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Thomas J. Tolan, born October 22, 1830, in Carrollton, Ohio, began as a marble cutter and taught himself architecture. In 1874 he moved his family and his practice to Fort Wayne and founded T. J. Tolan & Son — a firm that became a training ground for the next generation of the city's architects, including John F. Wing and Marshall S. Mahurin. Working from Fort Wayne, Tolan designed courthouses across three states, among them Van Wert, Ohio; Bloomfield, Iowa (1877); and the Indiana courthouses at Lagrange (1878–79), Rockville (1879–80) and Warsaw. In 1877 he patented an improved jail design, and jail work became a firm specialty his son Brentwood carried further.
His only surviving building in Allen County is the McCulloch-Weatherhogg Double House of 1881 in Fort Wayne, now National Register-listed. Tolan died in Chicago on January 31, 1883, while there on business, and is buried in Delphos, Ohio.
Sources: Delphos Canal Commission museum history; National Register of Historic Places nomination, McCulloch-Weatherhogg House; David R. Hermansen courthouse study, via the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.