Eaton Reunion, 1926
The Montreal Daily Star
August 21, 1926
Religious Spirit Animating Force
It is a remarkable thing that the spirit which animated these first
exiles [their] religion has remained a driving and directing force among
the great army [of] their descendants. When John Eaton crossed from the
revolting colonies to the Dominion and established his homestead at Burford
in Ontario it [was] a matter of record that he provided accommodation
for the conduct religious services, according to the primitive rite that
he had inherited. This descendant of Francis Eaton who landed in Plymouth,
Massachusetts in 1620 also became a local preacher and was responsible
for keeping the people of the Ontario peninsula in connection with practical
religion in the days of the early pioneers. John Eaton founded the Methodist
Church In Carlisle and his wife Catharine helped to build the first Carlisle
Methodist Church in 1852. Mistress Catharine Eaton was a cousin of Laura
Secord, the famous Canadian heroine of the war of 1812.
The home of the present John Eaton, the great-grandson of John Eaton
sen. stands in the original 400 acres granted by the Canadian government
to United Empire loyalists. Further down the lane stands the home of Fawcett
Eaton, another great-grandson of John Eaton, which was built on the exact
site of the old home where John Eaton acted as local Methodist preacher
in the front rooms on the Sabbath. Some of the oldest trees planted by
John Eaton are still standing on the property. The first John Eaton, who
was born in 1773, settled in Burford in 1796, Saltfleet in [1809] and
finally in Carlisle in 1826. He was a loyal adherent of the Methodist
Church and preached in his own home on Sundays and at camp meetings when
the city of Hamilton was on the circuit with Ancaster, Carlisle and other
towns. Records connect him with Francis Eaton, who landed at Plymouth
Mass. in 1620. John Eaton served with distinction in the battle of Stoney
Creek in 1813 and in other battles during that war. He founded the Methodist
Church at Carlisle, in whose grounds his body lies and in his work [was]
assisted by his wife Catharine Vanduzen, a cousin of Canada’s [?]
heroine, Laura. Secord.
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