Bootstrap History Book
A Bit about the Bootstrap History Book
(Photo by Bob Walter)
Overlooking modern Eatonville from Hilltop.
The history of Eatonville, commonly called the "Bootstrap Book," published in March 1954, became one of the major projects of Operation Bootstrap. This program was designed to help small communities facing adversity "Pull themselves up by their Bootstraps."
During the 1950s the small town of Eatonville was facing an uncertain future. There was valid worry the mill would close throwing many, many citizens out of work.
One of the most ambitious challenges in the program was writing the history of Eatonville and surrounding communities. This enormous task was headed by Jeannette Larin Hlavin with assistance by Pearl Engle.
Jeannette was 23 when her father, Eugen Larin, bought the Dispatch newspaper in 1927 and moved his family to Eatonville. Her dedication to writing the "Bootstrap BooK," officially titled The History of Tacoma Eastern Area, resulted in three months of hard work.
Her many years of experience at writing and secretarial work, and helping gather news for the Dispatch, gave her the expertise to tackle researching and writing history from Soo-Too-Lick (Indian Henry) here before white settlers, to 1954.
The "Bootstrap Book" quickly became invaluable to students of this area's history and an indispensable research tool. Most small towns don't have a history book, Eatonville is very fortunate to have this fascinating history collected and made available to all of us.
We will publish the 226 page book in stages. The history book was typed and copied at the school where citizens volunteered to collate the pages. We are published scanned pages thanks to Pat Van Eaton, grandson of Town Founder T.C. Van Eaton. Pat scanned the entire book, made a CD and donated it to the Centennial.
The first chapters published are the author's introduction; story of Soo-Too-Lick - 1825-1895; The Pioneers Come to Eatonville - 1889; and The First Homes.
More chapters will be published soon. Look forward to enjoying the yarns of Rant White, a colorful character who came to Eatonville about 1851. Rant was a spinner of tale tales and invented one about a petrified forest out of town where even the animals were petrified. He lured tourists into the woods and left them there looking for the forest that never existed. No one was every hurt, just highly embarrassed.
I. Introduction
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II. Soo-Too-Lick (Indian Henry)
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IIV. The Pioneers Come to Eatonville
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IV. The First Homes & Transportation
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