History of Bellevue, Washington: Thomas Lane Dabney

Born November 15, 1847 Vermilion Co., Illinois to Henry and Mariah "Stanfield" Dabney

Died March 25, 1923 Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., CA.

Buried Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, LA, CA next to his brothers and sister.

Thomas lived in Illinois and with his family. Moved with his family in 1856 to Madison County Iowa by caravan. By 1858 they were settled in Jackson, Madison County, Iowa on a farm.

Thomas married Elizabeth Ann Gustin February 14, 1875 in Storm Lake. Elizabeth was born December 17, 1851 in Jefferson Co., Ohio and died January 10, 1903 Seattle Washington (buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Seattle)

Thomas and Elizabeth lived in Storm Lake, Iowa after being married and moved to Washington state.

Thomas owned a Furniture store in Seattle, Washington.

Dabney owned land patents on other areas in King County

Patent Issued 8/24/1891 023.0N - 008.0E 006

https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/cdi/default.aspx?doc_id=1657925&sid=su5z4z44.vfj

In 1886, Thomas Lane Dabney (1847-1923) arrived from Seattle and staked ownership of lots of land, some of which eventually named "Medina", and "Dabney Point" and "Dabney's landing" (dock).

Thomas Dabney built Medina's first ferry dock, Dabney's Landing.

The landing was across from the Leschi Park landing and it became the main crossing point for settlers to enter “the Points Country”.

Roads quickly followed; soon the community was big enough for a name.

Dabney wanted to name it "Flordeline," but Flora Belote, Ruby Burke, and Eliza Geicker -- chose Belote's: "Medina," for a city on the Arabian Peninsula.

Dabney built a large sign that said “Floridine” and placed it in the water beside his landing.

The next evening when he came home from working in Seattle, he found his sign had been replaced by a “Medeena” sign. He promptly took it down and put his sign back up.

This feud continued for several days, with Dabney replacing the “Medeena” sign each evening when he would return from work. The ladies prevailed. Dabney eventually tired and left the “Medeena” sign up

The name Medina stuck, though with a different pronunciation ("Me-dye-na") than the Arabian original ("Me-dee-na").

Other stories say the City of Medina was named in 1982 by husband of Flora, S.A. Belote, but this appears to be a mistake of 1892 being transposed. Clearly the City was named earlier than this.

https://www.medina-wa.gov/community/page/city-medina