Eaton is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Gibson County,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

Geography

Eaton is located on the right bank of the

Middle Fork of the Forked Deer River The Middle Fork of the Forked Deer River is formed in Henderson County, Tennessee. It is a small stream that flows through Carroll County, northern Madison County, Gibson County, Crockett County and Dyer County where it flows into the North ...

, about west of Trenton.History of Eaton, TN
, compiled by Vicki W. Shaffer, from ''Goodspeed's History of Tennessee'' and ''Gibson County Past and Present'' by Frederick Culp and Mrs. Robert E. Ross
Goodspeed, ''History of Tennessee'', 1887 Eaton is the site of a post office, which is assigned zip code 38331. State Route 188 (Riverside-Yorkville Road)passes through Eaton.

History

The community was first settled in the 1820s after the

Jackson Purchase The Jackson Purchase, also known as the Purchase Region or simply the Purchase, is a region in the U.S. state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and the Tennessee River to the east. Jackson's P ...

opened

West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law. Its geography consists ...

to European-American settlement. It was originally known as Buckner's Bluff after early settler J.W. Buckner, but was renamed Eaton in 1827, after John H. Eaton,

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

from Tennessee who later became

United States Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the President of the United States, U.S. president's United States Cabinet, Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's Presidency of George Washington, administration. A similar position, called either "Sec ...

in the administration of President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

. It was incorporated as a municipality in the 1830s, lost its incorporated status at some time thereafter, and was reincorporated again around 1875 to 1880, but later lost its incorporated status again. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was first established in Eaton in 1830. The community's commercial peak was in the 1830s. Before

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

connections were established in the region, Eaton was an important shipping point, served by

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

flatboat A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...

s, and occasional small

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

s that navigated on the Forked Deer River.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Gibson County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee 1830 establishments in Tennessee