Temporary record

The son of John and Janet (Andrew) Eaton, John Eaton received his early education entirely under the tutelage of his parents on their farm at Sutton, N.H. Supplementing his home schooling with a systematic reading program and teaching school on the side, Eaton arranged to attend the Thetford Academy in Vermont, and from there, worked his way through Dartmouth College, graduating in 1854.

For two years, Eaton was employed as principal of the Ward School in Cleveland, Ohio, and from 1856-1859, he was superintendant of schools in Toledo. Despite his love for education and although he was a gifted administrator, Eaton decided instead to pursue a career in the ministry, enrolling at Andover Theological Seminary. Shortly after his ordination in 1861, Eaton volunteered to serve as chaplain of the 27th Ohio Infantry, which served in Missouri and Tennessee. His administrative experience made him a logical choice in November, 1862, when U.S. Grant selected him to run the 'contraband' camps, caring for and organizing the large numbers of African American men and women who ecaped slavery behind Union lines. Eventually, Eaton's jurisdiction as superintendant of freedmen encompassed the entire Department of the Tennessee and Arkansas. Eaton was rewarded with a colonel's commission in the 63rd U.S. Colored Infantry, raised near Vicksburg, and was brevetted Brigadier General in March, 1865. In the same month, he accepted a position with the newly organized Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands as assistant commissioner in charge of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and parts of Virginia.

On September 29, 1864, Eaton married Alice Eugenia Shirley, the daughter of a Vicksburg Unionist, and three months later, he resigned his commission. Eaton remained in the south, editing a 'radical' Unionist newspaper, the Memphis Post, from 1866-67, and under the school law of 1867, won election as state superintendant of education. Although his educational policies were heartily opposed in Tennessee, his support of Grant as editor, educator, and political organizer earned him appointments on the board of visitors at West Point (1869) and as Commissioner of Education (1870). Eaton's experience and political savvy are credited with salvaging the floundering Bureau of Education from congressional annihilation, and he personally oversaw the development of the Bureau's collection of statistics. He remained at his post until ill health forced his resignation in 1886.

Never one to remain idle for long, Eaton embarked on yet another career, acting as president of Marietta College in Ohio (1886-1891) and Sheldon Jackson College in Salt Lake City (1895-1899). During the military occupation of Puerto Rico in 1899, he was tabbed to organize a public school system there, but was forced to resign a year later due to serious illness.

Scope and contents:

The John Eaton Papers contain several hundred letters relating to the personal and public life of John Eaton, from the Civil War through the end of the century, and letters of the Shirley family, his Unionist in-laws from Mississippi. The collection is an important resouce for study of the development of freedmen's policy in the Trans-Mississippi region, and include valuable materials on Eaton's work as U.S. Commissioner of Education (1870-1886), as president of Marietta College, and as organizer of the public school system in Puerto Rico, during the early period of American occupation. The collection includes a fascinating Shirley family diary kept in Vicksburg during the siege, and a remarkable, large collection of Eaton and Shirley family photographs from the 1840s through the end of the century.

M-3268

Education
Freedmen--Mississippi
Reconstruction
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Afro-Americans
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Participation, Afro-American
United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

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