Information Sheet

 

 

R         Tolman, William Long, 1833-1886.

246                  Papers, 1852-1919.

                                    Five folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

These are papers of the Evans and Tolman families of Farmington, Missouri, mostly of Dr. Wil­liam L. Tolman and his wife, Margaret Frances “Fanny” Evans (1840-1921).  Included are let­ters from rela­tives in California and Colorado, a file of letters from Civil War veterans seeking in­va­lid pensions, and a collection of stories concerning the early settlers of St. Francois County.

 

Margaret Frances “Fanny” Evans was born in St. Francois County, Missouri, on 20 De­cem­ber 1840, the daughter of David Evans and Catharine (Murphy) Evans.  On 7 December 1869 she married Wil­liam Long Tolman, who was born on 23 July 1833 at Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio.  He was the son of Hosea and Elizabeth Tolman.  He received an M.D. degree from Mis­souri Medical College, St. Louis, in 1858.  During the Civil War he was a surgeon with the Tenth Missouri Cavalry.  After the war he established a medical practice in Farming­ton, Mis­souri, which he continued until his death on 23 April 1886.  Fanny (Evans) Tolman contin­ued to reside in Farmington until her death on 25 June 1921.

 

This collection has three sections.  The first consists of family and personal corre­spondence.  The second section relates to William L. Tolman’s service as a medical examiner for the Pension Office after the Civil War, including letters from former military comrades seeking his testimony concerning disability claims.  The third section is a collection of anecdo­tal stories collected by Dr. Tolman concern­ing some of the early settlers of St. Francois County and the surrounding area.

 

The personal and family correspondence begins with letters from Fanny Evans’s brother, Mi­chael Bacon Evans, who sought his fortune in the gold fields of California.  Par­ticu­larly sig­nifi­cant here are his comments about factional strife there before and during the Civil War.  Later there are papers dealing with Michael’s murder by Mexican soldiers, and re­cords of reparations paid to the family by the government of Mexico.  There are letters from Fanny’s relatives and friends in Mis­souri, and from W. L. Tolman’s relatives in Colorado.  In the late summer of 1882 Tolman visited Colorado, and there are letters to him from his wife describing events in Farm­ing­ton.  The papers of Fanny (Evans) Tolman continue until late in her life, and include items dealing with the Pres­byterian Church and Orphanage in Farming­ton, as well as announce­ments of various social and cultural activities.

 

The second section, containing military and pension correspondence, 1866-1890, stems from Dr. Tolman’s service as a Civil War surgeon with the Tenth Missouri Cavalry Vol­unteers.  This unit participated in the Vicksburg and Meridian campaigns in Mis­sissippi, re­turned to Mis­souri for the defense against Price’s Raid in 1864, but ended the war back in the southeast at Ma­con, Geor­gia.  Tolman was mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee, in June 1865.  The first items in this sec­tion are con­cerned with the loss of Tolman’s personal effects and medical records in the sinking of the steamboat B. M. Runyan in the Mississippi River on 21 July 1864.  In 1872 Tolman was ap­pointed an examining surgeon on disability claims by the Pension Of­fice of the Department of the Interior.  There are several circulars and other communications regarding this service.  How­ever, most of the letters are from former com­rades in the Tenth Missouri Cavalry who were seek­ing dis­ability pensions.  They needed the tes­timony of their former medical officer to satisfy the re­quire­ments of the Pension Office.  However, since Tol­man had lost his medical records in the sinking of the Runyan, he asked that the applicants describe in detail when, where, and how they had been disabled, and what treatments they had received.  The resulting responses provide a unique record of service-related injuries to Civil War soldiers.

 

The final section is a collection of anecdotal accounts about some of the early settlers and events in St. Francois County and the surrounding area.  Compiled in 1878 by William Long Tol­man, the seventeen-page manuscript recounts several stories, some alleged to have occurred over fifty years previously.  Some of the anecdotes are humorous, and deal with such subjects as frontier justice, bear hunting, and wolf baiting.  Family names mentioned in the stories include Holliman, McFarland, Marks, Jekyll, Sebastian, and Murphy.

 

 

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