The City of Eaton, A Brief History

The town of Eaton was platted on February 20^th, 1806, by William Bruce, who built the area’s first gristmill.  It was recorded on the same date in Montgomery County, Ohio.  It was not recorded in Preble County until December 27, 1825. 

The U.S. victory in the Tripolitan War against the Barbary Pirates in 1805 provided a strong influence as the United States celebrated its first naval triumph as an independent country. Our Marine Corps Hymn, of course, highlights reference to “The Shores of Tripoli”  The Commander of the American Naval Fleet in the Mediterranean during the Tripolitan War was Commodore Edward Preble in honor of whom Preble County was named.  The county seat, Eaton, was named for William Eaton, the U.S. Consul at Tunis, who led a diverse army in a harrowing march from Egypt to Tripoli to meet the U.S. Naval forces.  Decatur, Israel, Wadsworth and Somers streets in Eaton were all named in honor of other heroes of the Tripolitan War.

The town consisted of 233 lots with St. Clair’s Creek (Seven Mile Creek) forming its western boundary.  Water street followed the course of the waterway.  Also running north and south were Walnut, Beech, Barron, Cherry and Maple streets, intersected by Israel, Wadsworth, Preble (later Main), Somers and Decatur Streets running east and west.

William Bruce reserved for himself and his heirs the ground located between Water Street and the creek for the purpose of building mills or waterworks but specified that if the land should not be in use for those purposes, it was to remain free as a common.  Mr. Bruce also laid out sixteen outlets at the northeast edge of the original plat.

He gave five lots for use as public lands.  Four were at the intersection of Preble and Barron Streets.  Lot A, at the southeast corner, was for building a courthouse and other county buildings;  Lot B, at the northeast corner, was designated for a school; lots C and D were for churches or meeting houses.  Lot E, along the east side of the row of outlots, was set aside for a burial ground.

Although instructions were specific, some were followed and some were not.  Eaton was designated the county seat and Lot A, retained by the county, has been the site of all three courthouses and the jails.

A few burials were made in the public land designated as Lot E northeast of the village but the graveyard was soon abandoned.  Instead, Mound Hill (Union) Cemetery  was established at the west edge of town.

 In 1812, Lots B,C and D were sold to private interests and schools and churches did not occupy those lots.  In 1822, Cornelius VanAusdal built a three-story brick business and residence on the northwest corner.  The building is still a business house.

 A number of smaller frame buildings occupied the southwest corner of the main intersection until the St. Clair Building (1892-1987) was built.

 W.H.H.B. Minor built his three-story building at the northeast corner about 1860.  the ground floor housed business rooms and the upper floors, offices and a third-floor public meeting room.  The Knights of Pythias met there until their hall was built in 1913.  In 1945, when the Hiestand family purchased the building from the Minor estate for a future bank site, the building housed the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company grocery, the Style Shop and offices.

The village grew rapidly in all directions from this center, with many early frame business houses replaced in the latter part of the nineteenth century with the Italianate structures standing today.

TOWN HALL - Eaton’s first Town Hall was built on the northeast corner of the courthouse property in the early 1850s.  It was destroyed by fire on July 4, 1859.  More than a decade later, on September 13, 1869, ground was broken for the imposing Italianate building at the southwest corner of Barron and Somers Streets and on April 28,1870, the cornerstone was laid.  Cost of the building with furnishings was $21,500.00.  Abner Haines  presided at the dedication on January 11, 1871.  There were speeches, the Eaton Cornet Band and a community choir.  Members of the building committee were J.H. Foos, H.B. Van Ausdal and G.H. Eidson.  Eaton’s Opera House occupied the second floor and was the scene of local and professional entertainments of all types, as well as lectures, institutes, banquets and commencements.  On April 25, 1961, a tornado swept through Eaton and damaged the Town Hall to such an extent that it was necessary to demolish it.  A large brick house known as the Mitchell property, located at North Maple St and Eaton Lewisburg Rd became the City building until August of 1963.  

  The current City Building located at 328 North Maple St. was constructed in 1894 for the Eaton Electric and Ice Plant.  The privately owned company was not immediately successful.  A shortage of water and insufficient power to run both the ice making and the electricity-producing machinery simultaneously resulted in the ice-making operation being discontinued.  The electric company continued until 1920.  In 1939 Horace Justice founded the Eaton Screw Products Company in this building.  Subsequent owners Robert Barnd, Karl Brouse, and Ed Steffen sold the building to Parker Appliance Company of Cleveland (Later Parker Hannifin) in January of 1949.  In 1954 the company moved to its new facility at 725 N Beech St. 

On May 31, 1963 the City purchased the building from Elmer Frech.  By mid summer fire and police departments were installed in the northern portion of the building and city offices, including Municipal Court, had moved into the southern portion.  In 1968/1969 new quarters for the fire and police divisions were constructed at the south side of the building.

FORT ST. CLAIR – Fort St. Clair park was established in 1923 to preserve and commemorate the site of Fort St. Clair.  At the end of the eighteenth century, the fort was an important garrison and supply depot built between Fort Washington and Fort Jefferson in support of United States troops in the nation’s struggle with the Indians for control of the Northwest Territory.

The first campaign to secure the Northwest Territory was led by General Josiah Harmer and the second by General Arthur St. Clair, both of whose armies met defeat.  It was General Anthony Wayne, in 1793 and 1794, who marched his army steadily northward from Fort Washington to Fallen Timbers, and gained the victory which led to the negotiation of the Treaty of Greenville, signed December 9, 1795.

Fort St. Clair was the fourth in the chain of forts built by St. Clair and Wayne.  The exact date of construction of Fort St. Clair has been in question.  The 1881 History of Preble County, Ohio, published by H.Z. Williams and Bros., recorded the construction as taking place “during the winter of 1791-92”.  E.O. Randall, editor of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, used specific dates of December 15, 1791, to January 26,1792, in an article written in 1902.  Contemporary sources of information, diaries and correspondence of those involved in the construction-do not support those dates however, but show that the building of the fort began in March 1792.

According to the journal kept by Captain Daniel Bradley, who arrived at the garrison site March 17,1792, with the construction detachment and remained until November 21,1792, there were few Indian attacks.  A summer journal entry states: “We have had no trouble from the Indians at this garrison since it was built.  Live very peaceable, got considerable of a garden.  Had lettice & radishes plenty in May, peas 20^th, June.  Have cucumber most fit to pick.  Like to have corn, beans, peas, potatoes, mush melon, water melon &c plenty.”

There were occasional raids upon the livestock and, when work parties outside the fort were attacked by Indians, the men were often tortured and mutilated.  The major battle of Fort St. Clair occurred at dawn on November 6, 1792, when one hundred mounted militiamen under Major John Adair, encamped for the night a short distance from the fort, were attacked by 250 Indians from several tribes led by Miami Chief Little Turtle.  At the end of the skirmish, which began with close fighting and ended in a running battle, twenty five horses had been killed, 160 had been taken away, and the bodies of two Indians and six soldiers were found on the battlefield.  At sunset the soldiers were buried a short distance west of the fort.   The graveyard remains, now enclosed by a fence and marked by a monument erected by Major William H. Ortt. 

Source :  Excerpts from a 1959 Miami University research team studying the governmental needs of Eaton, report by Kenneth E. Allen and Richard D Bausman ; Excerpts from the Preble County Historical Society book “Preble County Ohio”.  Ion Sell Hiestand, Editor, Audrey Shelton Gilbert, Family History Editor. ; Register Herald Newspaper clippings.