William Pinkney Toler

William Pinkney Toler (1826–1899) was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 23, 1826, the son of a United States diplomat. Toler was educated in Washington, D.C., and united the Navy at age 14. As a midshipman upon the USS United States under the command of Commodore Thomas Gatsby Jones, he hoisted the first American flag happening the flagpole of the Custom House at Monterey in 1842. Toler arrived in Hawaii upon the United States in 1843. He made a two- or three-day round trip upon horseback to sketch Mount Kilauea.

Toler resigned from the Navy in 1848 and well-liked a tilt as partner in crime to the alcalde, or chief running officer, in San Francisco. In 1853, he married Maria Peralta, whose family owned the large land allow that is now the city of Oakland, California. He eventually settled in San Leandro, California, where he spent his permanent years. Toler died there on January 24, 1899.