The Day After....the Revolution our Settlements Began!

Jim Monahan and his reenactors!

There are so many Revolutionary War veterans including Col. Joshua Leland who served under George Washington and purchased a large land tract that became Eaton, to the man he purchased it from…  Col. William Smith, and his wife Abigail Adams Smith (daughter of President Adams).  Smith himself having been the adjutant to George Washington, and who settled the area still called Smith’s Valley today.

The Morse Boys and their father Captain Joseph Morse and his men made up of White, Black and Praying Indian who were at Lexington and Concord and Bunker (Breeds( Hill. Men who came here to start a new life in Freedom without rule of crazy King George.

Other notables include Major Sinclair who purchased the land owned by Col Leland, now with a historical marker for the Dunbar Farm.  Sinclair kept a tavern and stable on that property for travelers.

Jonathan Bates who came to Eaton and purchase land just below the Old Town of Eaton Museum, his grave on the side of the road is marked today with a large bronze plaque on a boulder.  Bates had served with the well known Patriot Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys.

Benjamin Morse brother of Joseph Morse, Major Elisha Haden, Nicholas Byer who had been a member of Burgoyne’s Hessians, Simeon Chubbuck, grandfather of Emily Chubbuck and Myles Standish! yes Myles Standish.

Mr. Standish was a direct lineal descendant of his illustrious namesake, Captain Miles Standish of the Mayflower, one of the most distinguished of the colonists who landed upon Plymouth Rock in 1620. 

Captain Standish had been hired as the military protection for the early colony, and in true military fashion Miles Jr. was a soldier as well.

Corporal Myles Standish was born in 1748 at Duxbury, Plymouth County Massachusetts, moving to Eaton where he died on July 22, 1818 at the age of 70.

Myles Standish, Naomi Standish, and Daniel Standish were members of the Second Baptist Church of Eaton, and appear in the US Census of Eaton, Madison County.

Myles, was always called Myles by all who knew him, and took up the farm once owned by Adin Brown near Pierceville, living there for many years. Standish was an energetic businessman who invested in the Skaneateles Turnpike, and he built and kept the first old turnpike gate, which stood in the early years opposite the famous Alderbrook gristmill.  It is so interesting to see both national and local history meld seamlessly together this way.

Even more amazing is that today people will be marching on our modern No Kings Day!  Our fore bearers  fought for freedom from military rule....yes read about the era before the Revolution... a good book on the day the fist shots were fired at the "Bridge" on April 19, in 1775 is "The Day The American Revolution Began" by William Hallahan...then realize Eaton's forefathers who lived here in some cases, were at the bridge.

I wonder what they think laying in their graves overlooking the Town they founded to get away from the military craziness of King George and his Taxes "Tariffs on Coffee and Tea and spices!"