"History of Southern Oregon, Comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and
Coos Counties.  Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources."  A. G. Walling,
Publisher.  Portland, OR.  1884.  pg. 541.

GEN. JAMES CLARKE TOLMAN

     One of the leading citizens of Jackson county and foremost among the
representative men of Oregon, is Gen. James Clarke Tolman, Surveyor General of
this state.  A man of great decision of character and executive ability, he has
always occupied the position of leader of his fellowmen, and after fifty years
of active participation in the affairs of his country, retains the confidence
and respect of not only his political associates, but of adherents to the
opposing party.  From his youth an enthusiastic whig, he has been, during the
lifetime of the party, a consistent and unswerving, republican.  He comes of a
family of patriots and pioneers, and inherited the genuine pioneer instincts,
those of the higher type -- not the feeling that makes one shun the intellectual
advantages and refinements of older communities because of a lack of sympathy
with, and appreciation of, them, but that nobler sentiment which impels its
possesor to carve out his own fortune from the crude material and to develop and
improve the wilderness in accordance with the creator's plan of upward
progression.  His father, Seth Tolman, was of Holland extraction and Mary, his
mother, English, a daughter of Captain Clarke, a veteran of the Revolutionary
war, serving in the ranks of the continentals from the Boston tea party till the
close of the long struggle for independence.  When the war was over his parents
settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania, but by discreet conduct managed to
escape ruin from the devastations of the Tom Tinker whisky insurrectionists. 
They next removed to Marrietta, Ohio, where they were frequently compelled to
"fort up" in block houses with their neighbors to defend themselves from hostile
Indians.  Judge Tolman was born in Washington county, Ohio, March 12, 1813, and
eight years later moved with his parents to Champaign county, in the same
state.  Those were the pioneer days of Ohio, when log houses were the only
habitations, and these few and far between, and when the little log school house
held sway.  In such a house he lived, and in such he received his education --
and it might be said that from such have sprung many of the greatest men of our
nation, not the least of which are Lincoln, Chase, Grant and Garfield.  At the
age of seventeen he apprenticed himself to Jesse C. Phillips (a cousin of Tom
Corwin), and spent three years in learning the business of manufacturing
leather.  He then entered the university at Athens, Ohio, pursuing English
branches with characteristic assiduity for a year, during which time he also
imbibed much knowledge of a useful and practical nature by the exertion of his
great powers of observations.  For several years he engaged in various pursuits,
lending to each his full energy and enthusiasm, and being an earnest supporter
of General Harrison and the unsuccessful whig ticket in 1836.  The family,
consisting of father, mother, two brothers and himself (a sister and brother
having died), removed to Iowa in 1839, and settled in Van Buren county, began
again a genuine pioneer life.  Land claimants were bought out and 200 acres of
land were bid in at public sale in Burlington, and the Gen. engaged in farming,
encountering all the trials and hardships of a frontier life.  Iowa at that time
was strongly democratic, yet he adhered firmly to his whig principles.  He was
placed on the ticket of that party for the territorial legislature, and though
party lines were closely drawn and a warm canvass followed, during which he was
the only whig speaker on the ticket, he obtained 400 democratic votes and only
missed 60 votes of being elected.  In the fall of 1845 he removed to Ottumwa and
engaged in the manufacture of leather.  Here he was again placed on the whig
ticket, contrary to his desires, but accepted the nomination at the solicitation
of friends who urged that his opponent was hard to defeat.  The whole county
ticket was elected, though the democratic territorial ticket received 125
majority.  In 1844 his thought turned towards the Pacific, and when news of the
gold discovery reaches Iowa in the fall of 1848, he began preparing to seek the
El Dorado in the spring.  In due time he started, and as sole pilot of an ox
team he arrived in the mines on the seventh of October, 1849.  Declining several
advantageous business offers, he went to work with the pick and shovel as a
genuine miner.  His usual energy and attention to his business won him success,
and he returned to Iowa in the fall of 1851 well rewarded for his California
venture.  Ill health during the winter caused him to wind up his business and
prepare to again seek the shores of the Pacific.  On the twenty-seventh of
April, 1852, he was married to Elizabeth E. Coe, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and within
forty-eight hours was again enroute across the plains, the pilot and general
adviser of ten wagons of emigrants.  The train reaches Yreka in 82 days without
the loss of an animal, notwithstanding they had to fight their way through the
Modoc country.  Gen. Tolman crossed the Siskiyous into Rogue river valley with a
portion of the train, arriving the last of August, and bringing the first
families to the valley from across the plains direct.  He purchased the rights
of two squatters and began preparing for raising stock.  Early in 1853,
perceiving the impending trouble with the Indians, he took his stock to
California and sold them.  He then went to Coos Bay to look after some
investments he had made there for two young men, and returned to the valley in
time to sit on the coroner's jury which investigated the death of the first
white victim in the Indian war of 1853.  When the war was over he sold out his
place, and with his wife and one child took a mule-back ride to Empire City, on
Coos Bay.  He soon withdrew from the company without realizing anything on his
investment, and took up a half section of land upon which is located the town of
Marshfield, where he erected a rude house for his family.  He spent the spring
of 1854 in exploring that region, being the first white man to open a trail
across the isthmus between Coos Bay and Coquille river.  In August, 1854, he
returned to Rogue river valley, leaving his claim in charge of another man, who
sold it out and vamoosed.  The Judge upon his return to the valley purchased for
$8,500 the ranch he now owns, including the stock thereon and again engaged in
stock raising.  When the Indian war broke out in 1855, he hastily gathered his
stock and drove them to California, and sold them for what they would bring.  It
was two years before he could resume his business.  He then purchased blooded
stock -- English turf horses, Morgans and Lionhearts -- and in a few years
realized handsomely on his investment.  The severe winters of 1861-2 almost
annihilated his band of cattle.  When the state government was organized in
1858, Mr. Tolman was elected Judge of Jackson county by a large majority
although three-fourths of the voters were democrats.  He was re-elected in 1862,
defeating his opponent two to one.  In this important position he was enabled
during the critical times of the civil war to do more than any one else to
prevent open hostilities; also to reduce taxation fifty per cent., and rescue
the county from threatened bankruptcy.  He was nominated for governor on the
republican ticket in 1874, but the formation of a third party gave the
administration into the hands of the democracy, and he accepted his defeat with
becoming resignation.  In 1878 Judge Tolman was appointed Surveyor General of
Oregon by President Hayes, and re-appointed by President Arthur in 1882.  His
administration of the affairs of that office meets with the hearty approval of
the administration and of the people generally.  he is firm and prompt in the
discharge of his official duties, and never has his integrity or motives been
impeached.  During half a century of active business and official life he has
won and retains the respect of all with whom he has come in contact,
irrespective of their political opinions; and though he has never sought
election or appointment to office, they have both come to him unsolicited.  In
these days of machine politics and corruption in office, it should be Oregon's
boast that she possesses an official who occupies a higher place.  Gen. Tolman's
portrait appears in this work.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in July 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.