Stanislaus
County
Biographies
JOHN M. EATON
John Marion Eaton, who is engaged in
agricultural pursuits near Oakdale, Stanislaus County, is a native of
Tennessee, born in Alexandria on the 23rd of March, 1851. He is descended from an old southern family
who were early emigrants to North Carolina, the ancestors having emigrated from
England to that state during the colonial epoch of our country’s history. Mr. Eaton is also descended from the Fox
family that furnished several prominent representatives to the war of the
Revolution. His father, William Jasper
Eaton, was born in the state of Tennessee and was married there to Miss
Catharine Ward Scrivner. He was an industrious and highly respected
farmer and was a member of the Christian Church, while his wife belonged to the
Methodist Church. They became the
parents of six children, four of whom are living. At the time of the Civil War the father, true
to his loved southland, joined the Confederate service, under the command of
Captain Wright and Colonel Ellerson. He was taken prisoner and confined at Camp
Chase, in Ohio, where his grief and confinement caused his death! He passed away in the winter of 1864, at the
age of forty years. His good wife still
survives him and is now in the seventy-fifth year of her age, her home being
still in Tennessee.
John Marion Eaton is the only
representative of the family in California.
He is the eldest of the sons and was educated in Tennessee, being reared
to manhood on his father’s farm. In 1883
he was married and came to Stanislaus County, California, having no capital but
possessed of a strong determination to improve his opportunities and steadily
work his way upward to success if he could do so through earnest and honorable
efforts. He began work here as a farm
hand and was thus employed for six years, after which he rented land, which he
put in wheat, sowing as high as twelve hundred acres in 1884. In that year he raised six thousand sacks of
wheat, which sold at one dollar and forty cents per hundred. He is now farming eight hundred acres, which
is planted in wheat, and his labors are bringing to him an excellent financial
return. He owns a residence in Oakdale
and has one hundred and seventeen acres of land adjoining that town.
In 1883 was celebrated the marriage
of Mr. Eaton and Miss Mary Eardley, a native of
Illinois and a daughter of Charles and Emma Eardley,
now respected citizens of Oakdale. Their
marriage has been blessed with three children:
Alpha Myrtle, Inez Vivian and Eva.
The parents hold membership in the Methodist Church and are people of
the highest respectability. Mr. Eaton
exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the
Democratic Party, but has never been an office seeker. He is a good citizen who has a wide
reputation as a man of sterling worth and who in all life’s relations is
faithful and true to the trust reposed in him, to the obligations of
citizenship and to the duties of manhood.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 714-715. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2011
Gerald Iaquinta.