John Eaton (General)
| John Eaton | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| United States Commissioner of Education | |
|
In office March 16, 1870 – August 5, 1886 |
|
| President |
Ulysses Grant Rutherford Hayes James Garfield Chester Arthur Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | Henry Barnard |
| Succeeded by | Nathaniel Dawson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 5, 1829 Sutton, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | February 9, 1906 (aged 76) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Dartmouth College Andover Theological Seminary Rutgers University, New Brunswick |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 United States• Union |
| Service/branch | Union Army |
| Rank |
 Colonel Bvt. Brigadier General
|
| Unit | 27th Ohio Infantry |
| Commands | 63rd U.S. Colored Infantry |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
For other people named John Eaton, see .
John Eaton, Jr. (December 5, 1829 – February 9, 1906) was a U.S. Commissioner of Education and a brevet brigadier general during the American Civil War.
Eaton was born in Sutton, New Hampshire, and attended Thetford Academy in Vermont. He was the eldest of nine children and his father was a farmer. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1854, studied at Andover Theological Seminary, and was ordained in 1862 to the Presbyterian ministry. He had to teach all four years he was in college in order to pay his board and tuition. He received degrees of A.M. and later an L.L.D. from Rutgers.
He then taught school in Cleveland, OH and was the acting superintendent of schools in Toledo from 1856-1859.
After being ordained in 1862, Eaton entered the American Civil War as a chaplain of the 27th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In November of that year, after Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant appointed him superintendent of freedmen and was later given supervision of all military posts from Cairo to Natchez and Fort Smith. In November 1863, Grant appointed him as the Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the Department of the Tennessee; there Eaton supervised the establishment of 74 schools. In 1863, Eaton was made colonel of the 63rd United States Colored Infantry, and, in March 1865, he was advanced to brevet brigadier general.
General Eaton left the military and eventually returned to his career in education. He remained with the freedman bureau until he was mustered out and then became editor of the Memphis Daily Post in 1866. From 1867-1869 he was the state superintendent of schools of Tennessee. He was then appointed United States Commissioner of Education in 1870 and served with great efficiency in the Bureau of Education where he, among other things, organized Washington, D.C.'s Board of Education and reorganized the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.
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