Here is what I know of the Toland clan....
William David of Kingston, Ontario married Mary Hawkie of Kitchner. The homestead was at Webwood, Ontario near Blind River between Soux Ste. Marie, Ontario and Sudbury. My great grandfather, may have worked for a time as the sons in the Mining and or paper industry in Sudbury (records may exist). My great uncles (grand dad's brothers) were George, who stayed on the farm in Webwood, while the others went to Swift Current, Saskatchawan (Joseph) and Winnepeg, Manatoba (Thomas) and Willam David (my grand dad) went to the 'States' that is Chicago.
They had two sons William Clarence and Thomas Joseph the later being born in Chicago and moving to Kalamazoo. "WD" was a type setter and a member of the Methodist Church. "TJ" & "WC" quit school during the Great Depression and when "TJ" went back to school he drove a old car that he and his brother fixed up. "TJ" became a draftsman in Detroit while "WC" become a photographer. "WC" was the only one that Sonya Hieny (sp) would allow to photographer her .
My dad I know the most about.... He worked for Spike Briggs, after whom Briggs Stadium was named, Willeys Overland, General Motors, Chrysler Corperations and FoMoCo. The later of these was where he receive two patents in Washington DC. He would have had another but his boss took credit and got a free car, as a reward. It must have been a good one.
In Kalamazoo, he took the state wresting championship somewhere in the early 1930s and was disqualified for his use of the flying mayor, as the oponent had a dislocated shoulder. He also owne the Four Winds a wooden sailboat as old as he was and entered it into the Macinaw Race, in the late 1940s. It become my "playhouse" in the 1960 sitting out in front of our house with the sign on it "Chinchillas" which was the sign for our "Great Lakes Chinchilla F
