F. P. TOOF, manufacturer of cotton goods, Rockford, Blount Co., Tenn., was born April 2, 1857, in Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn., and when nine years old moved to Slatersville, R. I. He worked in various cotton factories throughout New England until nineteen years of age. He then went to Nashville, Tenn., and became overseer of several factories there. In the spring of 1880 he went to Atlanta and had the supervision of the Atlanta Cotton Mills’ weaving department, when he then bought a half interest in the Rockford Cotton Mills, in partnership with H. M. WILSON, of Knoxville, under the firm name of F. P. TOOF & Co. Since March, 1887, he has been sole owner. He has more than doubled the capacity of the mills and increased their business.
February 18, 1880, he married Mary WHITE, of Nashville since her infancy, but born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Their children are Edward and Catherine E. Mrs. TOOF is a Catholic, and of Italian descent, while our subject’s ancestors are of Holland stock, and have been residents of New York State for over two centuries. He is a Knight of Pythias and a Mason. He is a self-made man, who has educated himself by home reading and study. He began work, when nine years old, in the famous Forestdale Manufacturing Company’s factory at Slatersville, R. I., and he has gained his all by his own energetic efforts and abilities. He is a staunch Democrat, so reared from the cradle. He was made postmaster in the fall of 1885.
Source: Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee. Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887.