Alexander Toponce
Alexander Toponce was an American pioneer in the Intermountain West region of the United States. His family immigrated to the United States from Belfort, France when he was seven and Alexander left home about three years later. He worked as a laborer for several years, mostly in the logging and lumber business, before becoming a teamster, stagecoach driver and freight handler. Toponce headed west when he was about fifteen years old, first to Missouri and then to the northern Intermountain West. There, he ran freight and stagecoach outfits, owned livestock herds, sometimes tried his hand at mining, and invested in all manner of development projects. He is credited with opening or improving many early freight and stage routes throughout the region. Later in life, he mostly invested in mining properties while holding interests in land development companies. Over his lifetime, Toponce made and lost several fortunes, the result of bad weather, Indian raids, unpredictable prices and dishonest partners.
Toponce knew, and was known to, a remarkable number and range of pioneers in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada. In his heyday, he could obtain thousands of dollars in credit on little more than a word and a handshake. At the urging of friends, around 1919 he dictated his Reminiscences, which his wife published after his death. He kept no diary, so he spoke a great deal from memory, with some checking of other sources. A few of his dates are shaky, but Toponce did play a major role in the development of the upper Intermountain West. Moreover, he remained active until just a few months before his death, planning an irrigation and hydroelectric power project.
Early life
Alexander Toponce was born in Belfort, France, a town located about ten miles from the border with Switzerland. In 1846, his father, Peter, moved the family to the United States. One of Alex's earliest memories concerned the large French stagecoach, known as a diligence, that took them through Paris to the port of Le Havre. Toponce said that, west of Paris, the diligence was unhitched from the team and lifted aboard a railway flatcar. The passengers got back in and the train carried them to the end of the rail line. According to the history of rail transport in France, in 1846 the tracks would have run as far as Rouen. There, the diligence was unloaded and hitched to a new team for the run into Le Havre.Alex got his first lessons in English from sailors on the ship coming over, including “all the cuss-words in the language.” After their arrival in New York City, they took a packet up the Hudson River and linked with a boat on the Erie Canal. They finally settled in Jefferson County, New York. As the second son in the family, Alex found his prospects at home very poor. He attained a better situation chopping wood for another family in the county, a family he identified only as “Carmen.” Then he worked at a logging camp and sawmill for several years, also learning to handle a team of horses.
Around 1854, Toponce and one of the Carmen sons traveled west to near what would become the town of Tipton, Missouri. He gave no specific reason for this change. However, he had surely heard that the Pacific Railroad was then laying tracks across the state, headed for Tipton and beyond. They must have seen an opportunity to supply ties to the railroad and lumber for the towns likely to spring up along the route. So they leased a sawmill and began producing planks and timber.
There were apparently lulls in demand, because Toponce also found other work during this period. He made two trips to New Orleans to act as a French interpreter for a Tipton dealer in mules and Negro slaves. Toponce also made two trips as a “bullwhacker” on the Santa Fe Trail. He worked for the firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell, for a time the largest freight outfit in the West. A few years later, the company would operate the famous but short-lived Pony Express. Toponce also helped build stage stations that would later be used by the Butterfield Overland Mail. The Butterfield operation was authorized in late 1857 and began operation on September 15, 1858.
The Utah Expedition
By 1857, Toponce had moved further west as an assistant wagonmaster for Russell, Majors and Waddell, working under contract to the U. S. Army. This was after a couple months early in the year riding an express mail route out of Fort Kearny in Nebraska Territory. The transport firm had responded to an urgent request – order, actually – from the Army to assemble a massive supply train for a column headed to Utah. The expedition had been dispatched from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to enforce Federal authority in Utah Territory. Among other changes, President James Buchanan planned to replace Brigham Young as governor of the Territory. Young was also president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. After some early confusion, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston was placed in command of the force. Although no actual battles were fought, the dispute came to be called the Utah War or the Mormon War.On October 5, 1857, Mormon raiders burned most of the supply train while it was still eighty miles from Utah. Toponce later asked Lot Smith, the leader of the raiders, why he burned the supplies rather than hauling them back to Utah. Smith said they were afraid the Army would catch them, and that they were supposed to avoid any direct fighting. The lack of supplies and an early onset of bad weather forced the troops, and Toponce, to go into winter quarters. They had a miserable stay near the remnants of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, which the raiders had also burned.
During the Army's long wait for fresh supplies and better weather, cooler heads prevailed and were well on their way to a peaceful solution. When Johnston finally moved in early June, an agreement had been reached and the troops met no resistance. They then established Camp Floyd about thirty miles south of Salt Lake City. The force at Camp Floyd grew slowly, both to keep an eye on the Mormons and to protect the mail route to California.
Although the Army still required provisions and other equipment, they had much that was not needed and the contractor no longer had any use for the vast number of wagons and draft animals used when the troops were on the move. Thus, around October, they auctioned off much of that transport while Army quartermasters disposed of other surplus materials and supplies. Toponce himself bought a dozen army mules, many of which he sold at a profit even before he left Utah. He then returned to Missouri and rented a sawmill, which he operated until Abraham Lincoln was elected president.
Mining in the West
Toponce and most of the men who worked in his sawmill were viewed locally as Northern sympathizers. He and two other men decided Missouri was no place for a Union man. They put together an outfit to hunt for pelts and scout the Colorado gold fields. At Colorado Springs, they heard of mining opportunities near where Breckenridge is today. Their claims produced “considerable money” in 1861, which emboldened them to build a mile-long flume to bring water to some new placer claims they had purchased. But the new sites proved short-lived and they lost most of their investment. Thus, in the fall of 1862 and early 1863, Toponce and his partners sold what they had left to James McNassar in Denver.McNassar was well known in Denver and the Colorado gold country. Oddly enough, he was also a pioneer connected later with Corinne, Utah. Thus, in 1868, McNassar partnered with General Patrick Edward Connor to build the steamer Kate Connor to haul supplies across the Great Salt Lake to and from Corinne. As Toponce recalled, the Kate was the first steamboat built to navigate the lake. He also states that he and his wife enjoyed an excursion on the boat, although his “early 80's” date recollection is incorrect, since the Kate was out of service by 1873.
From his Colorado venture, Toponce salvaged just two mules, three horses, a wagon and enough supplies for a long trip. A considerable train, with over 160 gold-seekers, had assembled in Denver and they elected Toponce to be their captain. Although he was just twenty-three years old, he had been doing a man's job for almost a decade. Despite the winter weather – they started in early February – everyone was anxious to reach the Montana gold fields, which they had heard were rich beyond anything in Colorado.
The train pointed north first, avoiding the higher ranges until they entered Wyoming Territory. Toponce then described a route that would have crossed the divide at Bridger Pass, a point about twenty miles southwest of the modern town of Rawlins, Wyoming. They joined the normal Oregon Trail route near Fort Bridger. The train generally followed the Trail until they were south of old Fort Hall, where they left the main route to head north. They crossed to the west side of the Snake River near the mouth of the Blackfoot River, using a ferry run by Jacob Meeks and John P. Gibson.
The train, which had grown to about 180 people, arrived at Bannack, Montana on May 14, 1863. Quite a few pioneers who were later prominent in Western development accompanied Toponce on this journey. Perhaps the most famous was Enos A. Wall, who was just a year older than Alex. Originally from North Carolina, Wall later successfully operated gold and silver mines in Montana, Idaho and Utah. In 1882, he served a term in the Idaho legislature. But Wall made his fortune in Utah copper mining, and later sold his holdings for $2.7 million. He died in 1920, three years before Toponce.
All the best ground around Bannack was claimed, so Toponce followed the rush to Alder Gulch, where Virginia City, Montana was soon founded. The returns from his Alder Gulch claim were very good, but not spectacular. Thus, in the fall he and Enos Wall packed supplies and their gold dust on two wagons and headed south to Utah.