THOMAS TOOGOOD (deceased)
was one of
the earliest settlers in Manchester.
For many years he was one of the
town's most active and public-spirited
citizens. He was well known in this general locality and
was greatly esteemed for his many virtues.
The hope is not entertained that anything can be said in this place, which will
render his name more unfading to those who knew him, or make more lasting the
impress which his character left on those with whom he lived.
His memory is secure, so far at
least as these are concerned.
This brief biography is written
simply to enroll his name among those of the worthy men, living and dead, whose
activity, foresight, public spirit and great confidence in the country,
contributed so largely towards making the town of Manchester and the county of Delaware what they are.
Thomas
Toogood was born in Somersetshire, England, March 22,
1829. He was the youngest of a family of five
children born to James and Jennie Toogood of whom were also of English birth,
natives of Somersetshire. His parents came to the United States in 1832, and settled near
Skaneateles, Onondaga county, N. Y. In that place the subject of this notice
was reared, as were also his brothers and sisters, and there the parents subsequently
lived and died. The children, three
sons and two daughters, afterwards
became citizens of this state, most of them residing here yet.
These are Charles, who now lives
at Dyersville, Dubuque county, having settled there in 1854; George, who died in Manchester, in
1876, an old and greatly respected citizen of the place; Jane E., now Mrs.
Francis Bethel; Mary A., now Mrs. G. C. Bradford (both of Manchester), and
Thomas, the subject of this sketch.
The
surroundings amidst which Thomas Toogood spent his earlier years were favorable
to the development of the best elements of his nature. He was brought up in a
community composed of an intelligent, thrifty people, possessing the same habits
and the same general pursuits, a people marked at all points for their strength
of character, and rising on occasion into the higher graces of life. His own
home was one of the best, presided over as it was by parents who possessed the
tenderest solicitude for their children, and whose natural endowments, as well
as worldly means, happily enabled them to give most practical and efficient
expression to this solicitude. Growing up to manhood, strong in mind and body,
and with deeply rooted convictions as to his duty to those around him, as well
as to the world at large, he easily assumed the responsibilities of life and
discharged them with promptness and the most faithful exactitude. For
thirty-two years Thomas Toogood resided in Manchester, and during that time few men
exceeded him in the interest he took in everything relating to the welfare of
his adopted home. It is not possible in a record like this to enumerate all of
the praiseworthy things done by one without making public some matters which
out of regard for the feelings of others it were best to leave unpublished.
General statements and things of common knowledge are all that can be given.
One of Mr. Toogood's first acts which proved a lasting benefit to Manchester, was his building the Clarence
House, in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Mr. Francis Bethel. This was done in 1855, shortly after he
settled in the place. The hotel was
among the first buildings erected in the town, and it was conducted by
Messrs. Toogood & Bethel as it was built until 1875, when the old
structure was torn away and the present three-story brick erected in its place. The partnership of Toogood
& Bethel was dissolved in 1885, Mr. Bethel retiring and Mr. Toogood
assuming control and direction of
affairs. He remained in
active charge of the hotel till his death, which occurred two years later. Upon
the organization of the Delaware County State Bank in 1867, Mr. Toogood
became director in
that bank and remained
one almost continuously as long as he lived, and had much to do with the success
of that institution. Besides these he
had outside interests of a general nature and was at all times connected some
way with every movement set on foot for the improvement of the town and county
in which he lived. He was an ardent republican
and he gave a warm support to his party's ticket in all contests
where there were party questions at issue. He never allowed the love for place or the
desire for popular applause to lead him into scrambles for office. He was distinguished in the
community where he resided as a
man of superior
mental strength, a man indeed of original thought. He read much and
reflected carefully on what he read.
He was a man of practical observation, and what he saw and learned of
an authentic nature he turned to good account. He took great interest in all public
questions, both religious and political.
Being satisfied only with the best sources of
information respecting these
questions he held opinions which he was able to defend with reason and understanding.
He was
liberal and truly catholic in spirit. He saw in nature the "universal
plan"; in manhood around him he saw possibilities for indefinite growth
and development, mental and spiritual, as well as the much boasted material,
but he felt and taught others to feel that this development is something to be
wrought out by each individual for himself, all acting in accordance with the
great propulsion towards the good, the true and the beautiful given by the
Original Source, which all must recognize and which many worship, under varying
forms and creeds. To him the family was the unit in church and state; and
indeed, in all things, it was to him the one integral and inviolable whole. Its
affinities, associations and many tender ministrations were in his eyes most sacred.
He loved his children with true parental affection. In the labor of giving a
real, lasting meaning to this love by the correct training of those committed
to his care, he was assisted by a wife, who was able to enter with "spirit
and understanding" into his best plans and purposes and who with true
womanly instinct gave him needed counsel and encouragement.
He became a
Mason when a comparatively young man, and was throughout life an enthusiastic
member of the fraternity. He belonged to Manchester Lodge, No. 165, F. and A.
M., to Olive Branch Chapter, No. 48, R. A. M., and to Nazareth Commandery, No.
33, Knights Templar, being junior warden of his commandery from the date of
its organization till his death. He filled numerous other positions also in the
several bodies of the craft and enjoyed every mark of esteem and confidence
which it was in the power of his fellow-Masons to show.
When he
came to Iowa Mr. Toogood was a single man. He remained single for six years
after settling here. His marriage occurred on the fourth
of April, 1861, and the lady on whom his choice fell for a companion was then a
resident of Delaware county, and one entitled to the
distinction of being mentioned as a pioneer school teacher of this county. This
was Miss Laura A. Peck, born in Otsego county, N. Y., October
12, 1836,
and a daughter of Solomon M. and Margaret V. (Simonson) Peck.. Mrs. Toogood came to Delaware county in 1855, and taught her
first school at Delaware Centre (then Acersville) in the spring of 1856. She
afterwards taught at Burrington (Manchester) and Coffin's Grove, in Delaware county, and on Buffalo creek in Buchanan county. The union
of Mr. and Mrs. Toogood was blessed by the birth of eight children, as follows
— Ella May, born February 1,1862, and died February 10, 1868; an infant, born
April 25, 1864, and died two days later; Martha B., born June 21, 1865; Harry
Peck, born January 21, 1867; Charles Clarence, born December 15, 1868; Jennie
May, born November 21, 1870 ; Frank Howard, born November 28, 1875, and James
Earle, born July 23, 1880.
On the
sixteenth of October, 1887, after a very brief illness, and with no warning of his
approaching dissolution, Thomas Toogood passed from earth. His remains were
followed to their last resting-place by a numerous train of sorrowing friends
and relatives, being deposited in the cemetery at Manchester, where
one of the
most splendid columns in Manchester's beautiful city of the dead marks
their place.
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