TOOMBS GENEALOGY
(version 10/15/11)
Please email corrections to Mike Clark

1. Thomas Toombs was born in Buckinghamshire, England on Feb. 7, 1795, and his wife Ann Willis was born there in 1789. They were married in England, about 1816, and sailed in 1830 with their children to the United States to settle in Oneida County in central New York, probably in or near the town of Sangerfield. Thomas became a U.S. citizen in Oneida County in 1835, afterwhich he and Ann moved their family west in 1839 to a settlement in Racine County, Wisconsin that was known then as Foxville, but later came to be called Burlington. They evidently followed their daughter Elizabeth, who had settled with her husband Heman Loomis in Foxville three years earlier. The Toombs most likely caught a ship in upstate New York, probably at Sacketts Harbor, and sailed through the Great Lakes to a landing in Wisconsin somewhere between Milwaukee and Chicago.

   Thomas and Ann homesteaded a farm in Foxville on the east bank of the Fox River, just in front of their daughter's farm. The site of the old Toombs homestead can be found just south of town on Brever Road, where it makes its closest pass to a bend in the river. It is near Bushnell Park, which is named for Thomas Toomb's great grandaughter Ida Bushnell. Thomas died on the Toombs farm on Oct. 22 or 28, 1852, and Ann died there May 7, 1857. Both are buried nearby in the Old Burlington Cemetery, which is where the pioneer graves of Burlington are located and sits on a separate hill northeast of the main, better known Burlington Cemetery.

   children - TOOMBS

   Elizabeth Toombs was born on Aug. 6, 1818 in Buckinghamshire, England; and married Heman Loomis (1807-1847) on Aug. 31, 1835 in New York, probably in Sangerfield, Oneida County, which was where Heman had been born on Aug. 24, 1807. Unfortuantely, Heman was distantly related to and had the same last name as the notorious Loomis family gang of Nine Mile Swamp near Sangerfield, and he may have chosen to move out of state to avoid being associated with his infamous relations. In any event, Heman and Ellizabeth in 1836 moved to Wisconsin, where they were among the first settlers of Foxville, which later became known as Burlington. They homesteaded a location near the Fox River, just behind the plot where Elizabeth's parents would settle three years later. Elizabeth and Heman had four children, all born on their farm, and although there is some dispute about it, their son Charles is said in some sources to have been the first child born in Burlington. Elizabeth died in Burlington in late 1847, possibly in September, and Heman died shortly thereafter on November 2. Both Elizabeth and Heman are buried in the Old Burlington Cemetery, near where Elizabeth's parents, who survived them, would later be buried. The U.S. Census of 1850 shows that after Elizabeth and Heman's passing, three of their children - Charles, Charlotte and Mary - were living with Elizabeth's parents, and Caroline, the fourth child was with the family of Nathaniel Dickinson. Elizabeth and Heman's children are listed below.

   • Charles William Loomis (1838-1915) was born May 1, 1838, and is said by some to be the first child born in Burlington. He married Hannah Britton (1843-1915) and had a daughter named Lottie Loomis (1866-1935), who married her cousin Seymour Hollister (1845-1916), the son of Asa Hollister and Sarah Toombs.
   • Caroline Louisa Loomis (1841-1909) was born March 22, 1841 in Burlington and married Frank Amos (1840-1901), who operated a lumber business in Oshkosh, Wisconsin with his brother-in-law Asa Hollister. Caroline and Frank had two daughters - Edith Florence Amos (1870-1949), who married John George Morris (1865-1935); and Ida Amos (b. c.1871). Edith has present-day descendants living in Wisconsin.
   • Charlotte L. Loomis (1844-1925) was born April 6, 1844 in Burlington. Sometime after her parents died, she was adopted by the Remingtons. She married Alonzo S. Wortman on Oct. 21, 1875 in Wheatland, Wisconsin. She died April 16, 1925 in Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, and is buried in the main Burlington Cemetery.
   • Mary Loomis (b. 1846) was born Sept. 3, 1846 in Burlington and married Ammos Lee Earle on Mar. 28, 1871 in Oshkosh. They had four children - Wilbur, Lilly, Roy and Ina.

   Samuel Toombs was born on Feb. 24, 1820 in England; and married Artemesia Rose (b. May 6, 1830) on April 18, 1850 in Yorkville, Wisconsin. He followed his brother William to California by taking the Isthmus of Panama route in 1851-52, bringing with him William's wife and baby daughter. They sailed first to the Atlantic Coast of the Isthmus of Panama in the fall and winter of 1851, and crossed by land to the Pacific side. They then caught the Gold Hunter steamer at the port of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua on Dec. 9, 1851 for a 23-day voyage to San Francisco, stopping en route at San Diego on Dec. 30, and landing at San Francisco on Jan. 2, 1852. A long stage ride then brought them to William at Hangtown. Samuel remained in the gold fields seven years before returning to Wisconsin, said to be none the richer, where he lived out the rest of his life. Samuel died on the old Toombs farm on Nov. 4, 1902, his death apparently brought on by a long period of feebleness, but hastened by a broken arm. Artemisia died on Feb. 24, 1919, after being bed-ridden for more than a year. Both are buried in the Burlington Cemetery, probably the modern one, and not the same place where Samuel's parents rest. Samuel and Artemisia had three children:

   • Sarah Adelaide Toombs was born on Nov. 15, 1851 and married William K. Bushnell (1848-1940) on Nov. 20, 1870 in Burlington. William's father David Bushnell was one of the first settlers of Foxville (Burlington). Sarah died on Nov. 30, 1936 and was survived by Ida Bushnell, her only surviving child. However, there may have been two other children - Charlie and Lois - who died young. Ida was born on Sept. 5, 1875; and died single on the Bushnell farm on June 15, 1966. Ida from 1943-1948 wrote an Early History of the Toombs Family. She was the last of the Toombs and Bushnell family to live in Burlington, and when she died she donated the family farm to the city for a popular park that is now known as Bushnell Park.
   • Jerome Toombs of Orson, Iowa, who was born Mar. 6, 1852; and married Mary Burns on Dec. 31, 1887, but had no children. He died Oct. 18, 1893.
   • Albert "Allie" S. Toombs was born on Dec. 4, 1863 in Burlington; and married Isadora Florence Richards on Dec. 31, 1887. He moved in 1914 to Pompey's Pillar in Montana, where he died on Jan. 22, 1943. He had no children.

   William Toombs (b. Jan. 31, 1824), who follows:

   Sarah Toombs was born on Aug. 22, 1827; and married Asa Hollister (b. 1817) on Nov. 20, 1842 in Burlington. Asa was in the lumber business with Sarah's brother-in-law Frank Amos, and three of Asa's sons - William (1843–1896), Seymour (1845–1916) and Guy (1867–1909) - eventually took over the business. Two other children were Anna (b. 1856) and Philip (b. 1859). Asa died in 1890, and Sarah died in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on March 30, 1907.

   Aurelia (Aurillia) Toombs was born on Aug. 13, 1830 and married John W. Edmonds on Jan. 1, 1847 in Burlington. John was a blacksmith and the first wagon-maker of Burlington. Aurelia and John had two sons - James and Clark.

    

2. William Toombs, the son of Ann Willis and Thomas Toombs, was born in Buckinghamshire, England on Jan. 31, 1824; and settled in 1839 with his family in the pioneer town of Burlington in Racine County, Wisconsin. There he met Frances Maria Smith, who had been born in New York on Sept. 25 (or 24), 1825 and settled in Burlington, probably in the 1830s, with her brother and widowed mother Nancy Smith. William and Francis were married in Dover, Wisconsin on Aug. 17, 1846 (or Aug. 24, 1847); and their daughter Ellen was born April 1849. Despite having just become a father, William, who as the younger son of Thomas probably stood to inherit little to nothing, left home in mid-1849 during the Gold Rush and headed west to California. He is said to have traveled with a light wagon in a company of men from Racine County that included Antony Meinhardt and Samuel Cooper - Antony returning home seven years later to great reknown to become a prominent Burlington banker. William and his companions arrived in El Dorado County, California in January 1850 after a journey of several months, said nonetheless to be a faster journey than most, and settled in for the winter at the notorious mining settlement of "Hangtown", which later became Placerville.

   Midsummer of 1850, William was caught up in the El Dorado Indian War, which began when Indians were accused of murdering a miner, and an 800-man militia was recruited by Sheriff Uncle Billy Rogers to subdue the "savages". The Hangtown militia camped out at Jack "Cockeyed" Johnson's trading post at Johnson's Ranch at Six-Mile House, which was near modern Camino about six miles out of Hangtown, and on the Johnson's Cut-off trail to Carson Valley, Nevada. Plenty of gold dust flowed into Johnson's coffers at the trading post, but little else was accomplished except for a few patrols that made forays into the hills, but found no Indians. Wisely, the Indians hid in the high country, and waited till the following Spring when the militia disbanded, before descending on Diamond Springs, downstream from Six-Mile House, to raid a few cabins.

   The war started anew in May of 1851 when William was with a group of prospectors on the Consumnes River, not far from Diamond Springs, panning and sluicing gold along a stretch of the river between the Wisconsin Bar and the Middle Fork. One night after William and his partners - who included Davidson, Morris, Esterbrook, Kerkuf and Wade - bedded down, they were attacked by Indians. Wade was killed in the ambush, but the rest escaped across the river on fallen logs, making their way in the darkness to Johnson's trading post. A new militia hastily assembled and engaged the Indians in a few brief skirmishes. During one of these encounters, William's partner Mr. Courier, who had crossed the plains with William and Antony Meinhardt, was killed, and another man wounded. Several Indians were killed as well, but things quited down after a few days, and the militia disbanded for good.

   William continued prospecting and became known to his peers as "Honest Billie", due to his trustworthy nature. In fact, it is said that miners often trusted him with their gold dust. His grandaughter Mary Toombs Carty also remembers stories from her father about how Honest Billie played the fiddle and would entertain at dances and gatherings. A picture of Honest Billy smoking his pipe and looking very much the pleasant fellow, probably taken sometime in the late 1880s or early 1890s, is shown on the left.

   Deciding to make Hangtown his home, Honest Billy brought his wife Frances and 2-year old daughter Ellen out to join him in 1852 - their arrival apparently causing quite a stir among the miners when their stagecoach rolled into town. They came with William's older brother Samuel, who made the journey in 1852 by ship, with a land crossing of the Isthmus of Panama to change from a ship on the Atlantic side to one on the Pacific side. Their ship, which was a 172-ft long wooden side-wheel steamer named the Gold Hunter, arrived in San Francisco on Jan. 2, 1852, after a 23-day voyage from San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. They settled first in the mining camp of "Coon Hollow", on the southeast side of Placerville, then moved six miles north of town in 1861 to a proper home in White Rock Canyon, on the South Fork of the American River. Later in 1866, William bought from Alfred Briggs the old Wooster Ranch (w/2 sec 24, T11N, R11E), a 320-acre homestead in the canyon.

   William like most of the 49ers panned and sluiced for gold in his early days, but the pickings in most places were thin, and he eventually turned to mining. He no doubt worked several mines during his career, but in later years he owned the Thistle Placer Mine, which was located just west of his White Rock Canyon home. This mine was probably a shaft designed to pierce a lava cap that covers the area, thereby giving access to the ancient Deep Blue Lead river channel hidden beneath, where William would have been able to dig for gold-bearing gravels, called placers, right above the bedrock, which is one of the better places to find gold.

   Sometime prior to the 1870 census, and probably just after completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, William's mother-in-law Nancy Smith journeyed out from Wisconsin to join the rest of the family in Placerville. Grandma Smith died at White Rock Canyon on Dec. 29, 1879, and William and Frances passed away there in 1892 - William on April 8, and Francis two days later on April 10. Both probably died from the flu. William, Frances and Nancy are all buried in the old Union Cemetery in Placerville, with William and Francis in the Morning Star Lodge No. 20 I.O.O.F. (Oddfellows) Lot of the cemetery.

   children - TOOMBS

   Ellen Julia Toombs was born on March 31, 1848 in Burlington, Wisconsin and married James Loten Forbes in El Dorado County on July 2, 1876. She was a schoolteacher and taught for ten years in El Dorado County. She died Nov. 11, 1883 in Sacramento, and is buried Placerville Union Cemetery. Ellen and James had at least two children:

   • Gertrude Forbes was married to and later divorced from Mr. Lash by whom she had a daughter named Marion. Her second husband was Emmet Hollingworth by whom she had two sons.
   • Curtis Forbes was wounded in World War I.

   Sarah Frances Toombs was born in Placerville on Nov. 9, 1852 and married an Irishman named Michael Sexton on Aug. 19, 1869, when she was seventeen years old. Michael, who had been born in 1845, served as a soldier in Company C of the 9th Infantry Regiment, which had been stationed in California after the Civil War. He may be the same as a Michael Sexton of Dublin who enlisted in 1866 at the age of 21 in New York, but this needs to be confirmed. He worked at various jobs, including ditch agent and brick layer, and was buried with a military headstone in the Placerville Union Cemetery on Feb. 23, 1908 at the age of 62 years and 8 Months. Sarah died in Placerville on Nov. 5, 1944, and is buried in the same cemetery. Sarah and Michael had four children who are listed below.

   • Frances M. Sexton, was born June 15, 1872 in Placerville, and died July 4, 1874, when she was two years old. She is buried in the Placerville Union Cemetery in the same grave as her grandparents William and Frances Toombs.
   • Mary Ellen (Nellie) Sexton was born July 23, 1872 at Reservoir Hill in Placerville. She married in 1893 Harrison Laurence McBeth, whose father Robert McBeth (1822-1911) had been born in Scotland as Robert MacBeath, and simplified his surname to McBeth when he became a U.S. Citizen in Placerville on May 10, 1858. Nellie and Harrison had three sons, who are listed below. Harrison, who had been born on Feb. 15, 1869 in Webber Creek, El Dorado County, died Sept. 19, 1945 in Placerville, and Nellie died April 18, 1950 in a rest home in Sacramento.
     • William Robert McBeth (1897-1971) served as a U.S. Marine in Asia during WWI, but saw no fighting. He married Etta Mae Danielson (d. 1971) in a double wedding with his brother in 1921, and had a daughter, Helen Mae McBeth born Feb. 16, 1922 in Placerville, and a son Robert McBeth born April 3, 1927 in Eureka, California. William and Etta Mae separated shortly after 1927, during which time Helen and Robert lived with various relatives, Helen generally staying with Laurence and Irene MacBeth. William eventually divorced Etta Mae, remarried, and moved to Gold Beach, Oregon.
     • Roy Earl McBeth (1901-1970).
     • Harrison Laurence McBeth, Jr. (1895-1975), who went by the name Lawrence MacBeth. Apparently, the family name was originally MacBeath, but various members spelled it MacBeath, MacBeth or McBeth - Harrison, Jr. and his brother Roy choosing MacBeth. He served in Europe during WWI and married Irene V. Maciel (1902-1987), in a double wedding with his brother William Robert, the wedding taking place in 1921 at Sarah Sexton's house in Placerville. Lawrence and Irene moved to Roseville, California, where he worked for the Post Office. They raised one daughter, Evelyn Bernice MacBeth, who was born March 26, 1922. For awhile they also took care of their niece Helen Mae Mcbeth, after Helen's parents separated. Mary Toombs Swansborough (see below) was very close to her little nieces Evelyn and Helen and wrote her family history for them. Irene, whose parents were actually from the Azores Islands, was very interested in genealogy and wrote a short family history - Notes by Irene MacBeth - that compliments Mary's history.

   • William T. Sexton was born Jan. 1874. He is said to have served in WWI, where he was a mustard gas victim, but he survived and was buried in the Placerville Union Cemetery on Jan. 4, 1937 at the age of 62.
   • Herbert L. Sexton was born June 12, 1875 at White Rock Canyon in Placerville, and married Fannie Peyton of Plymouth on November 29th, 1910. They moved to Roseville, California, where they owned the Puritan Candy Store. He died on Aug. 28, 1915 at his mother's home in Placerville and is burried in the Placerville Union Cemetery. Herbert and Fannie had no children.

   Mary Toombs was born at Texas Hill near Placerville on Feb. 11, 1855; and married on July 4, 1880 a miner named Thomas Swansborough (b. 1852), who had been born in England and whose father, named Thomas also, had come to Placerville during the Gold Rush. Thomas was a gravel (placer) miner with particular expertise in hydraulic mining methods, and for a period around 1900 he worked in Playa Rica in the Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador doing placer mining for the Playa De Oro Mining Company. He and Mary from 1910 to 1915 also owned the Candy Kitchen in Placerville, a business owned once before by Mary's cousin Joe Hassler. They then ran the Arcade Bakery until 1925. Thomas died in Placerville on May 11, 1936, and Mary died there on June 9, 1941. Both are buried in the Swansborough Family Plot in the Uppertown Cemetery, which sits on a hill overlooking Placerville. Mary and Tom never had children of their own, but they were very close to their nieces Evelyn MacBeth and Helen McBeth (both born in 1922), and much of the information contained in this family history was collected by Mary shortly before her death and written down in a narrative titled "The History of Evelyn's and Helen's Maternal Grandmothers.

   William Louis Toombs (b. Jan. 27, 1856), who follows:

   Charles Gilbert Toombs, who was born in 1863; and married Caroline (Carrie) Josephine Rodemark in Placerville on Nov. 11, 1890. Caroline, who was born in California on April 9, 1868, was the daughter of a german gold miner named Albert, and his wife Emma. Charles and Caroline had one son, who is listed below. Charles died in Placerville on Dec. 8, 1934, where he is buried in the old Union Cemeterey next to his brother William. Caroline died on July 4, 1944 and is buried in the same cemetery.

   • Albert William Toombs, who was born in Placerville on April 10, 1892. He joined the army in 1918, during WWI, and served in the home guard. He married in Placerville on Oct. 2, 1922 Suzanne (Susie) Mary Revaz, who had been born in Colorado on May 15, 1902. Albert in the 1930s worked for the State as a cook at the Preston School of Industry in Ione, and Agnews State Hospital in San Jose. Later, Albert and Susie owned a ranch in Placerville, where they raised their five children. Albert died in Placerville on March 11, 1978, and Susie died in Sacramento, California on Aug. 4, 1985. Both Albert and Susie are buried in the Placerville Union Cemetery. Albert's cousin Mary Toombs (b. 1896) recounted that because Albert used to tease her she didn't like him and as consequence scratched him out of one of the childhood photographs we have of her.
     • Doris Mary Toombs was born in Placerville Oct. 15, 1923; and married Leonard J. Zimmeran in Placerville on Oct. 28, 1945. She died April 15, 2003 in Placerville.
     • Albert Charles Toombs was born in Placerville on Feb. 9, 1925. He married Joyce Colleen Irwin on June 20, 1948, and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico where he lives today. Their son Michael Albert Toombs was born in Placerville on April 5, 1949, married Karen M. Reynolds (b. 1951) in Dallas, Texas on Aug. 14, 1971, and divorced her in San Diego in March, 1977.
     • Alice Lois Toombs was born in Placerville on Jan. 5, 1927. She married Lynn N. Talbott on Nov. 17, 1946, and moved to Sacramento, California. She may currently live in Placerville.
     • Lois Adaine Toombs was born in Placerville on Oct. 16, 1928. She married James Thomas Lawson in 1946 and lives today in Diamond Springs, California. They had at least one daughter, Susan Carol Lawson, who lived Dec. 24-31, 1953, and is buried in the same grave as her grandparents Albert and Susie. There also appears to be another daughter, who goes by the name Sharon Lawson-Munoz.
     • Gladys Elaine Toombs was born in Placerville on July 5, 1935, and married a man named McClusky. She lived in Carmichael, California, and died in Sacramento on Feb. 8, 1975.

    

3. William Louis Toombs, the son of William Toombs and Francis Maria Smith, was born in Placerville, California on Jan. 27, 1857. He married in Placerville on April 24, 1879 Mary Agatha Hassler (b. Nov. 12, 1858), who lived on the neighboring ranch. When Mary was a little girl in the town of Donaueschingen in Baden, Germany her father had died, and Mary's mother decided to seek her fortune elsewhere. The family sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in California in 1868. Mary and William raised a family for several years at the Toombs family ranch in White Rock Canyon, seven miles north of town. However, Mary eventually desired a better environment in which to raise their family, and left William around 1900 to move their children to Alameda, where she operated a grocery store, and later a boarding house, with her unmarried younger brother Joseph. William remained in Placerville and continued to eke out a living panning the same gold streams that his father, Honest Billy, had worked since the Gold Rush. He eventually sold most of the family ranch at White Rock Canyon to his oldest son Frank, but retained a few acres on Hassler Road that was known as White Oak Flats, where he continued panning for gold, working a mine tunnel next to his cabin, and raising strawberries on the flats below for a cash crop. He deeded to Mary in 1911 one-quarter of the mining interest in his land. She died in Oakland on July 31, 1933, probably none the richer from her interest in the mine. William appears to have inherited another 27 acres in White Rock Canyon from his brother-on-law Thomas Swansbrough in 1936, but a lien was placed against the property the next year for back taxes owed the county. William spent several months in the early part of 1938 in the Placerville hospital as a county-supported invalid, and finally died on May 2, 1938 from an "acute coronary occlusion". He is buried in the old Placerville Union Cemetery next to his brother Charles.

   

    

   children - TOOMBS (all born in Placerville)

   Charles Francis (Frank) Toombs was born in Placerville on April 26, 1880, and remained there when his mother moved the rest of the family to Alameda around the turn of the century. He eventually purchased most of his father's ranch in White Rock Canyon, thereby becoming the third generation of Toombs men to live on the property. He married in Placerville on May 5, 1907 Mabel Marian Larsen, a noted painter from the old Camino district in Placerville. He and Mabel later built a Spanish-style house on a hill in the northeast part of the ranch, choosing not to live the much smaller house that he was born in. They planted a pear orchard around the old house, and he eventually became one of the most successful fruit growers in El Dorado County. After he retired in 1952, he and Mabel lived in Carmel, California for twelve years, returning to Placerville in 1964, where he died on April 14, 1969. Mabel had been born August 25, 1887 in Camino, on the east side of Placerville, and was a descendant of the pioneer Larsen family of Placerville. She was also a self taught painter, well-known in Placerville and Carmel, who painted floral settings in oil and signed as Maybelle Toombs. While in Carmel, she was active member of the Carmel Art Association. She died in Placerville on November 15, 1972. Frank and Mabel are buried at the East Lawn Cemetery in Sacramento. They left no children.

   Coral Toombs was born on April 26, 1883 and died at the age of two.

   Agnes Eleanor Toombs was born on Sept. 24, 1883, and moved with her mother to Alameda. She married John Harvey Spence of Canada, a building contractor, in 1919. They lived in Danville, California; and Agnes died July 1, 1968 in San Francisco County. Agnes and John had three daughters:

   • Bernice Spence was born July 6, 1910; and married Charles Hansen. She died in 1977. Bernice and Charles had two children.
     • Robert Hansen, was born May 15, 1937; and married Nancy Voltmer. He died June 6, 2008. Robert and Nancy had two children - James and Jeffrey Hansen.
     • Carolyn Hansen married Chuck Clifton and had two children, Kenneth and Charlene Clifton. Their daughter Charlene married John Nieto, with whom she has two children, Allan Nieto and Jessica Nieto.
   • Grace Spence was born in 1912; and died on July 26, 1928 of appendicitis.
   • Phyllis Spence was born August 3, 1915; and married James Parish. She died in 1998. They had two children.
     • Douglas Spence married Paula Watkins and had a son named Scott Spence.
     • Sharon Spence married Dave Smith and had a daughter named Christine Smith.

   Edgar Arnold (Ned) Toombs was born April 21, 1886, probably in Placerville; and married Mae Cunha about 1918. Mae was born Sept. 9, 1889 in California. They had a prune ranch and cabinet shop in Gilroy, California. Ned died Feb. 23, 1970 in Gilroy, and Mae died there March 2, 1971. They had one daughter who is listed below.

   • Gwendolyn Barbara Toombs was born April 19, 1919 in Gilroy; and married first William Ray Porter (b. 1918), with whom she had two sons - William and James. She married secondly John William Altenburg, with whom she had a daughter; and married thirdly William Fletcher Sanchez in Nevada on Oct. 15, 1977. Her last husband is believed to have been Vernon Gillot. She is believed to have died in California, but this is not confirmed.

   Ruby Anna Toombs was born Oct. 2, 1889 and married Leo Thomas Critchlow in 1919, who had been born in Strongsberg, Nebraska on Dec. 4, 1891. They moved to Pacific Grove, and later Monterey, where Leo owned a marine machine shop and worked as a mechanic while Ruby kept the books. They had three boys, all born in Monterey - James Thomas, who was born Sept. 18, 1919, Leo Allen, who was born Jan 11, 1923, and Robert William, who was born July 1, 1924. About 1946, just after the end of WWII, Ruby and Leo moved to Oregon City, right on the Willamette River near Portland, Oregon, where he had a commercial fishing license and fished for Lamprey Eels. He died in the Portland/Oregon City area on Sept, 23, 1963, and Ruby died in San Francisco on July 23, 1964. They have descendants who still live in the Monterey area.

   Mary Louise "Minnie" Toombs (b. Mar. 22, 1896), who follows:

   Thomas William Toombs, the youngest boy was born on Sept. 13, 1898, and grew up in Alameda. He married Eugenia (Aunt Babe) Leona Dungan in 1920, who had been born Aug. 25, 1900, probably in Alameda. As both Babe and Tom grew up in Alameda, that most likely was where their wedding was held. Tom worked for a short time for his brother-in-law Ned Toombs in Gilroy, probably in Ned's prune orchard, then later moved to Pacific Grove, near Monterey, where he worked as a commercial fisherman. He died in Pacific Grove on Feb. 16, 1969, and is buried in the cemetery there. Babe was still living at their house on Junipero Avenue in Pacific Grove in 1979, but she eventually moved back to Alameda where she died on Oct. 12, 1990. Her sister-in-law Mary Toombs Carty used to tell a story about how Mary and Babe decided in the early 1920s to cut their long hair in the "bob" style that was all the rage at the time, but only if they did it together. So Babe cut Mary's hair, but then decided that she wanted keep her long tresses, much to Mary's chagrin. Thomas and Babe had two children, who are listed below.

   • Nadine Kathleen Toombs was born Nov. 3, 1923 in Alameda, California, and graduated from Pacific Grove High School in Monterey in 1941. Her first husband was a man named McGill, with whom she had two daughters, both born in Monterey - Pamela Jean McGill on Nov. 19, 1944 and Cynthia Lee McGill on Aug. 20, 1946. Pam married Jon V. Hokanson (b. c.1955) on Sept. 27, 1975 in Contra Costa County, and Cindy married Alexander G. Onli (b. c.1942) on Oct. 10, 1981 in Santa Clara County. Their mother Nadine married her second husband John M. McCoy (b. 1926) in 1950, and divorced him in Santa Clara County in 1973. She and John had three daughters - Bunny McCoy who was born c.1953 and married Danny G. Upton, Dianne K. McCoy who was born June 19, 1959 in Santa Clara County, Lynne E. McCoy who was born Nov. 6, 1962 in Kings County. Nadine married her third husband Robert L. Viles (b. 1927) in Reno, Nevada on June 6, 1981, and at some point moved to Port Orford, Oregon, where Nadine died in a rest home in nearby Bandon, Oregon on Dec. 6, 1998, and Robert died in Port Orford on May 22, 1999.
   • Kenneth Roland Toombs was born Jan. 13, 1927 in Alameda, California, and died in a car accident at the age of two on Nov. 6, 1929 in the driveway of his house in Monterey County. He is interred at the Chapel of the Chimes Mausoleum in Oakland in the same annex as grandmother Agatha Toombs and Uncle Joe Hassler.

    

4. Mary Louise (Minnie) Toombs, the daughter of William Louis Toombs and Mary Agatha Hassler, was born in the mining town of Placerville, California on March 22, 1896 in the old Toombs farmhouse that still stands on Hassler road. While growing up there, she remembered how, when tagging along with her brothers and sisters to school, the Indians would steal her lunch if she failed to keep up. She was too young to actually take classes, which were held in the old one-room schoolhouse on Union Ridge Road, but she came along for fun and sat out of the way in the back of the classroom. Her brothers and sisters of course always walked there as fast as they could and teased her that the Indians would get her if she dropped behind.

   When Mary was still little, her mother moved most of the family to Alameda for better schools and nicer weather, while her father and brother Frank remained in Placerville. Mary eventually became a teacher and married another teacher Henry James Carty on Feb. 14, 1920 at St. Mary's Church in Oakland, California. They later moved to southern California, and raised a family. After Henry died in Hollywood, California on June 21, 1952, Mary married her second husband Angelo Joseph Musante (b. 1893) in Los Angeles, California on Nov. 27, 1959. Angelo died on Oct. 1986 in Corona de Mar, where they lived a short distance from Balboa Island. Mary died there on Nov. 16, 1990, and she and her first husband Henry are buried in the Calvary Cemetery in east Los Angeles. For the children of Mary and Henry please see the CARTY GENEALOGY.

NOTE: There is a Reginald Rex Raymond Toombs (b. 6/29/1910, Montana) who died in Placerville on March 24, 1956, and a Robert Parker Toombs (b. 3/14/23 in Utah) who died in Placerville on Jan. 4, 1985. Also, a Sandra Lea Toombs (b. 8/16/54 in Sacramento, mother's maiden name is Palmateer) of Placerville married Duane Thomas Shields on Nov. 24, 1973. The relationship, if any, of these people to William Toombs the 49er is unknown.

THE ANCESTRY OF FRANCES MARIA SMITH - Sometime after 1762 Monsieur Geraud, a french Huguenot, immigrated to the United States to escape religious persecution and settled in New York. His daughter named Tamar married a man named John? Drake, said to have been a descendent of Sir Francis Drake's brother. Tamar and her husband lived on the American side of Niagara Falls, where they ran a hostelry and raised a large family. Their daughter Nancy Drake, was born on Jan. 14, 1801 at Sacketts Harbor in New York, which is located downstream from Niagara and sits on Lake Ontario. Tamar Drake, whose name is found with various spellings such as Tamor and Tomar, is listed as a widow in the U.S. Census of 1830 and 1840, first at Houndsfield then at Sackets Harbor, both in New York. Thus, she lived at least until after 1840.

When Tamar's daughter Nancy was 16 years old she married an army sergeant named James Smith and had two children, a boy and a girl. However, She became a widow shortly after the children were born; and moved to Burlington, Wisconsin, where she had relatives. The identities of these relatives are uncertain, but in 1846 Capt. Francis McCumber and his family had a farm almost next door to the Toombs farm, and Nancy was a member of the McCumber household in the U.S. Census of 1860. Apparently, McCumber had been one of the best known ship captains on the Great Lakes, before he retired to Burlington, and he was responsible for delivering many of Burlington's settlers from his home port of Sackets Harbor, where Nancy had been born, to the shores of Wisconsin. The interesting coincidence is that the maiden name of his wife, who had been born in Canada in 1804, was Frances Drake, and she and McCumber had been married in Sacketts Harbor in 1832. Perhaps she and Nancy were sisters?

Nancy's daughter, named Frances Maria Smith, grew up in Burlington, and on Aug. 17, 1846 married an Englishman named William Toombs, who lived on a neighboring farm. William followed the Gold Rush to California in 1849, and Frances joined him in 1852 with their two-year old daugher. Nancy came to California as well, probably by train in 1869 or 1870, after the trans-continental railroad had been built, and died in Placerville, California on Dec. 29, 1879, where she is buried in the old Union Cemetery.

REFERENCES:

1. Aunt Mary Swansborough, written c. 1930, The History of Evelyn's and Helen's Maternal Grandmothers: family papers, 3 p.

2. Mary Swansborough, undated, A Narrative of the Pioneer Indians of El Dorado County: submitted to the Mt. Lassen Geographical Research Society in a contest sponsored by the Native Daughters of the Golden West, 3 p.

3. Ida M. Bushnell, written c.1943-1948, Early History of the Toombs Family: family papers, 1 p.

4. Irene MacBeth, Dec. 27, 1960 and June, 1969?, Notes by Irene MacBeth: family papers, 2 p.

5. An interview of Mary Musante (Minnie Toombs) by her granddaughter Janet Clark in April, 1983.

6. Toombs & Hassler Family Tombstone Inscriptions. Also, tombstone photos at

7. Toombs Family Obituaries & Biographies - Burlington, Wisconsin

8. Toombs Family Newspaper Articles - Placerville, California

9. Archives of the El Dorado County Museum

by Janet & Michael Clark

Please email corrections to Mike Clark