The museum group is kicking off the little museums 29th year. The museum started in the Wood House on Brooklyn Street for the Bicentennial in 1995, moving to the ancient stone building on River Road in 1998.
The stone museum building is one of the few early rubble buildings built just after the 1790’s. The building was an early tannery building which became the shoemakers house. The Sprague family kept it in the family for much of its life of service to the community. The museum has a special display that honors Mr. Sprague who was a shoemaker, no doubt his father was as well, since we have records dating to 1802 for William Sprague who was also a shoemaker. We have a display honoring them in the front room where his shop was located.
To celebrate the Old Town of Eaton Museum will be hosting a large yard sale on Memorial Day Weekend Saturday, May 25th and Sunday May 26th from 9 am until 3pm both days. As usual the set up will be at the Old Auction Barn building next to the Eaton Post Office on Rt. 26 in the Hamlet of Eaton. Though this years parade will be in Morrisville, the usual History Day Celebration will mark Eatons Memorial Day Monday the 27th. The museum will be open from 10 am until 3pm in honor of the communities 229th Anniversary.
The Yard sale will feature everything from furniture to gifts, household small appliances, gift items, pet items, books, kitchen items, figurines and more. The proceeds will benefit the Old Town of Eaton Museum and the not for profit charity 4 Community Cats.
The usual can drive to benefit both organizations will gladly take your holiday cans that can be dropped off at the weekend event, left at 5823 Brooklyn Street, or given to one of our members.
The weekend will feature a special history display with Back Street Mary at the Old Town of Eaton Museum and is located at 2776 River Road in Eaton and on Monday to answer any of your questions or perhaps just take you on a tour of the historic old museum that dates to about 1802.
For more information you can visit the 4 Community Cats website or by emailing Back Street Mary @ yahoo.com.
The Old Town of Eaton Museum will open on Memorial Day Monday this year for the first time in two years. The outbreak of Covid caused many of the small museums to close their doors, which of course causes many problems including gather funding for operational purposes. The Old Town Museum was no exception.
Memorial Day Monday in Eaton has always been our main event and honors the historic roots of Eaton and its many Revolutionary Soldiers, founders, Civil War Veterans and all veterans.
The land mass itself was purchased from Col. William Smith, husband of Abigail Adams Smith (President Adams daughter). The area now Eaton and Lebanon were the first settlements and clearing of what is now Madison County. One of the more interesting aspects of our area is the old historic marker that stands on River Road marking Madison County’s early settlement history. The marker lies just below the Old Town of Eaton Museum and lists the first clearing in what is now Madison County.. 1788...The Bark Hut.
If one takes the time to pick threw Mrs. Hammond's History of Madison County you will note many stories on our early founding including where men forged into what was still considered" Indian country," and upon arrival made a rudimentary hut to stay in. This area actually formed what was eventually a set of log homes that stretched from Lebanon to Eaton then dubbed "Log City".
Most of these men and those that came later were veteran's of the Revolutionary War and some had followed Col. William Smith to his land patent set up and built by Joshua Smith (not a relative) who served under him. Joshua was sent by Col. Smith to find him the best tract of land in the area...which Joshua did, and where upon he built a bark hut.These actual squatters were indeed our first settlers and ironically today over two hundred years latter, many of these families names still live on here.
The area dubbed “Log City” was also considered Masonic settlement as many Members of the Masonic order. Today many stone buildings on River Road once called Water Street, reflect that including the building that houses the Old Town of Eaton Museum dated to before 1800.
Some of the earliest settlers of Revolutionary War era include notables 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.
Others include 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.
Others include 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 many more. To choose one to honor was hard.
So I decided to go back in the history of our military men and choose a known historic name, 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.
So for a day full of History please join the Museum for its opening on Memorial Day Monday, May 30th from 11 to 4 pm. Refreshments will be served and all are invited to travel back in time to our historic roots to honor our Veteran’s and our history.
This is as usual "Eaton Day" or History Day in Eaton .(.in it 28th year)on Monday, Memorial Day. This year the annual Pie Sale will be postponed a bit, but festivities include new displays at the Old Town of Eaton Museum with Back Street Mary giving tours. The hours are from 11 until 3pm. In the afternoon, there will be an ice-cream social.... and hopes are that the weather will cooperate.
The fun is the new displays... that include an intriguing look back at what the original Cobblers (shoemakers) room would have looked like. A new piece of history, via a diary which proves Sprauge was there making shoes in 1802 is proof of the buildings original use... Tools and stories of the old building abound and Mary will be there to spin them.
Also on hand for the sale will be newly done etchings of the Congregational Church, now the Community Church, as it looked in 1833 when it was built. Plus all of the books and artifacts of that building.
The new school exhibit has for sale copies of the photo taken for the last graduating class of the Brooklyn Street High School in 1934. In the picture are so many of the mothers and fathers of current residents as well as grandparents of their children. So come down ...get a collectable and help support the museum.
There will be refreshments at the museum ...as well as discussion on our upcoming year's exhibits and upcoming Wednesday, Summer Lecture Series, that was such a success last year.
So please come down and support your link to the history of the area. Monday, Memorial Day from 11-3 pm. In the afternoon our Eaton Revolutionary War Re-Enactors will be at the Gerrit Smith Buildings Cemetery Site to fire the traditional Military Salute for all of the Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried there. This is a stirring sight...
