Benjamin Harrison Eaton (December 15, 1833 – October 29, 1904) was an American politician, entrepreneur and agriculturalist in the late 19th and early 20th century. Eaton was a founding officer of the Greeley Colony and was instrumental in the establishment of modern irrigation farming to Northern Colorado. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the fourth Governor of Colorado, from January 1885 to January 1887, with the nickname of the "farmer governor". He was one of the largest land owners in Weld and Larimer counties, at one time owning over ninety 160 acre (0.6 km²) parcels, all watered from canals and reservoirs of his own construction. His projects were influential in helping turn the South Platte River valley into an important agricultural region in the state's economy. The town of Eaton, Colorado in western Weld County is named for him. Eaton is among Colorado's sixteen notable pioneers who are depicted in stained glass on the rotunda of the Colorado State Capitol Building. Early life Eaton was born in Coshocton, Ohio, the second of eight children born to Hannah (née Smith) and Levi Eaton. His maternal grandmother was Mary (née Yarnall) Smith, whose great grandfather, Francis Yarnall, emigrated to the Penn Colony in 1683. Eaton went to school in West Bedford, Ohio and taught school there as well. In 1854, at the age of 21, he moved to Louisa County, Iowa, where he taught school for two years. He returned to Ohio in 1856 where he married Delilah Wolf. His wife died in 1857 after giving birth to a son, Aaron James Eaton. After emigrating to Colorado in 1858 during the Colorado Gold Rush he settled in Weld County. Later that year, Eaton went to Iowa for the second time. The following year in 1859, at the height of the Colorado Gold Rush, he moved from Iowa back to Colorado. He prospected for gold in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as working on farms. During the American Civil War, he served under Colonel Kit Carson in the New Mexico Volunteers. In 1863, he built a farm on the present location of Windsor, Colorado. (Mike Peters, Greeley Tribune, "How Weld Towns Got Their Name"). He returned to Louisa County, Iowa in 1864 and married Rebecca J. Hill, his second wife. Together they crossed the Great Plains with his second wife that year and settled in Weld County along its