AMOS EATON. 

 1776-1842. 



PROF. AMOS EATON was prominent among those who culti- 

 vated science in the earlier half of this century, who laboured to 

 popularize the study and make it accessible to the masses. 

 American geology and botany owe much to him. His books 

 on those subjects have two special merits they were among 

 the first published in which a systematic treatment for America 

 was attempted, and they were written throughout in a language 

 that all could read. 



Amos Eaton was born in Chatham, Columbia County, N. Y., 

 May 17, 1776, and died in Troy, N. Y., May 6, 1842. His father, 

 Captain Abel Eaton, was a farmer in comfortable circum- 

 stances, and of the best standing as a citizen. The family was 

 descended from a John Eaton, who came from Dover in Eng- 

 land about 1635, and two years later settled in Dedham, Mass., 

 where descendants of the elder line still reside. The scholastic 

 tendencies which determined the character of his career appear 

 to have shown themselves at an early age, for we find that in 

 1790, when Amos was only fourteen years old, he was appoint- 

 ed to make a Fourth-of-July oration, and acquitted himself ac- 

 ceptably in the effort. Serving as a chain bearer in the sur- 

 veying of some land, he acquired a taste for that business. 

 He had no instruments, and, in order to obtain them, he ar- 

 ranged with a blacksmith to " blow and strike " for him by 

 day, in return for which the blacksmith should help him make 

 instruments at night. After several weeks' work, a needle, 

 magnetized from kitchen tongs, and a working chain were 

 turned out. A compass case was made out of the bottom of 

 an old pewter plate, well smoothed, polished, and graduated ; 

 and the young man, at sixteen years of age, was ready to do 

 little jobs of surveying. 



He fitted himself for college with the Rev. Dr. David Pot- 



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