Horace Eaton

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Horace Eaton (June 22, 1804 – July 4, 1855) was an American Whig politician and doctor from Vermont. He was born in Barnard, Vermont, and graduated from Middlebury College in 1825. He studied medicine with his father in Enosburg and finished at Castleton Medical College in 1828, then joined his father’s practice. Eaton served as town clerk of Enosburg.

He entered politics and served in the Vermont Senate in 1837-1838 and again from 1839-1843. He was the 14th Lieutenant Governor of Vermont from October 13, 1843, to October 9, 1846, serving under Governor John Mattocks. He then became the 18th Governor of Vermont, serving from 1846 to 1848. As governor, he opposed admitting slave states to the Union and opposed the Mexican War. He helped create the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction and was its first holder, from 1845 to 1850. He also served as a delegate at Vermont’s Constitutional Convention in 1848.

In 1848 Eaton was named a professor of chemistry and natural history at Middlebury College, a post he held until 1855. He died in Middlebury on July 4, 1855, at the age of 51, and was buried at Enosburg Center Cemetery in Enosburg. He was married twice, first to Cordelia H. Fuller (with whom he had two children) and then to Edna Palmer.