My Genealogy Hound

RICE H. EATON. The personal history of most men partakes of a sameness, but the biographer finds an inspiration in the story, simple and true, of some lives, and the narrative charms the reader. Such a career is the embodiment of higher and nobler principles of human nature, a life ideal because unique, an existence whose individuality is blended and lost in a natural effort to live and die without hope of reward or fear of punishment — a life of supreme unselfishness.

Mr. Eaton was born in Rochester, N. Y., December 8, 1838, and received a common and high-school education. His parents were Joel and Sarah (Sibley) Eaton, the former a native of Vermont, and the latter of Massachusetts. By profession and training he is a printer and journalist, having begun at the “case” and working himself up. While yet very young he served an apprenticeship in the book and job office of William Hughes, of Rochester, and having learned all the arts of his trade, “stick” in hand, he began that nomadic life for which devotees of the “black art” are famous. But travel to his keen, observant mind was more than mere pastime. An experience and knowledge thus acquired have served him to a good purpose in a profession upon which his labors have reflected honor and credit. The greater part of his early professional life was spent in the South, where his opportunities of studying the slave question were the best and most satisfactory, but his observation was terminated by the firing upon Ft. Sumter. Finding himself in a country the inhabitants of which held opinions on the momentous issue of the hour diametrically and uncomfortably opposed to his own, he quietly returned to his native state to take up arms in defense of his flag. He enlisted in June, 1862, in the Sixth company of the First New York sharp shooters, and served in the army of the Potomac. He saw considerable service, participating in the battles of Gettysburg, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania and the assault on Petersburg, where he was wounded in the left leg, necessitating his discharge from the service in 1864, when he returned to Rochester. He resumed his trade, working on the daily papers of his native city a short time, when he emigrated to Iowa, where he and his brother, Webster Eaton, started the Fremont Tribune, a weekly paper. They sold the paper, however, and removed to Shelby county, Iowa, where he founded the Shelby County Record, which he published about one year, when his wife died. Soon after this sad event he returned to Rochester, N. Y., working on the Democrat and Chronical till May, 1873, when again he set his face westward, locating at Kearney, Nebr., where his brother, Webster Eaton, had established the Central Nebraska Press, the first paper printed and published in Kearney. He had editorial charge and the general management of the Press till he sold it to W. C. Holden in 1879 to accept a position in the United States railway mail service, which he held till 1883, when he retired. Moving to his farm four miles east of Kearney he spent five years of a hitherto active life in the peaceful quiet of a granger. His previous experience had not to a remarkable degree fitted him for the vocation of a farmer and his career as such was accordingly not a successful one. He afterwards declared that if the cost of production is the standard of value of an article, he produced a very high grade of farm products. Nature and education had done nothing in fitting him for farm life, so in the fall of 1888 he resumed his profession. With Mr. M. A. Brown and others he organized the Hub Printing Company, of which he is the president, and in 1889 was appointed postmaster at Kearney.

The marriage of Mr. Eaton took place in September, 1864, to Miss Matilda Aiten, who was also a native of Rochester, N. Y. She died in Harlan, Iowa, in February, 1871, leaving a son, Joel, the fruit of this short but happy union. Mr. Eaton was next married, in the full of 1872, to Miss Jane McMillen, a native of Canada.

Mr. Eaton is a hard student, and the well-used volumes of his library are the companions of his leisure moments. He is possessed of a very fine memory, and a cursory glance at the page is all that is necessary to reveal to him its contents. He is a student of “index learning,” but the grasp of a fine mind furnishes the details. Fond of the writings of the best English novelists of the early days he keeps posted not only in them, but also on current literature. His literary tastes, personal experiences and the originality of a mature intellect, have made him a ready, versatile, apt writer. As a journalist he occupies a front rank. A clear, logical reasoner, concise writer and satirist, his retirement from the field of journalism is to be regretted. He looks upon the bright side of life and was the pioneer journalist of the mid-West to give this spirit a living expression. The graver matter of life he tempered with the sunshine of the tender, but humorous disposition, and the same spirit that has made his writings so popular he display’s in his private life.

Loyal to his friends, uncompromising toward his foes, he is a man at once beloved and disliked. But his sword is sheathed in the presence of a fallen enemy. The poor and oppressed are his friends because he is theirs. The earnings of a long and busy life have gone to alleviate the sufferings and wants of his less fortunate fellow-men. His big-hearted generosity is not confined to the extent of his purse, for he practices a broader charity than mere giving. Sympathy and liberality of thought, charity for the opinion of others, are admirable characteristics of the man. In religion no dogmas or creeds confine or obscure his unselfish acts. He devotes his means and opportunities toward making the world better for living in it. In public life he is liberal and enterprising; in private he is devoted to his family, loyal to his friends, doing all the good he can.