Eaton, Ohio

This is town five, range sixteen. The original proprietors were Daniel Holbrook, Caleb Atwater, Turlumd Kirtland and ten others. To equalize it with the selected townsliips there was annexed tract one, gore fonr, in range eleven. Until December 3, 1823, the date of its organization, it was called " Holbrook," after one of its principal owners, Daniel ITolbrook.

Passage source: History of Lorain County, Ohio, published 1879.

The surface is generally monot(jnously level, with a prevailing clay soil, modified by sand and gravel along Butternut and Chestnut ridges, which cross the northwest corner of the township, about half a mile distant from, and nearly i)arallel with each other. North, and for some distance south of these ridges, the soil is a clay combined with a black loam, strong and fertile. Besides the east branch of Black river, which crosses merely the southwest corner of Eaton, two other unnamed tributaries of that stream comprise the only water courses of the township worthy of mention. One of these I'ises in Grafton and drainthe southern ludf of the town. The other rising east of the center, with a northern branch with which it unites on lot eighty-eight, and flows thence southwesterly into Black river west of lot ninety-four. There were formerly several swamps in Katon, the largest of which was the llance swamp, in the southeast part, and one embracing within its extent some seventy-five acres, in the northern part. With cultivation and drainage these formerly unsightly marshes have become the most fertile portions of the township - the soil a deep, black muck, rich, mellow and enduring. Eaton was originally covered with a magnificent growth of timber, differing in variety not materially from that of adjoining towns. On Butternut and Chestnut ridges those kinds of timber were respectively found in abundance, from wliich circumstance the ridges derived their names. Whitewood, walnut, beech and hard maple were also native to this portion of the township. In the less elevated portions, beech, hard and soft maple, hickory, blackash, basswood and elm were among the leading varieties.

Passage source: History of Lorain County, Ohio, published 1879.

Thurot F. Chapman, also from Connecticut, removed to Chenango county. New York, in 1808. In 1811, he married Lydia Andress, and, in 1817, emigrated to Ohio. At Ashtabula his money was entirely gone, and he was compelled to remain there two weeks. He located first in Ridgeville, where he arrived July 3d of the above year. In the fall of the same year he moved into Eaton. He erected his house where Mr. Varsey's now stands; but, on discovering subsequently that he was on the wrong lot, he vacated, moving into a house then owned by Levi Mills. In March, 1831, while the family were absent, the house burned to the ground with its contents, leaving the family very destitute. They received some assistance from friends, and were enabled to commeuce housekeeping again, but, for a long time afterward, were without many articles of household necessity. The first }'ear they liad neither a table nor a chair in the house, and two cups and saucers, two knives and forks each, and two plates, comprised their entire stock of crockery.

Passage source: History of Lorain County, Ohio, published 1879.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Eaton Township - it names this place 22 more 22 times.