This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Tootle Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/1871 Message Board Post: During her retirement, Mabel Bridges (4/6/1891 - 4/18/1976), using a card file, gathered notes on the earliest Fremont county pioneers. I'm copying the following from Mabel's notes. 1846.--"Thomas E. Tootle opened a store in the southwest forner of this county 13 years ago, which was at that tije entirely destitute of white residents, so that his only customers were Red Men, and the few traders that were among them. Continued to sell goods these several years, and when Sidney was laid off moved his sore here.''--Fremont Herald, May 7, 1859. N.B.: Yes, Austin could be considered in the southwest portion of Fremont county....Tootle had stores up the Missouri river from St. Joseph, MO., all the way up to Sioux City.....He was a well known St. Joseph, MO., business man.--W.F.