C. Toler Wolfe, Winchester's Forgotten Poet

One of my hopes was that as I worked my way through the local newspapers, I could uncover a few unknown writers, authors, and their stories. I very nearly thought my next post would be on dentistry, when I decided to flip over instead to the poem in the June 8, 1866 edition of Winchester News. I am happy to report I can save writing about the proliferation of vulcanized rubber for another day, as the poetry section uncovered a mostly-forgotten local author.

The poem, titled "The Skeleton Army, Or The Dead Parade," is credited to C. Toler Wolfe. It is fairly lengthy and more suitable for a spooky Halloween edition, so unlike the other poems, we will not reprint here. It made my ears perk up, as here was a poem with a proper credit that seems to have been locally written, per the note at the end. Was Wolfe well-known?

The answer is "yes, but no." Time has largely forgotten him; you can pull up an 1852 volume of his work, printed in Winchester. Entitled Odds and Ends, it is a collection of poetry and prose with a bit of a fun and somewhat humorous slant. Given some of the location notations, he lived a nomadic life (various Virginia locations are mentioned, but also Louisiana, Wisconsin, Georgia, Vermont, Maryland, New York, South Carolina, West Indies, Jamaica, and even "At sea.") However, the poetry is not exactly why he has been remembered.

Civilians entering a theater, detail, William Waud, c. 1858, courtesy of the Library of Congress

 

In searching his name, he turns up a few times in The History of the Lower Shenandoah Valley, first as a person in the company that played "in the old Methodist Church on Cameron Street in 1827" in Winchester. He was also the source for the tale of the two distinguished guests at the Golden Buck. Norris mentions at this point he was the "late" C. Toler Wolfe, so we can now assume he passed away sometime before the book's publication in 1890.

A bit more searching turned up a newspaper from 1863 that indicates Wolfe was acting on the stage in Georgia during the Civil War, performing the role of Sir Lawrence Paragon in a comedy titled "The Maid of Munster." In 1864, he landed the role of Duncan in a production of Macbeth as part of "Mr. Crisp's Company." A news brief in 1884 states he was one of the oldest comedians on the stage, but was currently off for "a stroke of paralysis." All of these individual pieces seem to substantiate the connection of Winchester's C. Toler Wolfe as an actor to the note in Memorabilia and Anecdotal Reminiscences of Columbia, S. C.:

An Actor at the Age of Ninety-Six 

C. Toler Wolfe, a "general utility man," who, like the late Eugene Cramer, was good in tragedy, farce, or comedy, played here several seasons. He remained on the stage until he was nintey-six(sic) years of age, and then although seldom out of an engagement, died poor. He "had a skeleton in his closet," which kept him down.

His travels with various theater companies and apparent sea excursions made him a bit tricky to trace, despite his unique name. The 1880 census states he was born about 1796 in Virginia. Perhaps due to his nomadic lifestyle (and perhaps even the adoption of a new name), he was not located in other earlier censuses. A newspaper from 1902 correctly notes he was not part of any military company during the Civil War, as he was still acting. The article mentions Richmond as his acting location, and indeed, it seems he wrote a one-woman show performed in Richmond in late 1861. A few brief notes in the local papers hint that he spent some time in Calvert, Texas toward the end of the 1860s, engaged in a printing business for a tri-weekly newspaper called Enterprise. He appears to have returned to Winchester for a while in the early 1870s to print another volume (more on that later).

The Winchester News published the following notice on receiving word of his death, February 19, 1886:

Death of a Veteran Actor. —Friends in Winchester have been informed of the death of Mr. C. Toler Wolfe, in Texas, at an advanced age. Mr. Wolfe was the oldest actor in the United States, and for some years has been with the Stutz Troupe in the South. He was a printer by trade, but in early life took to the stage as a more congenial occupation, and played in nearly all the principal theatres the Union. He was a good actor, and a great favorite with the public. Mr. Wolfe was also a pleasing writer, and some of his poetical effusions have been very popular. He was a native of Winchester. Kind-hearted to a fault, charitable to the failings of others, broad and catholic in his views, he was a man who could win friends and hold them. Peace to his ashes, and may the turf lie lightly above him.

A brief newspaper notice listed him as one of the poets featured in The Poets of Virginia. Sure enough, he was included in the final product with a somewhat different biography than we have pieced together:

C. Toler Wolfe was born at Stephens City about 1810. Without more than an elementary education he became a roving character -- an eccentric sort of genius who could not long remain satisfied at one place. He was a printer by trade but varied its irregular pursuit by acting with theatrical troupes. He was brilliant and versatile and though he some times turned his thoughts to the deeper aspects of life, he was mostly content to laugh at its follies and satirize its vanities. He did not always heed his own warning against "imbibing potations deep;" but, like Walter Scott, "whether drunk or sober he was aye the gentleman."

If you'd like an overview of his work, this book is a good place to start, as it discusses some of his poems in depth. 

While his name primarily came down to us as an author in the Winchester histories (including in Morton's The Story of Winchester in Virginia), Wolfe's true calling always seemed to be the stage. Various other newspapers at the Library of Congress can be found mentioning him across the country, always seeming to praise his performances. While accounts of his age varies widely, it's unlikely he was actually acting at 96, and in this brief overview we can't confirm his claims of being the oldest actor on the stage. Still, the number has a certain ring to it - he would likely approve, even if the figure was embellished.

Aside from his first book of poetry, he also wrote at least a second volume, titled Echoes From the Past, or Winchester and Its Environs in the Olden Times in 1872, during one of his extended stays in Winchester. The volume was reprinted in 1981, but seems once again to be out of print. An original copy is available in the Ben Ritter collection at the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, along with two non-circulating reprinted copies in the main collection.

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