A native of New Hampshire, Alvin "Bush" Eaton was reported in several 1931 newspapers to have a moustache measuring 27 inches end-to-end. Eaton, like so many others about whom Blackington told "character" stories, was a long-time workingman and loyal to his job at the Potter Place railroad depot. He worked there for decades, first as a freight agent and then carrying the mail from the depot to the town Post Office through 1961. It was common at the time for railroad companies to take good care of their employees, and even as a nonagenarian, Eaton was still being paid for small odd jobs such as cleaning the tracks. He went on to be the oldest man of Andover, NH in 1968, at which point he became the next holder of a special, gold-headed rosewood cane distributed by the Boston Post for the oldest citizens of hundreds of New England towns starting in 1909.
Requests to publish, redistribute, or replicate this material should be addressed to Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Contact host institution for more information.
