The Abraham Tolles (1793-1854) family consists of prospectors, pioneers, postman and farmers from Illinois, who later settled in California.

Abraham Tolles was born in Winchester, Tennessee, in 1793. He married Harriet Chrisman in 1809, and together they had eight children. In 1833 they moved to Rushville, Illinois, where Abraham ran the postal delivery system. Eventually, Abraham and Harriet moved out to California with the exception of one daughter, Mabel. Abraham died in 1854 in Marysville, California, and Harriet died in San Francisco in 1902.

James S. Tolles (1826-1908) delivered mail, ran a general store, and grew fruit after settling in California and Nevada.

James Stewart Tolles was born on 2 August 1826 in eastern Tennessee. His parents, Abraham and Harriet Tolles, moved seven years later to Rushville, Illinois where they raised eight children. In 1849, at the age of twenty-two, James set out for California with his father and younger brother, John. With the exception of a married daughter, Mabel, the entire Tolles family eventually left Illinois and settled in the West.

James tried mining in California but found more success delivering mail. He operated “the James Tolles Express from the Feather River to San Francisco” until 1852. He also ran a general store. Five years later, in 1857, James married Martha J. Herring. They had three children: Luella, Stewart, and Linda.

James moved his family to Reno, Nevada in 1862. He pursued fruit farming and remained in Nevada until sometime between 1880 and 1900.

By 1900, James was a widower and had moved to Butte County, California to live with his daughter, Linda, and son-in-law, William Beard. James passed away on 24 July 1908 at Placer County, California.