Thomas Theodore Tidball (October 2, 1827 –  January 28, 1913) was an American pioneer who came out west during the time of the California gold rush.

In 1866, Tidball settled in Jolon, California where he and George Dutton purchased the Antonio Ramirez adobe Inn in 1876 and converted it into a two-story hotel and stagecoach station.

After fourteen months as a private he was honorably discharged and returned to Mansfield where he began work as a clerk in a warehouse.

He is listed in the 1850 United States Federal Census as mining in El Dorado County, California at age 28.

In 1857, Tidball came back to California and settled in Santa Cruz where he worked on a paper until the American Civil War broke out.

[3] The Society of Arizona Pioneers elected Captain Tidball as an honorary member in 1886 for his services in the Apache outbreaks.

[2] In the 1870 United States Census he was listed as 42 years old and having a home in San Jose, Santa Clara, California.

In 1876, Tidball and his family settled in Jolon, California with Civil War buddy George Hough Dutton.

Tidball and Dutton were early settlers that took the Jolon land believing it was part of the public domain provided by the United States government.

They added a second adobe story, a merchandise store, saloon post office, and stagecoach stop, which started between Lowe's Station and Pleyto in Monterey County, California.

The Tidball Store was constructed from the remains of an old adobe inn built in 1868 by Flint & Bixby Stage Lines.

In the back room was an iron safe with the name "T. T. Tidball" painted across the top, which had valuables from the years that Jolon was a station on the stagecoach route to Los Angeles.