venango county homes 25

css3menu.com

html menu by Css3Menu.com

25. Rev. Dr. Samuel J. M. & Clara Taylor Howe Eaton

Located at 215 Fourteenth Street and built in 1885, this was the home of the Rev. Dr. Samuel J. M. & Clara Taylor Howe Eaton.

The home was built of local materials, methods of construction and along the lines of local traditions to address local needs. It is a simple balloon framed wood structure, without ornamentation except for the lovely corbelled brick chimney. The building is a vernacular structure, built without an architect, so, it's possible to visualize the upstairs windows set between the studs under the siding. There was no fancy joinery used to make room for windows that didn�t fit the space available.

The roof slopes deeply to shed snow easily. It has moderately overhanging eaves, wide enough to carry rain away from the sides of the building, but not deep enough to protect interior spaces from hot sun, as we see with Italianate structures.

The additive porch protects its owners from wind and sun, rain and snow and its columns are simple boxes, rather than references to Greek or Roman times. It is placed on the lot according to the English model that gives us space between the house and the sidewalk for pretty gardens, rather than the French model which brings the house right up to the sidewalk, because our population here in western Pennsylvania was more English than French.

This home is not pretentious and doesn�t have the gloss or extra details of a building that was designed by an architect to express some other place, time or idea, but what it does have is an utter simplicity and unadorned purity, that gives it great strength and character all its own.

A number of early historians have labored hard to record the data from faded records and relying on memories which have been dimmed by the passing years. Foremost among these historians was Rev. Samuel John Mills Eaton, D.D., who probably more than any other man in his day, collected and preserved the pioneer history of this area. From 1849 to 1882 Dr. Eaton was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Franklin. He was instrumental in gathering together the fragments of fact concerning the early forts, the town and the persons who first settled here. In addition to his writings of Franklin, he studied the history of the Presbyterian Church and of the Erie Presbytery.

Rev. S.J.M. Eaton was born on April 15, 1820 in Fairview, Erie County, PA, a son of Rev. Johnston Eaton. Samuel studied at Jefferson College, Western Theological Seminary and was honored with a Doctor of Divinity from Washington and Jefferson College in 1869. On Nov. 5, 1850 he married Clara Taylor Howe, the adopted daughter of John W. Howe. Dr. Eaton died July 16, 1889 and Mrs. Eaton died August 10, 1895. They are buried in Franklin Cemetery.

Submitted by: Penny Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Submitted by: Sally Kilmer
skilmer4@gmail.com