King & Toy


Company Names, addresses, dates:
   King & Toy, Norfolk VA, (c.1835-c.1859) 1,2
  Toy & Dey, corner Main Street & Market Square, Norfolk VA (c.1865) 3
  Toy, Dey & Mallory, SW corner Main Street & Market Square, Norfolk VA (1866-1868) 4,5
  Toy & Dey, SW corner Main Street & Market Square, Norfolk VA (1868-1869) 5,6
  Thomas Toy, SW corner Main Street & Market Square, Norfolk VA (1869-1870) 6,7
  Thomas Toy & Co, 144 Main Street, Norfolk VA (1870-1875) 7,8
  Thomas Toy & Co, 140 Main & 8 Atlantic Hotel, Norfolk VA (1877) 8

Notes:
King & Toy was an early drugstore business in Norfolk Virginia.

Colonel N. C. King (d.1859) was the senior member of the firm9. I was unable to find any more information about Mr. King.

Thomas Dallam Toy (1814-1879)10 was the junior member of the firm. He continued with the firm after King left, under the names "Toy & Dey", "Toy, Dey & Mallory", "Thomas D. Toy", and "Thomas D. Toy & Co.". The latter was a partnership with his son, Joseph Alfred Toy (c.1845-1901)11, who had started helping his father in 186712. Thomas D. Toy & Co lasted from 1870 until sometime between 1877-18807,8.

Bottles:

king_toy_01 king_toy_02 This is an aqua, 3.8" tall bottle with a rolled lip and a glass pontil scar on the bottom. It is embossed:
front: KING & TOY
left side pannel: DRUGGISTS
right side pannel: NORFOLK
base: (glass pontil scar)


1 Various Portsmouth & Richmond newspaper ads for medicines, stating they are sold by King & Toy of Norfolk VA, 1845-1859
2 Norfolk Journal newspaper, 20-Jan-1868, page 4 (ad says "successors to King & Toy" and "Established 1835")
3 Virginian-Pilot newspaper, 27-Dec-1865, page 1 (ad says "Toy & Dey, successors to King & Toy, corner Main & Market Square)"
4 Virginian-Pilot newspaper, 4-Dec-1866, page 2 (ad for Toy, Dey & Mallory at SW corner Main & Market Square)
5 Virginian-Pilot newspaper, 6-Jun-1868, page 2 (disolution of Toy, Dey & Mallory; replaced by Toy & Dey)
6 Virginian-Pilot newspaper, 3-Feb-1869, page 2 (disolution of Toy & Dey; replaced by Thomas D. Toy)
7 Virginian-Pilot newspaper, 6-Jun-1870, page 2 (announces admitting Jos. A. Toy to new firm "Thomas D. Toy & Co")
8 Norfolk city directories for the years 1870,72,74,75,77, & 1880
9 Book: "The History of Norfolk" by H.W. Burton, page 35 (says Col. N.C.King of the firm King & Toy died on Nov 20, 1859)
10 find-a-grave for Thomas Dallam Toy, 1814-1879, buried in Norfolk VA (birth/death dates match census & his obituary)
11 find-a-grave for Joseph Alfred Toy, 1845-1901, buried in Norfolk VA (birth/death dates match census & his obituary)
12 Book: The Pharmaceutical Era, Volume 7, page 84, February 1, 1892


Back to my drugtstore bottle home page.

This page last updated on April 10, 2020.