Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-11-29
A REMARKABLE WOMAN.
The Late Mrs. Margaret Eaton-An Inter
e-ting sketch of Her Early Life.
Prom the boston sunday ue-ald.


Margaret Eaton, widow Of Gen. John
II. Eaton, Secretary Of War under Pres
ident jackson in the first year of his first
administration, and once 4 Senator from
Tennessee, died about II O'Clock to-day,
at the residence of Mrs. Smith, on Ninth
Street, between + and Streets. Mrs.
Eaton has exercised, directly and indi
rectly, larger influence upon the pol
itics of this country than any other OF
her sex, save only, perhaps, the wife of
the first President. Her life has been
one succession of romances, more in
credible than any recorded in fiction
outside of Jules Nerne's utterly incredi-
Bile feals of Imagination. Until she
passed her 10th year she was continually
before the public, the central figure of
some intricate scandal, and yet has al
most outliyed the memory of scores up
on scores OF statesmen who were full of
promise when she was a middle-aged
woman. aud had left her deepest i'm
press upon affairs of state. She died
from the general decay Of her vital pow
ers, very nearly 30 years old, although
her exact age il is difficult to state. She
remembered clearly the early events of
her life, and could state them with sin
gular felicity of manner and precision,
although generally confused rs to dates.
She was the daughter of an Irish ho
tel-keeper by the name of William
O'Neal, who kept the first 50 tavern y at
the national capital that made the slight
est pretensions to " style
PEGGY o'NEALr
was the name She went by, and wild,
hOydenish girl, from all accounts and
her own admission, she WAS She must
have been singularly beautiful as a girl,
and down Ia the very last retained
marked traces of it. She had a fault
less face and 4 complexion which no art
could beautify. Her form was of me-
dunn height, and of the 1.-THE and will
lowy type whichpoet and novelists love
10 present to their heroines. She was
witty, even 10 sauciness; piquant, not
much read in books, as, indeed, were
very few in her schoolgirl days, but
with certain air about her that defied
n jot or title more of freedom than she
herself invited. Sixty-one years ago,
when she met Gen Eaton-then Major
hard fighting with Gen. jackson in the
Indian wars and the War of 1Sl2-she
was girl well advanced toward the
marrying age. In couple of years she
did marry-not Maj. Eaton, however,
but Purscr Undertake, whom she bore
two children The Purser did not be-
long, however, to the retired squad, nor
did be know how to combine those in
fiuenees which would permit him to
draw his pay while rusting out his days
with MS interesting family. Many
voyage did he make during his married
lie. leaving his bright Young wife at
home with her father and at her fathers
hotel, and al last, as such things will
happen, in 1927 made his last trip TO the
Mediterranean A few months later the
news came back that
HE RAD COMMITTED SUICIDE,
and later still there came back to the
widow bundle OF his little effects, chief
of which was his beautiful wife's minia-
ture sci in pearls. Mrs. Eaton always
denied that the Purser died by his own
hand, although this report had much to
do with the scandal of her after-life.
He was bathing, as she states it, and
sudden rush of blood to the head was
the cause of his death. His razor was
on the floor, just Is he had used il TO
shave with. and on the table was the
portrait, set with pearls, of the wife he
idolized. This * Mrs Eaton's story,
hut the tale that went abroad. and which
poor Mrs. Eaton's many envious rivals
never allowed Ia rest, was that. con-