Thomas Augustus Cochrane was born in Canada around 1836 to
parents who had immigrated to Canada from England. In about 1838,
his widowed mother brought Thomas and his older sister Mary Ann to
Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois.
According to his obituary, Cochrane went to California in 1849 when he was only 13 years old. He spent the rest of his life as a prospector and mining consultant. He never married.
City directories, census returns and voter registrations record his travels throughout California and Arizona. In 1864, he was a miner, living in San Francisco. By 1870, he was a miner in Tuolumne, California. He had moved to Pinal County, Arizona, by 1880.
Cochrane registered to vote in Maricopa County, Arizona, in 1886, although he continued to have business dealings in Globe. By this time, he was well regarded as a mining man.
In June, 1890, Cochrane and his business partner Frank Kirkland were selling shares in a mining corporation with gold mines located near Harqua Hala. One of the mines, the Golden Eagle, had been ‘jumped’ by M. H. Horn, and the partners along with Columbus Gray had to get an injunction to make Horn leave.
Cochrane returned from trip East in August 1890, after which he was planning to go to Baker City, Oregon, to superintend operations at a new mine there. He was said to be a man of great skill and integrity.
Early in 1893, T. A. Cochrane made a prospecting trip into the Bradshaw Mountains. In May, he was a member of the coroner’s jury convened to determine the cause of Tessie Murray’s (Letitia Rice’s) death.
Just a few days before his death, Cochrane was exhibiting a gold nugget the size of a hen’s egg, which he said was taken from a digging on the Hassayampa River north of Wickenburg.
Thomas A. Cochrane died in his room at a Phoenix boarding house on September 18, 1894, of what was almost certainly a heart attack. Captain Calderwood took up a collection for his funeral expenses, which his sister in Illinois reimbursed shortly thereafter. Cochrane was buried in City Loosley Cemetery, Block 16, Lot 7, Space N 1/3.
-Donna carr
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