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About Alexander Toponce
- Alexander Toponce (November 10, 1839 – May 13, 1923) was an American pioneer in the Intermountain West region of the United States.
- His family emigrated to the United States from Belford, France when he was seven and Alexander left home about three years later.
- He worked as a laborer for several years, mostly in the logging and lumber business, before becoming a teamster, stagecoach driver and freight handler.
- Toponce headed west when he was about fifteen years old, first to Missouri and then to the northern Intermountain West.
- There, he ran freight and stagecoach outfits, owned livestock herds, sometimes tried his hand at mining, and invested in all manner of development projects.
- He is credited with opening or improving many early freight and stage routes throughout the region.
- Later in life, he mostly invested in mining properties while holding interests in land development companies.
- Over his lifetime, Toponce made and lost several fortunes, the result of bad weather, Indian raids, unpredictable prices and dishonest partners. Toponce knew, and was known to, a remarkable number and range of pioneers in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada.
- In his heyday, he could obtain thousands of dollars in credit on little more than a word and a handshake.
- At the urging of friends, around 1919 he dictated his Reminiscences, which his wife published after his death.
- He kept no diary, so he spoke a great deal from memory, with some checking of other sources.
- A few of his dates are shaky, but Toponce did play a major role in the development of the upper Intermountain West.
- Moreover, he remained active until just a few months before his death, planning an irrigation and hydroelectric power project.
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