxen hitched to a wagon, they bade adieu to their friends and neighbors and moved toward the setting sun into the prairies of the great west. They traveled through Illinois and Missouri and as far as Salem, Arkansas, before settling in Richland county, Illinois, where thet resided until the fall of 1853, when the started for Greene county, Iowa. They reached Wapello county, where they spent the winter and on the 6th of April, 1854, they arrived in Greene county. Here Isom Toliver entered three hundred acres of government land. This was the tenth family to settle in the county and the fourth family west of the river in what is now Franklin township. With characteristic energy Mr. Toliver began the arduous task of developing a new farm, converting the raw prairie into richly cultivated fields, which he continued to improve until 1868. He then sold that property and purchased an improved farm in Bristol township, upon which he continued to make his home until his death, which occurred September 13, 1893. He had been a resident of the county for almost forty years and had contributed in large measure to its substantial up-building, aiding in laying broad and deep the foundation for its present progress and prosperity. He was a successful farmer, a man of good judgement and a citizen respected and esteemed  by all who knew him. In Indiana he was a member of the United Brethren church, but never united with any church organization  in Greene county. He was, however, an exemplary member of the Masonic fraternity, which has as its basic principles mutual helpfulness and brotherly kindness. In the early days his political allegiance was given to the whig party and upon its dissolution he joined the ranks of the new republican party. His wife passed away January 14, 1893.

They are the parents of eleven children, of whom four died in childhood. The following is the record of those who attained adult age:

John H. Toliver, born in Indiana, came to Greene county with his family and enlisted for service in the Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war, being fife major of the regiment. Before the command proceeded to the south, however, he died at Davenport, leaving a wife, who bore the maiden name of Nancy King, who has since remarried and is still living.

Gillum S. Toliver is the second of the family.

J. M. Toliver, now a prominent attorney of Lake City, Iowa, where he has resided since 1871, was second lieutenant of Company E of the Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry and for years was district attorney for the northwestern district of this state. He wedded Mary Stanford, a daughter of James Stanford, one of the early settlers of this county.

J. C. Toliver, now engaged in the practice of law in Ainsworth, Nebraska, where he has made his home for twenty years, served a a private in the Union army for two years, belonging to Company H of the Tenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He has been prominent in community affairs, filling the office of recorder of Greene county for two terms, while since his removal to Nebraska he has served as judge of the county court. His wife was Ella McCoy, formerly of this county.

D. R. Toliver, a member of the firm of Lower & Toliver, liverymen of Jefferson, wedded Margaret Mosteller, a daughter of Peter Mosteller, an early settler of Bristol township.

Terry J. Toliveris the wife of A. H. McClurg, a resident of Brush, Colorado.

Isom M. Toliver, a farmer of Molalla, Oregon, married Mollie Forbes, formerly of Greene county.

Gillum S. Toliver was a youth of fourteen years when brought to Greene county. His early experiences were those of frontier life in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Up to the time of his arrival here he had received but two months' schooling in Indiana and two months in Wapello county, Iowa. There was not a schoolhouse in Greene county, but in the summer of 1856 he attended school for three months at Pauora, Guthrie county. He also persuade his studies for three months in the winter of 1857-8, when Captain A. R. Mills taught in Brand schoolhouse in Washington township. That winter there were ninety pupils in the school, covering from an area covering five miles upon the prairie and up and down the river. Again Mr. Toliver attended the county schools in the winter of 1858-9 and of 1859-60, using every opportunity available for the advancement of his education. In September, 1860, he walked from Greene county to Ottumwa, Iowa, to take the examination that would permit him to teach a school in Wapello county, where he had an uncle living. He was four days in making the trip. All the money he had was a three dollar bill. Necessarily he stopped at different places for meals and lodging, but money was so scarce in the pioneer community that no one could change the bill until he made his last stop, when a settler changed it and took ten cents for the accommodation. At Otumwa he spent five cents for cheese and crackers, making fifteen cents total expenditure for the journey. Four years later he made the same trip with a horse and buggy - the only buggy in Greene county. This was during the period of the Civil war when farmers had to have a license to keep travelers, this revenue going to help carry on the war. Every ten miles the licensed farmer was found and Mr. Toliver paid a dollar and a half for a night's entertainment, his aunt being with him on that trip.

Prior to this time Mr. Toliver taught school in Washington township and the money which he thus earned he gave his father to assist him in building a house on their farm in Franklin township. Money was indeed very scarce, a teacher being about the only one who had any. In Wapello county Mr. Toliver worked on Saturdays in order to pay for his board. That winter he spent nine dollars for clothes and then walked back home in the spring with a hundred and forty-one dollars as the proceeds of his winter's labor, his money being in coins worth six and a quarter, twelve and a half, twenty-five and fifty cents respectively. Desirous of promoting his own education, he entered Western College and was here when the boys from Greene county who had enlisted were rendezvoused at Iowa City before going to the front and, becoming imbued with the spirit of patriotism, Mr. Toliver offered his services to the government in defense of the Union on the 28th of September, 1861, joining Company H of the Tenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He was with the regiment until discharged on account of rheumatism in May, 1862. After the war he entered the State University at Iowa City, pursuing a literary course. He also studied law a short time in the State University at Ann Arbor, Michigan. While away at school he was appointed county surveyor to fill a vacancy, serving out the unexpired term of one year, after which he was elected at the succeeding election and served for two years. In 1868-9 he served as county treasurer, discharging his duties with a promptness and fidelity that won him uniform commendation.

Mr. Toliver was admitted to the bar in 1865 and entered upon the practice of law at that time. In 1870 he formed a partnership with J. J. Russell, this connection continuing until the death of Mr. Russell in 1901. For thirty-one years the firm of Russell & Toliver was considered the most prominent in Greene county. Mr. Toliver is today the oldest member of the Greene county bar engaged actively in practice, and has long been accorded a foremost position among the able lawyers of this part of the state. He has argued many cases and lost but few. No one better knows the necessity for thorough preparation and no one more industriously prepares his cases than he. His course in the courtroom is characterized by a calmness and dignity that indicate reserve strength. He is always courteous and deferential toward the court, kind and forbearing toward his adversaries. He examines a witness carefully and thoroughly, but treats him with a respect which makes the witness grateful for his kindness and forbearance. His handling of his case is always full, comprehensive and accurate; his analysis of the facts is clear and exhaustive; he sees without effort the relation and dependence of the facts, and so groups them as to enable him to throw their combined force upon the point they tend to prove. He has always been regarded as an able speaker, possessing marked oratorical power and excelled by none in Greene county in extemporaneous speaking. His eulogy before the Greene county bar on the death of his partner is considered on of the ablest public utterances and appears in the Greene county history by E. B. Stillman. He has done more legal business in this county than any other lawyer who ever practiced at the Greene county bar. In politics he has always been a stalwart republican and has ever displayed a knowledge of political questions and issues superior to that usually found in the laity. He was a member of the thirteenth general assembly of Iowa and for thirty-six years was president of the commission for the insane of Greene county. His ambition has never been in the line of office-holding, but rather in the path of his profession, wherein merit and ability have enabled him to rise to prominence, passing many whose equipment at the outset of their careers was far superior to his. He has always been possessed of the laudable ambition to attain excellence. Never content with mediocrity, he has made steady progress. In his school days he was an apt student and led his classes in all studies and is yet recognized among the best grammarians in Greene county. On the 26th of February, 1873, Mr. Toliver was married to Miss Belle Blake, who was born in Pennsylvania, June 24, 1856, a daughter of Charles T. and Sarah A. (Taylor) Blake, both of whom are now deceased. The mother was a relative of General Zachary Taylor. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Toliver were born two children: Iris, the wife of F. D. Milligan, of Jefferson; and Portia, at home. The Toliver residence is one of the finest homes in Jefferson and its gracious and warm hearted hospitality is one of its most attractive features. Mr. Toliver belongs to the Masonic fraternity and in his life has exemplified the beneficent spirit of this craft. He is a man of equable temperament, his life work characterized by continuity of purpose and thoroughness. He still enjoys fairy good health, a fact undoubtedly attributable in considerable measure to the fact that he has ever been an abstainer from intoxicants and tobacco in any form. Nature is kindly to those who abuse not her laws and Mr. Toliver has lived in conformity to her rules throughout his whole life. Whatsoever his hand finds to do, whether in his profession or in his official duties or in any other sphere, he does with his might and with a deep sense of conscientious obligation.

Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa, Stillman, E. B., Chicago: S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1907, 662  pgs.

Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa

Isom Toliver

Isom Toliver was an honored pioneer resident of Greene county and his memory is yet revered by those who knew him. He was born on the top of Big Bald Mountain in Ashe county, North Carolina, July 29, 1814, and came of English ancestry, the family being established in America prior to the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, Jesse Toliver, was a man of great force of character and ability and served for seven years in the war for independence, five years as a captain of the line. John Toliver, father of our subject, died in North Carolina, being survived by his widow, Mrs. Anna Toliver, and twelve children, seven sons and five daughters.

As Isom Toliver was the eldest son he practically became the head of the family. In 1834 the mother with her children removed to Owen county, Indiana, where they entered land and cleared a farm. While there residing Isom Toliver was married, August 6, 1836, to Matilda Reynolds, who was born in North Carolina. In the spring of 1848 he removed with his family to Richland county, Illinois, where he again entered land, cultivating his farm until the fall of 1853, when he sold that property and came to Iowa. The following winter was spent in Wapello county but in the meantime the father entered land here. In the spring he brought his family to Greene county, settling in the south end of the north Raccoon Valley in what is now Franklin township. The work of development had scarcely begun here. He was the fourth settler on the west side of the north Raccoon river and his was one of the first entries of land made in the county. He took up the arduous task of developing a new farm and continued its improvement until 1869, when he sold out and purchased land in Bristol township, upon which he made his home up to the time of his death on the 13th of September, 1893. He bravely met all of the hardships and dangers incident to pioneer life. In fact he greatly enjoyed this contest with the frontier in reclaiming the land and bringing it under cultivation and in aiding in the development of a new district.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Toliver were born eleven children, nine sons and two daughters, but four of the sons and one daughter passed away in childhood or youth. Those who reached adult age were John H., Gillum S., Jacob M., James C., Doctor R., Terry J., and Isom M. Four of the sons served in the Union army during the Civil war. The eldest was a member of Company E, Thirty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and the fife major of the regiment. He laid down his life on the altar of his country. Jacob M., who was a second lieutenant of the same company, served for eight years as district attorney in Northwestern Iowa and is now practicing law at Lake City. Gillum S., was a member of Company H, Tenth Iowa Infantry, and after the war served for three years as county surveyor and two years as county treasurer. He was also a member of the thirteenth general assembly of Iowa. In the spring of 1870 he formed a law partnership with the Hon. John J. Russell at Jefferson, Iowa, under the firm name of Russell & Toliver and has since practiced law here. James C. Toliver was a member of Company H, Tenth Iowa Infantry. In civil life he served for two years as deputy sheriff and four years as county recorder of Greene county. Later he engaged in the real estate and abstract business at Rockwell City, Iowa, and is now an attorney at law of Ainsworth, Nebraska. Doctor R., Terry J. and Isom M. are now substantial representatives of farming interests. As the family lived on the frontier the educational opportunities which the children received were somewhat limited but the father tried to make up to them for this lack and few did more under like circumstances for their intellectual advancement. In the training of his family he was watchful, consistent and firm. He was a kind but just father, ever regardful of the welfare and happiness of his family, yet he believed in implicit obedience of the child to the parent. A man of excellent judgment in all things, he displayed wisdom in the control of his farming interests and became a successful and substantial agriculturist.

In 1893 Mr. Toliver was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 14th of January. They had long traveled life's journey together and her loss to him was a very great one, yet he put forth the utmost effort to respond to the efforts of his children and friends to make his life pleasant and comfortable. While visiting in Illinois he received a severe hurt while riding in a buggy that necessitated his remaining in bed for two or three weeks. His son, Doctor R. Toliver, went to look after him and when he became a little better brought him home. For a time he seemed to rally but gradually his health failed him and he passed away September 13, 1893, at the age of seventy-nine years.

Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Toliver became members of the United Brethren in Christ and were identified with that church throughout their remaining days. During the greater part of his life Mr. Toliver was a constant student of the Bible, reading it in preference to any other book and following closely its injunctions. He was well versed in the Old Testament as well as in the New and was never more at home in conversation than when discussing the history and teachings of the Bible. One of the local newspapers, in commenting on his death, said: "Isom Toliver was a good citizen and an honest man, thoroughly upright in his dealings, charitable to the needy and hospitable to strangers, friends and neighbors. He was a generous man in the days when the country was new, was ready to lend a helping hand to those who needed assistance. He was jovial even in his old age and had a kind word and pleasant welcome for every one. To all who knew him his name will be his epitaph and will have the power to call up the recollections of his friendship and virtues."

G. S. Toliver

TOLIVER, REYNOLDS, GREENE, KING, STANFORD, MCCOY, MOSTELLER, MCCLURG, FORBES, MILLS, RUSSELL, BLAKE, TAYLOR, MILLIGAN, GOKE

Posted By: Debbie Clough Gerischer <Bare67deb@aol.com>
Date: 7/16/2005 at 15:08:08

G. S. TOLIVER

To Gillum S. Toliver, of Jefferson, Greene county, belongs the distinction of being the oldest member of the bar in his county, and his record of sixty-two years of continuous practice of his profession is probably not excelled in this state. During all these years, covering the most momentous events of the world's history, there has not been a time when he was not regarded as one of the leaders of the bar, while as a private citizen he has stood as the peer of any of his fellowmen. In the paternal line of descent Mr. Toliver come from old English ancestry, though the earliest antecedent of whom any definite facts are known was Jesse Toliver, of Virginia, from which state he joined the Continental army, serving seven years in the war of the Revolution, during five years of which time he was a captain of the line. Among his children was John Toliver, who became a farmer in Ashe county, North Carolina, and who was the father of Isom Toliver, who was born in Ashe county July 29, 1814. In young manhood the latter migrated to Owen county, Indiana, where he was married and where he devoted himself to the creation of a farm out of the wilderness which then characterized that section of the country. In the spring of 1848, with their five children, he and his wife started westward, traveling with oxen and wagon, wending their way through Illinois and Missouri and as far as Salem, Arkansas, when they decided that Richland county, Illinois, presented the best outlook for a future home, and there they located. This was their home until the fall of 1853, when again they started toward the setting sun. They spent the ensuing winter in Wapello county, Iowa, and on April 6, 1854, came to Greene county, where Mr. Toliver entered three hundred acres of government land. They were the tenth family to settle in this county and the fourth family west of the river in what is now Franklin township. Here Isom Toliver developed a valuable farm from the raw prairie and lived there until 1868, when he sold that place and bought an improved farm in Bristol township, where he made his home during the remaining years of his life, his death occurring there September 13, 1893. During the forty years in which he lived in this county he evinced the keenest interest in the welfare and development of the community, cooperating in every possible way for the advancement of the public good, and enjoyed t a marked degree the respect and confidence of his fellowmen. While living in Indiana he had been a member of the United Brethren church and he always stood for those things which were best in community life, his own life being an example of right living. He belonged to the Masonic order and exemplified its beneficent teachings in his actions. Politically he was a whig until the dissolution of that party, from which time he was a stanch republican. On August 6, 1836, in Owen county, Indiana, Isom Toliver was married to Miss Matilda Reynolds, who was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, a daughter of James and Sally (Greene) Reynolds, the latter a relative of General Nathanael Greene, of Revolutionary war fame. Mrs. Toliver died January 14, 1893. To them were born eleven children, four of whom died in childhood, the others being as follows: John H. was born in Indiana and came to Greene county with his parents. He enlisted for service in the Thirty-ninth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, of which he became fife major, but before going to the front he was taken sick and died in Davenport, Iowa, leaving a wife, whose maiden name was Nancy King. Gillum S. is the immediate subject of this sketch. J. M. became a prominent attorney of Lake City, Iowa, where he located in 1871. He was a second lieutenant of Company E, Thirty-ninth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and for years was district attorney for the northwestern district of this state. He was married to Mary Stanford, a daughter of James Stanford, an early settler of Greene county. J. C. served as a private for two years in Company H, Tenth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and afterward engaged in the practice of law in Ainsworth, Nebraska, where he also served as judge of the county court. He had been recorder of Greene county two terms. He married Ella McCoy, of this county. D. R., who became a member of the livery firm of Lower & Toliver, of Jefferson, was married to Margaret Mosteller, a daughter of Peter Mosteller, an early settler of Bristol township. Terry J. became the wife of A. H. McClurg, of Brush, Colorado. Isom M., who became a farmer in Molalla, Oregon, was married to Mollie Forbes, of Greene county.

Gillum S. Toliver was born in Owen county, Indiana, on the 11th of February, 1840, and was a lad of fourteen years when the family came to Greene county, Iowa. There was not at that time a schoolhouse in this county, but in the summer of 1856 he attended school for three months at Panora, Guthrie county, and in the winter of 1856-7 pursued his studies for three months when Captain A. R. Mills taught in the Brand schoolhouse in Washington township, Greene county. That winter there were ninety pupils in the school, coming from a radius of five miles up and down the river. He also attended school during the two following winters and taught school in the summer of 1859. The money which he earned teaching school in Washington township was contributed toward the building of a house on the home farm in Franklin township. In September, 1860, he walked from Greene county to Ottumwa, Iowa, to take the examination that would permit him to teach a school in Wapello county, where he had an uncle living. He was four days in making the trip, and all the money he had was a three dollar bill. Money was so scarce in the district that at the different places where he stopped for food and lodging no one could change the bill, until at his last stop a settler changed it and charged him ten cents for the accommodation. At Ottumwas he spent five cents for cheese and crackers, making his total expenses for the journey fifteen cents. While in Wapello county he worked on Saturdays in order to pay his board. During that winter he spent nine dollars for clothes and then in the spring he walked back home, carrying with him one hundred and forty-one dollars as the proceeds of his winter's work. Ambitious for further education, he then entered Western College, but while there the boys from Greene county who had enlisted for the war rendezvoused at Iowa City and Mr. Toliver, fired with the spirit of patriotism, enlisted in Company H, Tenth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, September 28, 1861, remaining with that command until discharged because of rheumatism in May, 1862. On his return home, he entered Iowa State University, at Iowa City, and later attended the law school of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. While in college, he was appointed county surveyor of Greene county, to fill a vacancy, serving one year, and then was elected to the full two year term. In 1868-9 he was elected county treasurer, in which position he proved himself an able and efficient public officer. In 1865 Mr. Toliver has been admitted to the bar and in 1870 he formed a law partnership with J. J. Russell, a relation which was continued uninterrupted until the death of Mr. Russell in 1901, this firm standing as the most prominent and successful law firm in Greene county. Since then Mr. Toliver has been alone in the practice and has sustained a reputation for keenness and sagacity that has been well merited, for he has been uniformly successful and has always been a foreman worthy of any man's steel. An eloquent and convincing speaker, thorough in his analysis, determined in his fight for any cause in which he is interested, and exceedingly safe and sound as an adviser, he has commanded the absolute confidence of the public and the highest measure of respect on the part of his professional colleagues, and easily stands in the very forefront of the distinguished lawyers of his section of the state. On February 26, 1873, Mr. Toliver was united in marriage to Miss Belle Blake, who was born in Pennsylvania, June 24, 1856, a daughter of Charles T. and Sarah A. (Taylor) Blake, the latter of whom was a relative of General Zachary Taylor. To Mr. and Mrs. Toliver were born two children: Iris, who became the wife of F. D. Milligan, of Jefferson; and Portia, who became the wife of A. W. Goke. Politically Mr. Toliver has been a lifelong supporter of the republican party and has maintained a keen interest in public affairs. He represented Greene, Calhoun, Pocahontas and Humboldt counties ably in the thirteenth general assembly and for thirty-six years was president of the commission for the insane of Greene county. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Kindly and courteous in manner, upright in character and clean in life, he has well merited the exalted place which he has long held.

-source: NORTHWESTERN IOWA ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION, VOLUME III 1804-1926
-transcribed by Debbie Clough Gerischer