Amos Beebe Eaton was born in Catskill, New York, on May 12, 1806, the son of botanist Amos Eaton (1776-1842) and Sally Cady (1785-1816). He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1826, and served as a lieutenant during the Second Seminole War. He transferred to the Hancock Barracks near Houlton, Maine, where he was stationed between 1828 and January 1831. Eaton then served at Fort Niagara, New York, and Fort Gratiot, Michigan, where he worked as a commissary. During the Civil War, he served in New York City and Washington, D.C., and became the Commissary General of Subsistence; he was promoted to major general in 1865. On April 21, 1831, Eaton married Elizabeth Selden (b. 1797), widow of New York senator Joseph Spencer, with whom she had one child, Elizabeth Selden Spencer (b. 1819). Amos B. Eaton and Elizabeth Selden had three children: Ellen Dwight (b. 1832), Daniel Cady (1834-1895), and Frances Spencer (1836-1911). Daniel Cady Eaton became a botanist. Amos Beebe Eaton retired in 1874 and died on February 21, 1877.
From the guide to the Amos Beebe Eaton collection, Eaton, Amos Beebe collection, 1822-1867, 1822-1836, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
