Benjamin Harrison Eaton Benjamin Harrison Eaton ( December 15 , 1833 – October 29 , 1904 ) was an American politician , entrepreneur and agriculturalist in the late 19th and early 20th century . Eaton was a founding officer of the Greeley Colony and was instrumental in the establishment of modern irrigation farming to Northern Colorado . A member of the Republican Party , he served as the fourth Governor of Colorado , from January 1885 to January 1887 , with the nickname of the " farmer governor " . He was one of the largest land owners in Weld and Larimer counties , at one time owning over ninety 160 acre ( 0 . 6 km² ) parcels , all watered from canals and reservoirs of his own construction . His projects were influential in helping turn the South Platte River valley into an important agricultural region in the state ' s economy . The town of Eaton , Colorado in western Weld County is named for him . Benjamin Harrison Eaton ' s sister , Mary Jane Eaton , married William S . Dickerson , also from Coshocton County , Ohio . They settled in Weld County , Colorado . Their daughter Adda Dickerson married Thomas Grant Cullison in Windsor Colorado on September 20 , 1900 . Thomas & Adda ' s grandson Tom Cullison still lives in the Greeley / Eaton Colorado area . Eaton is among those who are depicted in stained glass on the rotunda of the Colorado State Capitol Building . Early life . Eaton was born in Coshocton , Ohio , the second of eight children . He went to school in West Bedford , Ohio ( Coshocton County ) and taught school there as well . In 1854 , at the age of 21 , he moved to Louisa County , Iowa , where he taught school for two years . He returned to Ohio in 1856 where he married Delilah Wolf . His wife died in 1857 after giving birth to a son , Aaron James Eaton . After emigrating to Colorado in 1858 during the Colorado Gold Rush he settled in Weld County In 1858 Eaton went to Iowa for the second time . The following year 1859 , at the height of the Colorado Gold Rush , he went from Iowa to Colorado . He prospected for gold in Colorado and New Mexico , as well as working on farms . During the American Civil War , he served under Colonel Kit Carson , in the New Mexico Volunteers . He returned to Louisa County , Iowa in 1864 and married Rebecca J . Hill . He crossed the Great Plains with his second wife that year and settled in Weld County along its western border with Larimer County , establishing a livestock raising operation . He was an early prominent citizen of Fort Collins , the nearest post office and trading point , and was a charter member of the Masonic Lodge there . In 1866 , he was elected as Justice of the Peace , serving in that capacity for nine yrears . For six years , he served concurrently as a county commissioner . Later career . Eaton expanded his operations from farming into contracting , specializing in the building of irrigation canals and reservoirs , a business he heavily promoted as a means of bringing growth and wealth to Larimer and Weld Counties . In 1873 , in association with John C . Abbott , he built what later became known as Larimer County Canal No . 2 which watered large areas of land west , south , and southwest of Fort Collins . In 1878 he began construction of the Larimer and Weld Canal , once known as the Eaton Ditch , which at the time was the largest and longest irrigation canal in the state . In 1879 he built the High Line Canal in Denver for a group of British investors . He later built the Windsor Reservoir near present - day Windsor , and well as many other smaller water projects throughout Larimer and Weld counties . He died in 1904 at Greeley .