Toney is generally understood to include the territory along Route 10 above Green Shoal Creek and Abbott Branch extending to the Lincoln-Logan county line.

Captain Henry Farley, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and resident of Montgomery County, Virginia, was the first known Anglo visitor to present-day Toney.

In June 1792, Captain Farley passed through the area while pursuing a Native American war party that had raided Virginia settlements at Bluestone River.

Josephus H. Workman, an antebellum preacher, also lived in the vicinity of present-day Toney, as did James and Elizabeth (Fields) Ferrell, pioneers from Russell County, Virginia.

The offspring of these early families intermarried with one another and with neighbors and settled locally in the bottoms along the river or at nearby Big Ugly Creek.

Toney was organized shortly after the end of the nineteenth century due to the arrival of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in the Guyan Valley, which occurred between 1902 and 1904.

Brad Toney's sister-in-law Arena (Saunders) Ferrell operated a store at nearby Ferrellsburg.

On November 3, 1910, the Lincoln Republican newspaper reported that he was "building a fine dwelling house near the old home place."

In the modern era, Toney has hosted the following businesses: Lincoln Drive In, Smith's Drive In (later called the Lions' Den), Cush Vance's grocery store, Clovis Manns' timber company, Billy Mullins' used car lot, Kendra's Kurls hair salon, and EFM Group, LLC.