Dorothy Kramer Toigo Pottery Donated to Cooksville

Recent donations of Dorothy Hansen Kramer Toigo pottery and other artifacts to the Cooksville Archives and Collections have been made by Pete Toigo, grandson of Dorothy’s last husband, John Toigo (1899-1975).

Donated pottery, on a Dorothy weaving

One of Cooksville’s 20^th-century artists, Dorothy Hansen Kramer Toigo (1900 - 1971).was an art teacher and artist. She spent about 45 years in Cooksville, pursuing her various artistic endeavors, while living in the Benjamin Hoxie House. She first married Arthur Kramer, a fellow artist and pottery-maker who died in 1962. In 1970, she married John Toigo, whom she knew in Chicago in the 1930s. They lived briefly in New York City in 1970, returning to Cooksville in 1971, where she died of cancer. She is buried in the Cooksville Cemetery

Dorothy and John's wedding announcement

John Toigo

Dorothy

Dorothy’s artful pottery—vases, bowls and other creative forms— have a distinctive style, based on ceramic pottery from ancient Korea. She also produced small utilitarian pottery pieces, many with her drawings of Cooksville’s historic houses. She also created artistic weavings from her “Cooksville Looms,” as her label reads. She sold, many of these items from the "Cooksville House,” a shop she and Marvin Raney established in the 1950s in the village’s Duncan House Barn, then later in the “Waucoma Lodge,” a name given to the Backenstoe-Howard House, the former residence of Susan Porter.

"Cooksville House" gift card, 1950s

Earlier this year, Pete Toigo, a musician in New York State, also donated several paper items consisting of photographs, note cards and other material related to Dorothy. Included among them was a book entitled A Young Man of That Time by Mildred H. Osgood that describes the life and times of Dorothy’s grandfather, De Witt Clinton Salisbury of Oregon, Wisconsin.

Helen Hansen Naysmith, Dorothy's sister, and Pete Toigo's father Romolo Toigo,

For more information about Dorothy, see the Cooksville News Blog “Cooksville’s Artists: Dorothy Hansen Kramer Toigo,” from October 27, 2015; also information about her sister, Helen, who married John Toigo in 1972, and later Frank Bradley.

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[The three photographs above of Dorothy, of John Toigo, and of Helen, Dorothy’s sister, with Romolo Toigo (Pete’s father), were provided by Pete Toigo. Thanks to Pete for helping to tell the Cooksville story of Dorothy and her last husband John Toigo, Pete’s grandfather.

The Cooksville Archives and Collections continue to grow as friends of historic Cooksville continue to donate family-related and history-related objects, photographs, letters, articles and other documents and memorabilia related to the village and the surrounding area. For information contact Larry Reed (608) 873-5066.]