Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/315

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became the partner of Judtre William Kent. He was for several years chairman of the committee on political reform in the Union League club. Mr. Eaton travelled in Europe in 1806 and in 1870-'3, giving particular attention to the status and proba- ble development of the civil service of various countries. After his return President Grant ap- pointed him a member of the civil service com- mission, and he held the place of chairman till the commission expired through the failure of con- gress to make an appropriation for its support. He visited Europe in 1875 ; and in 1877, at Presi- dent Hayes's request, went to England to secure material for a historical report upon the British civil service. He was the first of the commission- ers appointed by President Arthur under the act of 1883 re-establishing the civil service commission, resigned on 28 July, 1885, but was reappointed by President Cleveland, 5 Nov., and resigned in April, 1886. Mr. Eaton has been prominent in the civil service reform movement in the United States. The first society for promoting it was formed at his residence in 1878, and he has contributed largely on the subject to periodical literature. Mr. Eaton delivered the annual address before the Yale law- school in 1882. He drafted the law for creating a metropolitan board of health in 1866 ; that estab- lishing the present New York police courts ; and also the national civil service act of 1883. Mr. Eaton has received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Vermont, and he has published "The Independent Movement in New York " (New York, 1880); and "Civil Service in Great Britain" (1880) and edited Kent's " Commentaries," with Judge William Kent (1851-'2), and " Chipman on Con- tracts Payable in Specific Articles " (1852).


EATON, Edward Dwight, educator, b. in Lan- caster, Wis., 12 Jan., 1851. He was graduated at Beloit college. Wis., in 1872, at Yale divinity school in 1875, and studied in the universities of Leipsic and Heidelberg, Germany, in 1875-6. He was pastor of Congregational churches in Newton, Iowa, in 1876-'80, and in Oak Park, 111., in 1880-'6, and on 29 Jan. of the latter year was elected presi- dent of Beloit college.


EATON, George Washington, clergyman, b. in Henderson, Huntington co.. Pa., 3 July, 1804 ; d. in Hamilton, Madison co., N. Y., 3 Aug., 1872. He was graduated from Union college in 1829, and from 1831 till 1833 was professor of ancient lan- guages in Georgetown college, Kentucky, acting as president for six months. He was professor of mathematics and natural jihilosophy in Hamilton literary and theological institution, Hamilton, N. Y., and in 1837-'50 filled the chair of ecclesiastical and civil history there. After the incorporation of the institution as Madison university Dr. Eaton was its president from 1850 till 1801, and at the same time professor of systematic theology. He was also professor for some years of intellectual and moral philosophy. From 1861 till 1871 he was president of Hamilton theological seminary and professor of homiletics. He received the honorary degrees of D. D. and LL. D. Di-. Eaton was early ordained to the Baptist ministry, and was a strik- ingly original and eloquent preacher. — His brother, Joseph Haywood, educator, b. in Berlin, Delaware CO., Ohio, 10 Sept., 1812 ; d. in Murfreesborough, Tenn., 12 Jan., 1859, was graduated at Hamilton literary and theological institution in 1837. He was elected to a professorship in Union university, Murfreesborough, Tenn., in 1841, and in 1847 be- came its president, continuing in that relation till his death. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1843, and was a preacher of uncommon ability. He had received the honorary degree of LL. D. — Joseph Haywood's son, Thomas Treadwell, cler- gyman, b. in Murfreesborough, Tenn., 16 Nov., 1845, was graduated at Washington college, Lexington, Va., in 1867, and has served as pastor of Baptist chui'ches in Lebanon and Chattanooga., Tenn., Petersburg, Va., and Louisville, Ky. Besides hav- ing written several pamphlets, Mr. Eaton is the author of " My Angels " (1874) ; " Sermons to Children" (1887); "Marriage and Law" (1887).


EATON, Horace, governor of Vermont, b. in Barnard, Vt., 22 June, 1804 ; d. in Middlebury, Vt., 4 July, 1855. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1825, and at the Castleton medical college in 1828. In that year he began to practise in Enos- bury, and remained there until 1848, when he was appointed professor of chemistry and natural his- tory in Middlebury, and held the chair till 1854, He was a member of the legislature, lieutenant- governor in 1843-'6, superintendent of public schools in 1845-'50, governor of the state from 1846 till 1849, and a member of the State constitu- tional convention of 1848.


EATON, Isaac, educator, b. in Montgomery, Pa., in 1734; d. 4 July, 1772. He was for twenty- six years pastor of the Baptist church in Hopewell, N. J., and was the first teacher among American Baptists to open a school for the education of young men for the ministry. The house in which Mr. Eaton taught still stands in the village of Hope- well. Among his pupils were many who subse- quently became eminent as ministers, physicians, and lawyers. One of these was the Rev. James Manning, the first president of Rhode Island col- lege, now Brown university.


EATON, John, educator, b. in Sutton. N. IL, 5 Dec, 1829. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1854, was principal of a school in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1854-'6, and superintendent of schools in Toledo in 1856-9. He then resigned, studied for the min- istry at the Andover theological seminary, and was ordained by the presbytery of Maumee, Ohio, on 5 Sept., 1861. Meanwhile, in August, he had been commissioned chaplain of the 27th Ohio volun- teers, was made brigade sanitary inspector, and in November, 1862, was appointed by Gen. Grant superintendent of contrabands. A month later he became general superintendent of freedmen for Mississippi, Arkansas, West Tennessee, and North- ern Louisiana, and served as such till 27 May, 1865. He was commissioned colonel of the 03d U. S. colored infantry on 2 Oct., 1863, and received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers in March, 1865. Subsequently he was appointed as- sistant commissioner of the bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands, and after thor- oughly organizing the bureau resigned to edit the " Memphis Post," where he continued from 1866 till 1870, serving as state superintendent of public instruction in 1867-'9. He was appointed U. S. commissioner of education in March, 1870. and re- mained in that capacity until August, 1886, when he resigned to accept the presidency of Marietta college. The bureau of education at the time of his appointment had but two clerks, not over a hundred volumes belonging to it, and no museum of educational illustrations and appliances; but when he resigned there were 38 assistants and a library including 18,000 volumes and 47,000 pam- phlets. Gen. Eaton represented the department of the interior at the Centennial exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876, he was chief of tiie depart- ment of education for the New Orleans exposition and organized that vast exhibition, was president of the International congress of education held