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Historical records matching Thomas Cobb Van Eaton
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About Thomas Cobb Van Eaton
1st marriage - Lenora VAN EATON (a cousin) 2nd marriage - Mary Jane OSBORNE 3rd marriage - Nellie Augusta APPLEBY
Thomas was the first white child born in Pope County, Minnesota. Thomas was a member of the Eatonville Methodist church. He was a merchant. He graduated from high school in Harrison County, Iowa. T.C. came to the Pacific Northwest in 1888 with the express purpose of founding a town. In 1899, Thomas was a merchant. In the early days, Van Eaton guided the welfare of the town. He was the first postmaster (he held this position for 18 years); organizer of the school district; supporter of the Republican Party; a membor of the State Legislature in 1893-95; for 40 years a Justice of the Peace; and served as the town's mayor. He co-sponsored the "Barefoot School Boy Law" which set aside sections sixteen and thirty-six of every township for financial support of schools. Terrestial Lodge #225, Free and Accepted Masons of Eatonville, name him as a Charter Member. He was also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Modern Woodmen of America.
T. C. Van Eaton acquired his homestead claim in 1889 to build a town. He platted Eatonville in 1897, seven years after the construction of his general store. Town growth was slow until 1907, when mid-western investors established the Eatonville Lumber Company; and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad (Tacoma Eastern Railway) established this point as a terminus. The town was incorporated in 1909. From this time until the lumber company closed in 1953, Eatonville developed as a small town serving both nearby logging concerns and its agricultural hinterland.
Eatonville first appears on the list of Methodist churches in 1903. T.C. Van Eaton donated the land and gravel used in the building of the United Methodist Church. Ground for a parsonage was donated by Mrs. Jane Osbourne Van Eaton.
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Thomas Cobb Van Eaton's Timeline
| 1862 |
June 27, 1862
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Grove Lake, Pope County, MN, United States
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| 1894 |
1894
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| 1896 |
1896
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| 1898 |
1898
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| 1911 |
December 30, 1911
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Eatonville, Pierce County, WA, United States
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