Botanist, born in Chatham, New York, USA. He studied at Williams College (1799) and was admitted to the bar (1802), but gave up law to study botany at Yale. From 1810 he gave public lectures in New England and New York and wrote a botany textbook. His major work, Manual of Botany for the Northern States (1817), had its last edition in 1840. He became professor of natural history at the Medical School in Castleton, VT, joining the Rensselaer School (now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) (182442). His voluminous writings were later found to be more enthusiastic than accurate.
Eaton attended Williams College; He practiced law in Catskill, New York until 1811 Eaton, when he was jailed on trumped up charges of forgery.
He returned to New York state in 1817 where DeWitt Clinton arranged for him to deliver a series of lectures to the New York State Legislature on the state's geology in connection with the building of the Erie Canal.
In 1824, with Rensselaer's assistance, he co-founded The Rensselaer School (now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) "for the purpose of instructing persons, who may choose to apply themselves, in the application of science to the common purposes of life". Eaton served as Senior Professor at The Rensselaer School until the time of his death in 1842. Under his leadership, Troy, New York rivaled London, England as a center for geological studies in the first part of the 19th Century.
Eaton's influence at RPI is still visible in several areas: The mathematics department is housed in Amos Eaton Hall; The Amos Eaton Professorship is a named professorship at RPI (currently occupied by Dr. Joseph Flaherty); The Amos Eaton Chair is a chair originally given to Amos Eaton by the RPI students in 1839, and later donated back to RPI by Eaton's family, and is now used by the RPI President during formal events; Amos Eaton was inducted into RPI's hall of fame in the inaugural class of 1998.
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