User:Halvorsen brian/Thomas Coates (politician)

Thomas Coates

Biography
Coates was born in England in 1867. He emigrated to the United States in 1883.

Coates was elected clerk of the Tillamook School District in 1900, serving alongside director Benjamin L. Eddy. The Democratic Party nominated Coates for Tillamook County Clerk in 1900. During the 1901 election, Coates ran for re-election as Tillamook School District clerk and won.

In 1904, Coates was nominated to run for mayor and won with 115 votes. His opponent had 90 votes. As a result of the election the Tillamook Headlight wrote, "the citizen who voted for Coates are saloon keepers, gamblers, card dealers and their political pups." Shortly after the election, Coates was indicted with several other Tillamook residents in a land fraud case connected to the sale of public lands. The chargers against Coates and all but one of the other men named in the indictment were dismissed in 1908 due to insufficient evidence.

Oregon Governor George Earle Chamberlain named Coates a notary public in December 1907. Coates was nominated as a candidate for Mayor of Tillamook, Oregon in November 1908. On December 7, 1908 he was elected. There were no other candidates for mayor. In January 1909, Coates was named a captain of the Tillamook Hose Company, the predecessor the the Tillamook Fire District. Coates was re-elected Mayor of Tillamook in December 1909. Coates made his opinion of alcohol prohibition known in 1910 in a letter to the Oregon Home Rule Association in which he wrote, "For nearly six years Tillamook County has been a 'dry' county, so far as the law is concerned, but I believe there is just as much liquor as ever. A large quantity is sold in violation of the law. The local offices have honestly done their best to enforce the law, but the difficulty of getting the necessary evidence is so great that it is almost impossible to secure enough to convict [...] I have heard so many of our citizens express themselves that I am sure Tillamook County will go 'wet' at the next election".