Hezekiah Hurlbut Eaton was born July 21,
1809 in Catskill, New York. He died at the age of 23 on
August 16, 1832 in Lexington, Kentucky.
His father was Prof. Amos Eaton (May 17,
1776-May 10, 1842), a scientist and educator in the Troy,
New York area. Professor Eaton, a fellow student of Washington
Irving, co-founded The Rensselaer School, now know as
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1824. Hezekiah received
his Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Rensselaer School
in 1826.
Hezekiah, a scholar of great promise, was
an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Transylvania University,
a liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky. It is to
be noted that three of Professor Eaton's sons, who were
educated by their father to follow him in the walks of
science, died young.
In a Biographical Memoir by Charles Wilkins
Short (1794-1863) delivered in a introductory address
to the medical class at Transylvania University on November
10, 1832, Short mentions that Hezekiah was "arrested
in his labors by a hemorrhage from the lungs"
Note 2: Death notice for Eaton was published
in The Troy Daily Whig on July 24, 1834.
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