Marcus B. Toney

Marcus B. Toney (c. 1840 - November 1, 1929) was an American Confederate veteran, Klansman and Masonic leader who worked for the Tennessee Central Railroad. He was the author of The Privations of a Private, a memoir about his service in the Confederate States Army. He was the founding president of the Home for Aged Masons.

Marcus B. Toney
Bornc. 1840
Buckingham County, Virginia, U.S.
DiedNovember 1, 1929
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting placeMount Olivet Cemetery
OccupationRailroad employee
Known forConfederate veteran, Masonic leader, memoirist
Spouse(s)Sallie Claiborne
Children2 daughters
RelativesEdward Bushrod Stahlman (brother-in-law)

Early life

Toney was born circa 1840 in Buckingham County, Virginia.[1]

Career

During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, Toney served in the Confederate States Army, under generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.[2] He was captured and sent to Elmira Prison.[1] After the war, Toney joined the Ku Klux Klan, under the leadership of Nathan Bedford Forrest.[1][2][3]

Toney authored a memoir about his Civil War and postbellum experience, The Privations of a Private, in 1905.[1] In a review for the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Gary D. Joiner of Louisiana State University Shreveport acknowledged that the book sounded "offensive" to modern-day readers, but he suggested that Toney "was in the norm for his time and place."[4] Joiner added that Toney was a "white supremacist", and that the book promoted the Lost Cause ideology.[4]

The Home for Aged Masons in Nashville.

Toney began his career at the Southern Express Company.[1][2] He worked for the Tennessee Central Railroad for five decades, and retired in 1917.[1][2]

Toney was a Masonic leader. He was "one of the oldest members of the Cumberland Lodge of Masons", and the founding president of the Home for Aged Masons in Nashville.[1]

Personal life, death and legacy

Toney married Sallie Claiborne in 1871; she died in 1874.[1] They had two daughters.[1] His brother-in-law, Edward Bushrod Stahlman, was the publisher of the Nashville Banner.[2] He resided at 1805 20th Avenue South in Nashville, Tennessee.[1]

Toney died on November 1, 1929 in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 89.[1][2] He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.[1]

The University of Alabama Press was awarded the General Basil W. Duke Award from the Military Order of the Stars and Bars for its re-publication of Toney's memoir in 2006.[5]

References
  1. "Toney Funeral Set For Today. Civil War Veteran; Was Native of Virginia". The Tennessean. November 2, 1929. p. 20. Retrieved May 25, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Famous Confederate Soldier, Held in Elmira Prison, Dies; Spoke in City 16 Years Ago". Star-Gazette. November 4, 1929. p. 2. Retrieved May 25, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. The veteran often boasted of having been one of the few survivors of the original Ku Klux Klan. [...] He and his brother-in-law, Major E. B. Stahlman, publisher of The Nashville Banner, both started their careers as employees of an express company.
  3. "A Johnny Reb's Vain Journey". the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. August 7, 1926. p. 6. Retrieved May 26, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Joiner, Gary D. (Summer 2008). "Reviewed Work: Privations of a Private: Campaigning with the First Tennessee, C.S.A. and Life Thereafter by Marcus B. Toney, Robert E. Hunt". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 67 (2): 166–167. JSTOR 42628068.
  5. "History Honors Given to UA Press". The Montgomery Advertiser. September 17, 2006. p. 69. Retrieved May 25, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
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