The village of Eaton is located in Eaton Township. This plan of the village dates from 1863. It illustrates how the rural villages complemented the agricultural economy, both as suppliers of goods and services and as markets. Several tradespeople lived in the village. John Lebourveau was a carpenter and joiner; William Stone made shoes and boots and probably owned the harness shop next to his home; and a tanner and a cabinet-maker lived in the immediate neighbourhood. A sawmill and a gristmill operated on the river nearby. Eaton boasted a general store, two churches (Catholic and Congregational), a hotel and a temperance house, a school, a post office and two doctors. Locate each of these services on the plan.
Currency was usually in short supply and local merchants had to accept grain and dairy products for the goods (such as cloth, salt, tea and hardware) they sold to farmers. Because of the very inadequate transportation system, most of this farm produce brought little profit in the outside markets so it had to be sold to new colonists who were establishing themselves close by. The colonists paid for this produce and other necessities with potash or "black salts" which were in great demand in England. But it was not always possible for them to pay anything at all. Several years of accumulated debts were not uncommon, leading such families to mortgage their farms as security. Merchants therefore acted as the community bankers, and often the chief landowners as well. More cash began to circulate with the arrival of the railroad in 1852, but as late as 1858 the Ascot farmer, George Stacey, wrote:
Sherbrooke is still without a market, and is the most miserable place for a farmer to sell his goods. There is a combination among the storekeepers to grind us down, and we never get a fair price.
Eaton is one of the oldest villages in the Eastern Townships. Its development was reversed during the 1870s when the International Railroad bypassed it, drawing businesses away to neighbouring communities. Today the village is much as it appears on this map, though most of the buildings are now family dwellings.
