Abel Ellsworth Eaton, no issue

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43371217/abel-elsworth-eaton

http://hcap.artstor.org/cgi-bin/library?a=d&d=p2241

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_E._Eaton_House

Birth 1834 Conway, New Hampshire Residence 1850 Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire Marriage 1867 LaGrande, Union Co., Oregon

Marriage: Mary Laing Shaw Was 42 Years Younger Than Abel Eaton When She Married Him. A Considerable Age Difference. She Was About 23 Years Old At Marrige Which Was Considered An Ole' Maid In That Day. They Never Had Any Children To My Knowledge. 1899 Union, Union Co., Oregon Death 1917 Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon

Story: Biography Of Abel Elsworth Eaton family: times Union County Biographies - EATON ABEL E. EATON. - One of the giants of achievement in the west, with great powers of adaptability and talents to enable him to fathom to the bottom any line of industry that he may undertake, the subject of this sketch ahs certainly wrought out in Union county a practical success that is a shining light to his capabilities, his perseverance and his sagacity. Keen foresight and good practical judgement have ever been prominent in his make-up and an executive force that would brook no obstacle has enabled him to conserve to his interests barriers that seemed to be but unsurmountable. On May 20, 1834, in Conway, Carroll county, New Hampshire, Mr. Eaton was born, and there received a good education, and when manhood 39;s years drew on he entered the ranks of the educators of the then west. - Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, and taught successfully for a number of years. One of his schools was broken up by General Rosecrans exercising the right of eminent domain and using the building for a war telegraph office while the play ground became a military parade plat. On May 7, 1862, he left these scenes and came to the wilderness of the west, making the journey in the fashion then prevalent, by ox teams. His cash capital was seven dollars and fifty cents when he landed where Baker City now stands. His first enterprise was to purchase a scythe and cut forty tons of wild hay, which he readily sold to the packers. He then turned his attention to freighting, and inside of six years he had one hundred yoke of oxen and two six-mule teams, which enabled him to do a large business. About 1867, he settled on a farm in the Grande Ronde valley and tilled the soil in addition to the freighting that he continued. Four years since he entered into company with several others and erected a woolen mill in Union. The other men soon dropped out and left the burden of the business on him. He had relied on their experience and was entirely unskilled in the business. When they retired from the company, he was forced to dispose of the property at a sacrifice or personally take charge of the business as superintendent. He at once decided that he was able to master the business, and he accordingly set to the task, and from the minutest detail to the general supervision of the large business he mastered every part, and not content with the small output has increased the capacity of his mill, until at the present writing, he has a mill and business that, for its size, has a reputation second to none in the west. It is operated with manifestation of skill and business ability that are exceedingly praiseworthy, and the prosperous and mammoth business that Mr. Eaton handles to-day is a brilliant monument to his masterful force and keen foresight and unerring judgment. Where other men would have retired overwhelmed and totally defeated by the combine of adverse circumstances, Mr. Eaton not only calmly stood against the flood but called out with perfect method and consummate wisdom the reserve forces and resources of his nature and turned to his own account the destroying demon.In 1867 Mr. Eaton and Miss Mary E. Baird were married, and faithfully she walked by his side as the real helpmate for twenty-seven years and then at the age of forty-three was called by the rude hand of death to the rewards of her faithful service in another world. Her remains peacefully sleep in the cemetery at Union. The second marriage of Mr. Eaton was with Miss Mary L., Shaw, a native of Scotland. For thirty-five years Mr. Eaton has been a steady and earnest worker in the Methodist church, and his daily life has been a commendable exemplification of the virtues and graces of Christianity. For one term he was mayor of the city of Union. Fraternally he is affiliated with the I.O.O.F., and at the present time is treasurer of that body. Mr. Eaton has been president of the county Pioneer Society, and delivers an annual address to that worthy body. In school matters, he has always shown commendable zeal, and he was moving spirit in the erection of the two school houses, having served on the school board almost continuously for about twenty years, resigning two years since, as the duties of his business demanded his careful attention constantly.</p><p>Illustrated History of Union and Wallowa Counties ABEL E. EATON. - The extensive reputation and wide influence of Mr. Eaton bespeak for him a candid notice in any work touching upon the lives of our responsible men. The seventh son in a family of eleven children, he was born May 30, 1834, at Conway, New Hampshire. The father, Simeon Eaton, a lawyer from Maine, and the mother from the same state, whose maiden name was Bessie Paine, made their home upon a farm. During the first eight years of his life, the boy Abel found opportunity for but seven weeks schooling. This was his annual stipend of educational advantages until his eighteenth year, when he secured eleven weeks in the South Conway Seminary. Nevertheless, having an active New England brain, he eagerly imbibed ideas and information from all sources, utilizing the evening hours by the torchlights and fireplace to peruse books. At the age of twenty, he obtained the consent of his parents to go to Ohio, and in this then somewhat remote region experienced the many adventures, and tried the numerous shifts and turns of the youth away from home, realizing his greatest profit in a business way form a pair of calves purchased with money that he had hoarded as a boy from the proceeds of his bean patch. In 1854 he penetrated the West as far as Huntsville, Indiana, and although having no literary effects, except a family dictionary purchased some time before with a bushel of his white beans, he was able to secure a school and to teach it successfully, although heretofore regarded as one of those practically unmanageable schools of the West. He afforded the district a fin illustration of Yankee firmness. The three following years spent at home failed to satisfy him with the old East; and in 1857 we find him once more in Ohio following his profession as teacher. In 1861 his labors in this regard were broken off by General Rosecrans turning his schoolhouse into a military telegraph office, and making of his boys playground a parade upon which to drill ten thousand of the boys in blue, calling it Fort Denison.</p><p>A touching incident in his life, a few months later, was his relinquishment of a small army contract which he had taken, that he might go out to Springfield, Illinois, to see a dearly beloved sister, a beautiful and self-sacrificing woman who was sick in her distant home. Arriving at the Prairie city he found that she had gone even in her sickness and had been carried on a bed to her home in New England. This family to which Mr. Eaton belonged was one of those in which love and respect between its members rose to the highest significance. At Quincy, Illinois, Mr. Eaton was detained to teach a school from which the last master had been forcibly ejected; and, as in former positions of the same kind, he proved his ability to deal with refractory pupils. 
  
During these months he had been revolving the advisability of a change to the Pacific coast, and in May was ready to make the journey, having in the meantime read a farewell address to the people, and patrons of the school, and arranged all his business affairs with a view to his departure. He began the arduous trip on the seventh of the month, in company with his brother-in-law A.L. Brown, and one other. The first day out they overtook Doctors Rudd and Griswold; and they five remained together in fraternal bonds until arriving at the present site of Baker City, having met with hairbreadth escapes, buried victims of the barbarous Indians, and in other ways partaken of frontier adventures. At Auburn they witnessed a scene formerly characteristic of early times, - a hanging, being in this case that of a Frenchman who had poisoned his partners. Here they separated, the doctors going to Portland and the other two to Walla Walla; while Mr. Eaton with a net capital of seven dollars and fifty cents; out of which he bought a scythe and a few provisions, proceeded to create for himself a business by cutting and selling hay near Baker City. For this he found a ready sale, and by means of the quantity on hand was able to keep a yoke of oxen, and soon to increase this number so as to engage successfully in freighting to Idaho. From this laborious and even humble beginning, he increased to a large business, operating for eight years, and owning at times as many as a hundred yoke of oxen and twelve mules.As the great mining excitement and stampedes of the early days subsided, he turned his attention to farming and stock-dealing, making his home at Union, Oregon. Here he may be found at the present, living at his pleasant village home, the owner of two thousand acres of fine valley land, of six hundred fine horses and of two or three hundred cattle, and of money at interest.He was married November 6, 1867, to Miss Mary E. Baird, a native of Missouri, who crossed the plains in 1863. Although having no children of their own, they have made their comfortable home the means of extending favors and blessings to others.Mr. Eaton has figured prominently in the growth and development of educational and religious institutions, and in nearly every enterprise of a public nature in his locality. He has served in educational offices, and as mayor of his city, being in each case sought by the public for the service.

Story: Woolen Mill

Posted by RuthBarth62 <p>Alfred L. Lomax:  "Pioneer Woolen Mills in Oregon; History of Wool and the Woolen Textile Industry in Oregon 1811-1875".  Portland:  Binfords and Mort. Publishers, 1941.  (I need to find this info. from this book and post here).</p><p> </p><p>My time line:</p><p>Began idea of Woolen Mill in Union "gathered in the city Hall to discuss the promotion of a woolen mill.  5 Jan., 1897</p><p>Shut woolen mill down and gave $50,000 to Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.  August, 1907</p><p>A Portland syndicate headed by Dr. J. F. Bailey bought the idle factory for $25,000 said to have included 840 acres of land in Morow County, the Commercial Hotel and a funiture factory store in Newberg, and thirty lots in Newport.  It ws Bailey's idea to bring his brother-in-law, a technically-trained woolen mill man to Union to operate the mill.  June, 1908</p><p>Bailey's promotional ideas came to naught and the news broke the first of oct., 1910 that the woolen mill machinery would be removed to Washougal, Washington, at which place a $2,000 bonus had been offered if the mill would locate there....THEREFORE, the woolen mill machinery at Union was moved to Washougal Washington.</p><p>The Washougal Mill, too, would initially fail.  The Washougal Mill was ORIGINALLY CALLED THE UNION WOOLEN MILL and owned by J. F. Bailey.  Built in 1910 by the people of Washougal, Washington.  The mill offered a prime location on the Columbia River as well as a work force who were eager to work there.  Despite its almost perfect location, however, it would go bankrupt 2 years after opening due to lack of orders.  Pendleton Woolen Mills with its astute management would take this mill in 1912 and turn it into the company's largest and most successful mill.    </p><p>From Student Paper done by Rick Thum II called Pendleton Woolen Mills; a Northwest Success.  On 26 May 2003, found Thum's paper online THEREFORE, it is true Abel Eaton's Union Woolen Mill machinery was moved to Washougal, Washington in 1910 and was originally known as Union Wool Mill...went bankrupt 2 years later and in 1912 the Pendleton Woolen Mill took this mill over...true that Pendleton Woolen Mill got Union Woolen Mill's machinery...right on.</p><p>Oh, Abel Eaton's Union Woolen Mill made the FAMOUS Indian blankets which were quite popular.  Later, Pendleton Woolen Mill took to making these Indian blankets and still sell them.</p><p> </p> Comment

Story: He Went West...

Posted by RuthBarth62 Report abuse From Mabel Hidden's notes:  he went West.  There he drove teams of oxen, freighting FLOUR over the mountains.  He slept under the carts at night to protect them from marauding Indians.  He raised horses for sale in the East.  he operated a woolen mill and made blankets in Union, Oregon; the largest mill of its type on the West Coast.  HE BECAME VERY WEALTHY.  He ran for Governor of Oregon but lost because he supported the Temperance Movement.  He as a Methodist.