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| Lewis Antony Tolstead | Lucy Mae Pease (photo donated by Diane Tolstead Rollins |
Note: The text of this section is excerpted from Tales of Tolstedts, by Grandon E. Tolstedt, MD and Betsy E. Tolstedt, PhD. Additional material has been provided by Diane Tolstead Rollins.
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| Lewis Antony Tolstead | Lucy Mae Pease (photo donated by Diane Tolstead Rollins |
Lewis was the fourth of the Ulrich Tolstedt’s children. He was born in 1868 in Iowa, growing up on the Tolstedt family farm near Laurel, Iowa. Lewis used both the Tolstead and Tolstedt spellings at different times in his life. From Diane Tolstead Rollins: “I have heard the story behind the name change but have no facts or proof as to why it was changed. I asked my Grandma Lydia, she told me it was changed during the years surrounding WWI because it sounded too Deutsch (German) and Tolstead was an Americanized version. It is certain he used that spelling when Harold was born in 1895. That is the way it is spelled on Harold’s birth certificate. Harold told Robert Tolstead that Lewis may have started using Tolstedt again in connection with the settlement of his father’s estate, which would have been in 1913.”
Lewis was a tall man, six feet, two inches. He was slender, with fair skin and complexion. He was perhaps the most distinguished looking of the Tolstedt brothers.
Lewis married Lucy Mae Pease, a petite beauty. Lucy was born in Sparlands, Illinois. She was one of 5 children of Joseph and Louis Schoenfeldt Pease. The 1880 census shows 9-year-old Lucy residing with her mother, Louise, her 19 year old sister Anna, her 16 year old brother Joseph, her 10 year old brother William, and her younger sister, 6 year old Frances. The family name was spelled Peas (without the “e”) in both the 1870 and 1890 census. Lucy was the younger sister of the Annie Pease Starling who married Lewis’s older brother, Edward. Lucy, her mother Louisa and several siblings moved to Gillman, Iowa in Marshall County from Sparland, Illinois. Gilman is located about 6 miles east of Laurel.
Lewis and Lucy were married in Laurel, Marshall County, Iowa on February 18, 1889. The witnesses were Lewis’s father, Ulrich, and brother, Ed. Lewis was listed as a 22 year-old farmer and Lucy was listed as 19 years of age. They must have made an odd looking couple as Lewis was tall (over 6' and Lucy was petite (5'1" tall).
No occupations were listed for women in the marriage records of that day. One can speculate why Lucy was living in Iowa at that time; perhaps she was teaching? We know that Lucy had many talents. At the time of the 1920 census, she was a pastry chef at the Boys Reformatory in Eldora, Iowa. According to her daughter-in-law, Lucille Heffern Tolstead, Lucy worked at Donaldson’s Golden Rule (department store) in the twin cities and eventually worked as a midwife and in boarding houses in Rochester and Taopi. Her granddaughter, Gwen McClintock Spillmann, wrote of her musical talent:“At an early age, Mrs. Tolstedt showed talent for music, and was advised to study for opera, but she preferred to dedicate her talent to God, and served him with throughout her life. She directed her own choir for years in Minnesota, and she was active in the choir of the Redlands (California) church through up in her 70s.”
We believe that Lewis and Lucy lived at the Tolstedt farm in Laurel for a number of years after they married. We know that their first child, Francis, was born in Iowa in December of 1889. We also know that their third child, Violet, was buried in the Methodist Cemetery near the farm. Harold was born in St. Anthony, Marshall County, Iowa.
Lewis became a telegraph operator and worked for the Chicago and Great Western Railroad. His brother, Joe, also worked for the same railroad in a small Minnesota town; and Lewis’ son, Harold, was a station operator for years in Taopi and Racine, Minnesota.
The census records of 1900 show Lewis Anthony Tolstead to be living with his wife, Lucy, in Chickasaw County, Iowa with three children. His occupation is listed as telegraph operator.
Lewis and his brother, Joe, clearly made an attempt to stay in touch. W.L. Tolstead recalled visits with his uncle: “Uncle Lewis was a railroad agent on the Great Western Railroad, just like my dad. He taught Dad (Joe) how to run a railroad station. All the different procedures, as well as how to telegraph.
Lewis was agent at Stanton, Minnesota. We would drive over to Stanton in our Model A to see Uncle Lew on Sunday and then drive back home. He had been married, but had trouble with his wife, so he was boarding with some neighbors in town. Stanton was not much of a place, a little town. Politically Lewis was a conservative Republican. My dad, Joe, by contrast was a Democrat. I never really got to know Lew very well. I remember once he was sitting in the front seat of the car with Dad. Lew was smoking and he threw out some ashes. This disturbed my mother. Lew said he would stop smoking and then he hit his pipe on the car and ashes came back on her a second time.
Lew was the only relative who came to see Dad, and he was at Dad’s funeral when Dad died.”
At some time, perhaps in the mid-1910s, Lewis and Lucy were apparently separated. Very little is known about this split. From their great-granddaughter, Diane Tolstead Rollins: “Lewis Tolstead and his wife, Lucy, were divorced when my grandfather, Harold, was about 16 and later in life remarried. My dad has always told me that my Grandpa Harry got very angry if the subject was ever brought up as to why and when they divorced. It was a taboo subject and quite mysterious. My dad has always said: ‘I figured someone did something very bad’.”
Harold’s son Robert had a very different impression of this time period. “Though they were separated for nearly 30 years I doubt that Lewis and Lucy were ever divorced. I never heard the word divorce used in connection with the separation by either my father or mother (Harold and Lydia) or Aunts Frances or Maude, who were closest to the situation in relationship, time, and geography. The reason for the split remains a mystery, but probably not a very exciting or sinister one.
I got the impression that Dad thought whatever the reason was, it wasn’t important enough to break up the home over. Don was born in 1917 before Harold was 22 years old. Lewis and Lucy Tolstead’s home had been disbanded only a few years earlier. It was painful for Harold and though he had been making his own way for several years, he was still quite young and probably still angry enough about losing his home to be emotional about it during Don’s childhood. By the time I was born, Dad was 35. During my childhood he was mature, it was many years after the breakup of the home and he could and did talk with me about it calmly and without anger. He never discussed with me his parents’ reasons for separating, and I’m not so sure he even knew. What we talked about was how it affected him, in the context of the benefits of a stable home. He was in a responsible, adult job at an age most children are in high school and he told me on several occasions how much he missed the secure feeling of having a place to go to home to during his early working years. However, Harold had a close and loving relationship with both Lewis and Lucy.
From my earliest memory until she moved to California, Lucy lived in her own small house one block north of our house in Taopi, Minnesota. Lewis was a station agent for the same railroad about 70 miles north of there. He used to visit us on weekends, and though Grandpa was a quiet and dignified man, I remember them joking and laughing both at home and at the depot. Lewis and Lucy were also occasionally in our home at the same time for visits, meals, etc., and none of us remember any awkwardness at those times.”
Lewis and Lucy moved to California about 1939. Lucy apparently moved first, in 1938 or 1939, and Lewis joined her after he retired from the Chicago Great Western Railroad. Lewis drove out by automobile and was accompanied to California during the summer of 1939 by his son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter Marilyn, and grandson, Robert. Robert recalls that he and Marilyn had so much trouble with motion sickness, that they, with their mother, disembarked at Rawlins, Wyoming, and took the train. From Robert:
“The move to California was obviously a well planned one. Lewis and Lucy’s son-in-law George McClintock built three houses in an excellent location in the hills about ten miles east of Redlands, California. One was for Lewis and Lucy, one was for George and Frances, and one for Gwen and Adolph. This could not have been accomplished overnight.”
Lewis and Lucy lived into their 90s. Diane Tolstead Rollins recalled a story about this time in their lives: “My Grandmother, Lydia, told a great story about going to see Lewis and Lucy in California; they took the train out to visit many times. On one visit my grandma said she got up early one morning and could hear Lewis and Lucy talking in the kitchen. They were in their 90s by this time and both had problems with mild confusion. By this time either Frances or Gwen had started helping them so they no longer handled cash or paying their bills. My grandmother heard one of them saying: ‘They come here to visit and they stay and they eat and eat and we don’t have any money to buy anymore food. I don’t know what we are going to do. I hope they go home soon’ ”.
Robert Tolstead and Lucillle Heffern Tolstead share two additional memories about Lewis. The first was; he ate carrots and corn bread every day. Bob remembered Lydia Stern Tolstead cooking carrots every evening on the trip from Taopi to California when Harold, Lydia, Bob and Marilyn went with Lewis to California in 1939. The second memory was of Lewis taking LONG walks. Lucille shared that Lewis would walk from Taopi to Adams when he would come for a visit, which is several miles. Lewis was very health conscious before it became fashionable.
Religion was important to Lewis and Lucy. At some point they converted to Seventh Day Adventism. Their conversion was apparently influenced by their daughter, Frances. From grandson Robert Tolstead: “George and Frances McClintock and their son-in-law and daughter Adolph and Gwendolyn Spillmann joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church shortly after they moved from Minnesota to California in 1936. Frances and Gwen were very active in recruiting proselytes for that denomination. I remember their evangelistic efforts while visiting us in Minnesota about 1938 and that they brought some of their own vegetarian food. They persuaded Lucy when she arrived in California and Lewis also when he moved there. I have been under the impression that Lewis and Lucy returned to the Methodist Church sometime after they moved from the Redlands location to San Dimas and Yucaipa, but don’t know for sure. If they did, it may have been influenced more by closer access to a church than theological concerns. Both Lewis and Lucy were devoted Christians, but neither my sisters nor I have any memory of the intense piety that was evident to Gwen Spillmann.”
Gwen McClintock Spillmann did see a great deal of piety. She wrote of Lewis and Lucy’s conviction: “Shortly after Mr. and Mrs. Tolstedt moved to San Dimas, California in 1952, illness and age began to take their toll, so that they were no longer able to attend church regularly, but they continued to have daily bible study until their eyes began to fail. Even when they could no longer read, they lifted their spirits with scripture quotations from memory, and such hums as ‘Face to Face’, ‘Jesus is Calling’, and ‘Yield Not to Temptation’. After Mr. Tolstedt preceded her in death in 1961, she continued to hum her favorite hymns until her last days. She passed to her rest in San Bernardino, California, April 7, 1964, leaving to live up to her example of a Christian life of dedication, her three children, six grandchildren, and thirteen great grandchildren.”
Lewis died in August of 1960 at the age of 91 years. Lucy died in April of 1964 at the age of 93 years. They are buried in the LaVerne Cemetery in Los Angeles County.