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Milton Peter Toffier
By Peggy Deane Toflier Pounder
Peter Manachisa, later named Milton Peter Toffier, was taken Jan. 17,1906 to the New York Foundling Hospital of the Sisters of Charity, NYC, by a woman claiming to be his mother who gave his birthdate as Jan. 8,1906.
Records at the Foundling (as referred to in correspondence) show the mother’s name was Manachisa-Italian- Gold St., NYC, and document Peter Manachisa’s baptism on Jan. 18, 1906, by Rev. T. McGovern, O.P., at St. Vincent Ferrer’s Catholic Church
In 1909 Peter, with some 300 children, rode an orphan train to Loreauville, LA, where he was taken as a foster child by a French couple, Hypolite Toffier and Louisa Prados Toffier.
Mrs. Toffier, so much wanting a boy, was said to have cried when she saw a number corresponding to one she had been given hanging from the neck of a child with dark auburn, shoulder-length curls. She thought Pete was a girl.
On Feb. 8,1911, the Toffiers signed indenture papers. They had the option of adopting Peter; but that was never done, probably because they could not read or write and never understood. According to a 1964 affidavit by Hypolite’s sister, Eva, the Toffiers always thought the indenture papers were adoption papers.
Pete was about 6 years old when the family moved to Dewar, OK, where his father worked in the coal mines. Pete spoke French, but little or no English, when he began school at Dewar Public School or the Catholic Church School, Henryetta. With 8 years’ schooling, he began work at age 12 emptying hotel bed chambers; by 15-16 he was working in local coal mines.
At age 19, Pete married a local school teacher, Zalema Adean Skidmore. After the marriage, she was released from her job due to marrying a “foreigner.” Pete and Zalema had daughters Peggy Deane (1927) and Nellie Louise (1933).
In 1925-26, a lady inquired at a Dewar store as to whereabouts of Pete and/or his parents.
The inquiry was overheard by Pete’s father-in-law, Claude Skidmore. When Pete questioned his mother about the lady, she reportedly admitted, in accented English, something like: “She come smiling...I tell her Pete has mother...she leave crying.” Pete became obsessed with finding his natural mother, thereafter developing severe stomach ulcers which plagued him the rest of his life (always around Mother’s Day).
From 1928-35 (approx.), Pete worked in the copper mines at Bisbee, AZ, building two homes all by himself. Diagnosed as having “dust on the lungs”, he was released from the Phelps Dodge
Co. with $300 in Health impairment pay. With the $300, Pete returned to Dewar and bought a small grocery/gasoline station business, later becoming Postmaster, and selling home and automobile insurance.
During 1925-26 to his death in 1964 Pete periodically corresponded with the Foundling.
He made two trips to NYC. On one trip to the Foundling, files were brought out but Pete was not allowed to examine them. Driven by his obsession about his heritage, he attempted to steal the files but was apprehended and spent a night in jail for the offense—never having the opportunity to read the files.
Requests for birth registration in numerous Boroughs in NYC and the Office of Immigration and Naturalization yielded no positive results. He secured help from U.S. Representative Bill Stigler, who knew James Farley (one time Postmaster General and President of Coca-Cola Export Corp.), who in turn was a friend of Mon-signor John Reilly, NYC. Mr. Farley received information from Monsignor Reilly indicating the lady who inquired about Pete was believed to be a Mrs. Kennedy, a Foundling investigator.
Hypolite, Peter and Louisa Toffier
This information raised questions. Would the Foundling send an investigator to Oklahoma regarding Pete when there were thousands of similar cases? Would an investigator have left the Toffier home crying? If the lady was Pete’s natural mother, how did she trace Pete to Oklahoma? An added reason for questioning was the observation by Pete’s father-in-law that Pete’s older daughter resembled the lady.
Though Pete had much inner turmoil about finding his natural mother, he was a devoted, loving son to Hypolite and Louisa Toffier. He loved and respected his wife and was an outstanding father. He proved to be an achiever in his personal life, in his business life and in community involvement (being responsible for instigating and following through in securing a sewer system, street lights, and some paved streets in his home town).
From an Orphan Train rider in 1909 to his death in 1964, Peter Manachisa Toffier made his life count in many positive ways for the benefit of family and community. His was a life well lived.
Orphan Train Heritage Society 7