San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MONROE D. EATON
The progressive spirit and thorough
understanding which Monroe D. Eaton displays in connection with the real estate
business has brought him most gratifying results and at the same time has been
a salient factor in the advancement of the county. His parents, Edward R. and Eliza (Wright)
Eaton, both natives of New York State, were early settlers in California, where
they engaged in farming pursuits on a ranch east of Stockton and on which
Monroe D. was born April 30, 1862. His
father sailed around the Horn to California in 1860 and in time became a very
successful farmer and a large landowner.
There are three living children in the family: Mrs. Ella M. Smail
of Stockton; Fred F. of Palo Alto; and Monroe D., our subject. His father passed away in October, 1887.
The education of Monroe D. Eason was
obtained in the grammar and high schools of Stockton and finished with a course
in the Stockton Business College. He
then entered the employ of the M. P. Henderson Company and followed his trade
of woodworker, making wagons and other vehicles and farming implements for
seven years. In the spring of 1886 he
established a real estate business with Tom Walsh as a partner, occupying a
small office on East Main Street, which continued for three years. Mr. Eaton then went into partnership with
Eugene M. Grunsky, their partnership covering a period of a few years, when Mr.
Eaton sold his interest to Otto Grunsky, a brother of his former partner. In 1893 a partnership was formed with William
G. Buckley and Sidney S. Newell, and when Mr. Newell retired from the business
three years later, Eaton & Buckley has continued the business to the
present time. They have made a specialty
of buying ranch property, subdividing and selling, having subdivided more
ranches than any other firm in Stockton, among the most outstanding being the
Elliott tract of 160 acres near Lodi; the Grover tract for 400 acres on the San
Joaquin River; the Barnhart tract in Lodi of 410 acres; these tracts were
subdivided into lots and small acreages and is now built up, which has been the
means of increasing the population and prosperity of the section. The Wilhoit and Douglass tract of 3,500 acres
on Roberts Island was subdivided into twenty acres or more and sold; also the
Kellerman tract of 240 acres, the Adam Parker establishment of 355 acres in and
adjoining Tracy, and many other large tracts of importance, their main idea
being to attract new settlers to the county, which is the most gratifying
development of any community. Mr. Eaton
enjoys the reputation of being the best-posted man on land valuations in the
county. As a director of the Stockton
Savings & Loan Bank, he is a member of the finance committee and appraiser
of bank loans.
The marriage of Mr. Eaton united him
with Miss Ida B. Petty, a native Californian, whose father was an early settler
and farmer of San Joaquin County. They
are the parents of three children: Zelma
is the wife of W. F. Dietrich, a mining engineer with Stanford University;
Captain Ralph M., a professor in Harvard University. He is a graduate of the University of
California and of Harvard, and was a student there when the United States
entered the war; he received a commission of second lieutenant, Infantry and
Rainbow Division; saw active service all through the War on the Western Front
and was advanced to first lieutenant at Verdun when the Armistice was
signed. At the close of the war he was
acting captain of the Supply Company.
Monroe D. Jr., enters Stanford in the fall. Mr. Eaton is a member of the San Joaquin Farm
Bureau and has always been active in promoting the welfare of the growers of
his locality. In his fraternal relations
he is a member of Stockton Parlor No. 7, of the N. S. G. W., of the Stockton
Elks, No. 218, and a charter member of Truth Lodge of Odd Fellows.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1485. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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