Henry Smith VAN EATON, Congress, MS (1826-1898)

VAN EATON, Henry Smith, a Representative from Mississippi; born in Anderson Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, September 14, 1826; was graduated from Illinois College, Jacksonville, Ill., in 1848; moved to Woodville, Miss., in 1848; taught school; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Woodville, Wilkinson County; elected district attorney in 1857; member of the State house of representatives in 1859; enlisted in the Confederate Army and served throughout the Civil War; resumed the practice of law in Woodville, Miss., in 1865; appointed chancellor of the tenth Mississippi district in 1880; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887); appointed by President Cleveland a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1887; member of a commission to examine and report upon the last completed portion of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1888; died in Woodville, Miss., May 30, 1898; interment in Evergreen Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present