Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1890-12-12
4 wiNDHAu County NATIVE


EltNn ~ Entou, Heninrkuble woman
with ~ Remarkable IIi-tory.
The Manchester, ~ II Union, Of De
cember t. tells this interesting story Of a
remarkable woman who was bnru in Lon
donderry in this county, anl whose child
hood Of hardship was spent there.
On Tuesday Auctioneer Fairbanks sold
for Wilberforce Ireland, executor, the
house which was the home for many years
Of the late Eliza A. Eaton, remarkable
woman with a curious history Eliza A.
Eaton left her property, the house men
toned, aud several hundred dollars in the
bank, tu the city library, without restriC-
tions, and in short time the trustees of
the library will have turned over to them
nearly $4,000.
Eliza A. Eaton was born in Londonder
ry, Vt, Of Scotch-Irish parentage Her
maiden name was Thompson, and her family
came from Londonderry, Ireland, to Lon
donderry, n. II and then moved to Lon
douderry, Vt, having lived in three Lon
donderrys in a short time. The tolls and
hardships she endured in early life in the
little frontier Vermont town. left an i'm
preston upon her which never faded from
her memory. Her life was hard and dis
cuuragiug, aud from her tenderest infancy
she did the hardest kind Of work and had
the scantiest kind Of comforts and the
barest necessaries Of a wretched existence
When II years old she began to work in
cotton mill, and in lS4l she came TO Man
chester to work in the AmOskeag mills
The work of weave girls then was no Joke
They had wretched little crampsd work
rooms, poor light, foul smells, insufficient
ventilation and their board and lodging
mean in the extreme. This girl went
through this for years, and came out a
handsome, proud, intelligent, high spirited
woman, with all the qualities which beseem
and adorn complete womanhood.
Her courtship and marriage were tinged
with romance One day, while looking
out of the weave room window, she called
the attention Of some of her companions to
a day laborer at work on the foundations
of No 3 mill and said There is the man
there whom | am going to marry She
was as good as her word she aud John
Eaton became acquainted, and after a
courtshp in which 1t is said she led him a
merry dance, they were married in ls4j in
Vermont. John Eaton later on became a
fireman on the railroad and in 1860 was
scalded to death in railroad accident
Mrs Eaton attracted special notice and
obtained high repute as ii clairvOyant. aud
after her husbands death she began tu
turn her alleged powers to a good account.
She never advertised, but it soon became
known that she set up to he natural heal
er and fortune teller, and people Of all sorts
and conditions locked to her and invoked
her aid at % cents call Her reputation
grew and she put the price up to 80 cents
and finally to 81. Her success was great
and enabled her to make the requests above
mentioned
She was a woman Of many personal at
fractions From her earliest years her
sharpness Of wit and perception was mark
ed and her ability was unq1estloned. Sh-
had but a scant education, but she wrote
good prose, and poetry that has been pro
nouuced better She died April "a 1889
She designed her own monument, which
was Of Vermont marble.