Judge William Shadrac Toler
and Margaret Alice "Missie" Linton Toler
1873/74 – 1955 • 1881 – 1964 • Chesterfield County, South Carolina
Around the courthouse and the Pee Dee crossroads of Chesterfield County, South Carolina, everybody just called him "Judge." He’d come out of Alabama as a young man, married a local girl named Missie Linton, raised twelve children on a Pee Dee farm, and spent eight years settling neighbors’ disputes as the district magistrate. This is his story, and hers.
Quick Facts
Full Name | William Shadrac Toler, known as "Judge Toler" |
Born | Records vary between 5 April 1873 and 5 April 1874, most likely in Alabama (Seale/Silver Run area, Russell County) |
Died | 19 June 1955, Chesterfield County, South Carolina (cardiovascular disease) |
Buried | Society Hill Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Society Hill, Darlington County, SC |
Parents | Joel S. Toler and Alice Catherine Johns |
Spouse | Margaret Alice "Missie" Linton (1881–1964), married 27 December 1896 in South Carolina |
Missie’s Parents | Alexander "Sandy" Linton (1815–1907) and Victoria Kelly (1839–1927) |
Children | Twelve, born 1897–1918; four died in infancy |
Occupation | Farmer; district magistrate ("Judge") in Chesterfield County for eight years |
A Man From Away: Origins in Alabama
Most of the paper trail points to Alabama as the place William Shadrac Toler came into the world — his tombstone and the Society Hill Presbyterian Church records give a birth date of 5 April 1874 near Seale, in Russell County, Alabama, while his World War I draft card and his later Social Security application both give 5 April 1873, with the Social Security record naming his birthplace as "Silver Run, Alabama." His South Carolina death certificate, filed decades later, gives yet a third birth date — 9 April 1871. His parents are recorded as Joel S. Toler and Alice Catherine Johns.
Curiously, the 1880 census throws a wrinkle into the Alabama story: a seven-year-old "William Tolar" appears as a grandson in the Marlboro County, South Carolina household of Shade John(s), listed there as born in South Carolina rather than Alabama. Family tradition holds that William’s own middle name, Shadrac/Shadrach, was passed down from this maternal grandfather, Shadrach "Shade" Johns. Whatever the exact circumstances, by the time he reached adulthood William had settled for good in the Pee Dee section of Chesterfield County, South Carolina, and that is where the rest of his story unfolds.
A Word on the Records Birth dates recorded decades after the fact — especially for children born at home, far from a courthouse — were often approximate even to the people living them. A tombstone, a death certificate, and a government form filled out thirty years apart rarely agree exactly, and William’s case, with three different birth years on record, is a common one for genealogists working in this era. |
Coming to the Pee Dee & Marrying Missie Linton
Family recollection, passed down through Linda Cleveland, says William came to Chesterfield County to work for the Clemmons lumber mill. While there, he boarded and worked the farm of Rosia Alexander Linton — and it was through that connection that he met Rosia’s sister, Margaret Alice Linton, known to everyone as "Missie." The two married on 27 December 1896 in South Carolina. Missie was the daughter of Alexander "Sandy" Linton (1815–1907) and Victoria Kelly Linton (1839–1927), and came from a large Chesterfield County family with roots running deep in the Steer Pen and Pee Dee neighborhoods.
The 1900 census finds the young couple in Steerpen Township, Chesterfield County, William working and just twenty-six years old, Missie eighteen, with their first son already toddling around the house. Ten years later they were still in the same Steer Pen neighborhood, the household now crowded with children — and with Missie’s own widowed mother, Victoria Linton, and a nephew, Jacob D. Linton, living under their roof as well.
Judge Toler: Magistrate, Farmer, and Neighborhood Character
By the 1930s and through the 1950 census, William is consistently listed as a farmer, working land in the Pee Dee section of Chesterfield County. But farming wasn’t his only occupation. For eight years he served as magistrate for his Chesterfield district — the source of the affectionate nickname that stuck with him the rest of his life: "Judge Toler."
Family Lore William was remembered as a man with a great sense of humor — so much so that family stories held he had once been a circus clown, a tale recorded from Linda Cleveland. He was also known around the community for his apple cider. |
Missie: Music Without Notes
Margaret Alice "Missie" Linton Toler had a gift of her own. Though she could not read musical notation, family recollection says she could play any melody on the piano simply by ear, once someone had hummed it to her. That talent found a lasting home: for many years, Missie served as the pianist at the Presbyterian Church in Society Hill, the same church where both she and William would eventually be laid to rest.
A Growing Family in Steer Pen and Pee Dee
Across five decades of census records, William and Missie’s household tells the story of a family that grew, then scattered. In 1900 and 1910 they were in Steer Pen Township with a house full of young children. By 1930, in the Pee Dee section, three of their youngest — Katie, Simpson, and Jakie — were still at home, along with Missie’s elderly mother. In 1940, only their son Louis (Lewis) remained under the roof with his aging parents. And by the 1950 census, taken just five years before William’s death, their household had filled back up: son-in-law Francis Easterling, a salesman, and daughter Katie, a seamstress, were living with William and Missie, along with their son Lewis L. Toler.
Twelve Children
William and Missie had twelve children between 1897 and 1918. Four did not survive infancy — a sorrow that was, sadly, common for large farm families of this era, but no less keenly felt for being common.
Child | Born | Died | Notes |
William Dewitt Toler | 11 Sep 1897, Chesterfield Co., SC | 16 Jan 1971, Vancouver, WA | Moved to Oregon; m. Alice Geraldine Engle, 12 Aug 1935, Spokane, WA |
Shadrac Hudson Toler | 22 Oct 1898, Chesterfield Co., SC | 1 Jan 1899, Chesterfield Co., SC | Died in infancy |
Gary Boggan Toler | 22 Dec 1899, Chesterfield Co., SC | 12 Feb 1900, Chesterfield Co., SC | Died in infancy |
Sandy Alexander Toler | 3 Mar 1901, Chesterfield Co., SC | 14 Apr 1901, Chesterfield Co., SC | Died in infancy |
Sidney Alvin Toler | 27 Feb 1902, Chesterfield Co., SC | 8 Aug 1976, Bishopville, SC | Lived Berkeley & Charleston Co., SC; m. Blondell Matuse (1926), later Jennie Rae Folk and Alice White |
Anna Kathryn "Kate" Toler | 12 Dec 1905, Chesterfield Co., SC | 23 Jan 1980, Society Hill, SC | Seamstress; m. Francis M. Easterling, 1 Jan 1939 |
Harry B. Toler | May 1906, Chesterfield Co., SC | May 1906, Chesterfield Co., SC | Died in infancy |
Susan Roberta "Sue" Toler | 30 Jun 1907, Chesterfield Co., SC | 6 Aug 1992, Society Hill, SC | m. Clarence Carrigan Spease, 5 Jun 1930 |
Edward Evans Toler | 30 Jan 1909, Chesterfield Co., SC | 17 Mar 1984, Charleston, SC* | m. Cora McInville; *Find A Grave gives death year as 1994 |
Lewis Lafayette Toler | 27 Jan 1911, Chesterfield Co., SC | 8 Jun 1974, Society Hill, SC | PFC, U.S. Army, WWII (Ireland, N. Africa, Sicily, Italy) |
Simpson Ellison Toler | 18 Jan 1916, Chesterfield Co., SC | 29 Jun 1976, Charleston Co., SC | m. Jennie Lee Qusack, later Virginia Joyner |
Jacob Daniel "Jakey" Toler | 9 Jan 1918, Chesterfield Co., SC | 4 Aug 1963, Chesterfield Co., SC | m. Eunice Quick |
Sons Off to War
Two generations of Toler men registered for the World War I draft in 1917–1918 — William himself, then in his forties, and his eldest son William Dewitt Toler. Neither, so far as the records show, saw overseas service in that war.
A generation later, William and Missie’s son Lewis Lafayette Toler carried the family into the Second World War. As a PFC in the U.S. Army, Lewis served 34 months overseas, moving through Ireland, North Africa, Sicily, and Italy — a path that traces some of the hardest fighting of the North African and Italian campaigns. A hometown newspaper noted his return: in July 1945, The State reported that PFC Lewis Toler was spending a 30-day furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Toler, before presumably returning to duty as the war in the Pacific still raged on.
Scattering Across America
Most of William and Missie’s children stayed within a day’s drive of Chesterfield County — Kate, Sue, and Lewis remained close to home in Society Hill and Darlington County, while Sidney, Edward, and Simpson settled in and around Charleston. But their eldest, William Dewitt Toler, went the farthest: he made his way to Nehalem, on the Oregon coast, appears there in the 1920 census, and later farmed near North Sweet Home in Oregon’s Linn County. He married Alice Geraldine Engle in Spokane, Washington in 1935, and lived out his life in the Pacific Northwest, dying in Vancouver, Washington in 1971 — a long way from the Pee Dee farm where he was born.
Final Years and Passing
William Shadrac Toler died on Sunday morning, 19 June 1955, at his home on the Society Hill Road, after a few months of declining health; the cause of death was recorded as cardiovascular disease. His obituary, published in The Cheraw Chronicle, remembered him fondly as "Judge Toler," noted his eight years of service as magistrate for his district, and listed his survivors: his widow, Missie; two daughters, Mrs. F. M. Easterling and Mrs. C. C. Spease, both of Society Hill; six sons — W. D. of Albany, Oregon, S. A. of Bishopville, and E. E., S. E., and J. D. of Charleston, along with L. L. Toler of Society Hill; ten grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Funeral services were held that same afternoon at Society Hill Presbyterian Church, where he was buried the next day.
Missie outlived her husband by nine years, dying on 6 November 1964 in Society Hill at the age of 83. Her obituary in The State noted that she was a lifelong resident of Chesterfield County, and listed her surviving children: daughters Katherine Easterling and Sue Spease of Society Hill, and sons Edward and Simpson of Charleston, Sidney of Bishopville, Louis of Society Hill, and William D. of Vancouver, Washington. She, too, was laid to rest at Society Hill Presbyterian Church Cemetery, beside the husband she had married nearly seventy years before.
The World They Lived In
William and Missie’s married life, 1896 to 1955, spanned an enormous stretch of American history. They began housekeeping in the Steer Pen and Pee Dee farming communities of Chesterfield County during the era of cotton tenancy and small subsistence farms that defined the post-Reconstruction rural South. Both William and his eldest son registered for the draft during America’s brief but costly involvement in World War I. The family weathered the Great Depression as farmers in the 1930 and 1940 censuses, years when cotton prices collapsed across the Pee Dee region and many rural South Carolina families struggled to hold onto their land. And in the 1940s, they sent a son overseas into the thick of World War II’s North African and Italian campaigns, then welcomed him home again. By the time William died in 1955, the rural world he’d known as a young farmer and magistrate was giving way to the more mechanized, mobile postwar South — a South his own children, scattered from the Carolina Lowcountry to the Oregon coast, were already helping to build.
Research Notes
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William Shadrac Toler is my 1st Cousin Twice Removed.
Compiled by Charles Purvis & Claude Sonnett 5 Median
CPurvis1@gmail.com
