Biography

Mentioned in 18340313ExM_WHS as the newly appointed Bank Commissioner.

US Congressman. His family was from Tolland, Connecticut, and he was born there or in Duanesburg, New York. He was raised in Duanesburg and became a farmer, also becoming active in government, including serving as Duanesburg Town Supervisor from 1819 to 1820. From 1821 to 1822 Eaton served as Schenectady County Sheriff. In 1822 he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Crawford Republican and served one term, 1823 to 1825. He then returned to his farm, also holding the position of Postmaster in the hamlet of Eaton Corners, and serving in the New York Senate from 1829 to 1832. Eaton was also an active militia officer, and attained the rank of Brigadier General. In the mid 1830s he moved to Lockport, where he was Postmaster and President of the Lockport Bank, also serving as a member of the New York Bank Commission from 1832 to 1838. In the late 1830s he relocated to the village of Black Rock (now part of Buffalo), where he resumed farming and was President of the City Bank of Buffalo. In the early 1840s he served as a Special Agent of the US Postal Service, ensuring that postmasters and mail carriers did not use the service for illegal purposes. Eaton was a founder and President of the Buffalo Horticultural Society. Agricultural journals and fair records from the 1840s and 1850s are replete with entries on his prize winning asparagus, pears, apples, poultry and other farm products, as well as notations on the prizes his wife won for her peonies and other floral arrangements. He was originally interred at Black Rock Burial Ground, and most of the remains there were later moved to Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.