Caring, loyal, friendly, shy and helpful are some words used to describe West Buxton’s Murray Eaton. Now, folks know him as the oldest man in town.
Buxton honored Eaton, 98, at last Wednesday’s selectmen’s meeting with the Boston Post Cane, which recognizes a town’s oldest resident. He replaced Ruby Y. Milliken, who died on Aug. 19, 2002.
Eaton is not only the oldest resident, but also he has never lived anywhere else.
“My wife and family kept me here so I didn’t see a reason to leave,” Eaton said.
Born in 1910 to Ernest and Christine Eaton at his family home on Route 112, he has spent the last 68 years in a house beside his birthplace where he and his 89-year-old wife, Mildred, raised five daughters.
He grew up on a dairy farm as one of three children, and attended high school in Hollis.
Eaton spent 40 years working as a dispatcher for Central Maine Power, retiring from the Portland office. He also worked as a volunteer firefighter, and repaired television sets and operated a garage with his father.
Eaton’s youngest daughter, Gail Eaton, said her father was “Mr. Fixit” around town.
“He would fix anything for anybody,” she said.
Eaton enjoyed spending time each spring fishing for trout and salmon with friend Bud Hawkins at Frost Pond, just outside of Baxter State Park. It was a pastime he shared with his family, as well.
“If us girls were really good, he’d take us in the fall,” his daughter said. “He is an avid fly fisherman and the trips to the pond began when he would go with his father when he was young.”
A shining accomplishments was one he shared with his father when, about 50 years ago, the two built a fire truck for the Buxton Fire Department. The truck was decommissioned about 20 years ago.
While he doesn’t get to the pond any more or build fire trucks, he does pick blueberries twice a day in his back yard using a shovel as a cane and wearing an orange hat, which allows his wife to keep an eye on him.
“I don’t really like him doing it because it’s pretty hot out there,” his wife said. “But it’s something he loves to do.”
That sort of activity is nothing new for Eaton,
“He’s always been very active and he’s always doing something,” Gail Eaton said. “He was either in the garage fixing something or staying busy. His mind was always going.”
When not picking blueberries, Eaton enjoys sitting in his rocking chair on his porch on the side of the house.
In New England, the first Boston Post Cane ceremony was in 1909, when former Boston Post newspaper editor Edwin Grozier sent 700 canes to towns across New England to honor oldest residents. Maine received 209 of those canes. They are 36 inches long, have a gold-filled top and an estimated value of $2,000.
Born in 1910 at his family home on Route 112 in West Buxton, Murray Eaton has spent the last 68 years in a house beside his birthplace where he and his 89-year-old wife, Mildred, raised five daughters.Send questions/comments to the editors.
