Henry Smith Van Eaton

Henry Smith Van Eaton (September 14, 1826 - May 30, 1898) was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi.

Born in Anderson Township, Ohio, Van Eaton was graduated from Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1848.He moved to Woodville, Mississippi, in 1848.He taught school.He studied law.He was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Woodville, Wilkinson County.

Van Eaton was elected district attorney in 1857.He served as member of the State house of representatives in 1859. Enlisted in the Confederate States Army and served throughout the Civil War.He resumed the practice of law in Woodville, Mississippi, in 1865.He was appointed chancellor of the tenth Mississippi district in 1880.

Van Eaton was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887).He was appointed by President Cleveland a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1887.He served as member of a commission to examine and report upon the last completed portion of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1888.He died in Woodville, Mississippi, May 30, 1898.He was interred in Evergreen Cemetery.

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