BIO:  EASTHAM, Thomas, s/o Isaac N. & Eliza (Sweets) Eastham

Submitted by:  phill@redrock.net   (Phyllis Hill)

EASTHAM   SWEETS   BURNET

HISTORY OF KNOX AND DAVIESS COUNTIES, INDIANA
The Goodspeed Publishing Co.  1886

History of Knox County, Indiana, Vincennes Township, p. 321

THOMAS EASTHAM, partner of Stephen S. Burnet, was born in Nelson County, Ky.,
February 25, 1835, and is a son of Isaac N. and Eliza (Sweets) Eastham,
natives of Kentucky.  The Eastham family came to Vincennes in 1851, and for
a number of years the father was United States mail carrier from Louisville
to St. Louis by stage coach, having in use 300 horses on the route, and
later carried the mails from Cairo to New Orleans by steamboat.  He died
in Vincennes in 1873.  Thomas was raised in Kentucky.  At the age of eighteen
years he began carrying the mails by stage from Vincennes to Orleans, Ind., 
and Shawneetown, Ill., and then kept a livery stable in this city for about
ten years.  In 1869 he became a partner with Mr. Burnet in the present 
business.  In 1869 he married Lydia J. Burnet, a native of Cleveland, Ohio.
They have had five children, four now living:  Stephen S., Kate B., Alice T.
and Jesse L.  Mr. Eastham is a Democrat in politics and a member of the K. of
H. and Royal Arcanum.  The building in which these gentlemen have their
factory was erected about 1860 by Curry Ackerly & Co. for a furniture
manufactory, and was used as such until 1869, Mr. Burnet becoming a partner
of Curry & Gardner who succeeded Mr. Ackerly in his business in 1868.  In
1869 Mr. Gardner withdrew from the firm, and Thomas Eastham purchased a
one-half interest in the business.  They conducted a planing-mill and carried
a general line of lumber and building material; but in April 1882, they began
the exclusive manufacture of tobacco boxes, taking Henry Eberwine as
partner the same year.  October 1, 1885, he withdrew from the firm, and since
that time the other two gentlemen have carried on the business very success-
fully alone.  They manufacture about 1,000 boxes per day and send them to
St. Louis, Mo., where they have a ready sale.  They employ about fifteen 
hands.
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