Shasta County Biographies

Judge Richard B. Eaton

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


1914                           December 22, born in Albany, Oregon.
 
1918                           Father died in the military service.  Mrs. Eaton 
returned to Shasta County with son Richard, where she had been born and where 
she had taught school for 10 years before her marriage.
 
1926                           Graduated from Redding Elementary School.
 
1930                           Graduated from Shasta Union High School.
 
1934                           Graduated from Stanford Law School.
 
1938                           Earned his law degree from Stanford University 
and spent the next two years working as a law clerk, as an associate in a law 
firm, and in private practice.
 
1940                           Served in the U. S. Army as a 1st Lieutenant in 
East Africa, North Africa, Italy, and Sicily.  Returned with a decoration and 
three battle stars.
 
1946                           Re-opened his Redding law office.
 
1948                           Named a United States Commissioner, with the 
primary responsibility for holding pre-trial hearings for people suspected of 
committing crimes on federal land.
 
1950                           Appointed as Redding Justice of the Peace and 
City Judge.
 
1951                           October 1, appointed a Superior Court Judge by 
Governor Earl Warren.  Was re-elected four times without opposition.
 
1974                           Retired from the U. S. Army Reserve as a Lt. 
Colonel.
 
1976                           December 31, retired as a judge after serving 25 
years.  During that time, he served not only in Shasta County, but under 
assignment in 13 other counties and on the 3rd District Court of Appeal.
 
July 29, 2003 died at age 89 at his home on West Street in Redding.
Judge Eaton was descended of four great-grandparents who settled in Shasta 
County between 1852 and 1855.  His parents were Walter McCrum Eaton and Edna 
Behrens Eaton.  Mrs. Eaton's paternal and maternal grandparents were early 
pio�neers in Shasta County.  Her maternal grandparents, Frank Kountz and Susanna 
Kruger Kountz, were natives of Bavaria.  In 1853, they left New Orleans for 
Califor�nia, crossing the Isthmus of Panama and settling at Shasta in 1854. 
Their daughter Mary Kountz was born in Shasta in 1862.
 
Mrs. Eaton's paternal grandparents, Ludwig Behrens and Louisa Bahrdt Behrens, 
were natives of Germany.  Formerly a ship captain, Ludwig Behrens settled in 
Whiskeytown in 1852 where he became a merchant for 20 years. Their son Charles 
H. Behrens was born at Whiskeytown in 1859. 
 
Charles H. Behrens and Mary Kountz were married at Shasta in 1882, and their 
eldest daughter Edna Mabel Behrens was born in Shasta in 1883.  Charles Behrens 
was a hay and grain merchant in Shasta, and then keeper of the Empire Hotel, 
postmaster, Wells Fargo agent, and constable.  In 1899, Behrens became Sheriff 
of Shasta County, and that same year, he purchased the residence at 1520 West 
Street, a house built by John Scott about 1895.
 
Edna Behrens was a rural school teacher for ten years before she married Walter 
Eaton in 1913.  Walter Eaton was a graduate of the University of Oregon and a 
native Oregonian; he met his future bride while working as chief chemist at the 
Coram smelter.  After their marriage, the couple lived in Oregon, where Walter 
Eaton worked as a land surveyor and a civil engineer; Richard Eaton was born in 
Albany, Oregon in 1914.  Walter Eaton served in the Chemical Warfare Service in 
World I and died in the service in 1918.  Edna Behrens Eaton, with her 
four-year-old son Richard, then returned to their family home in Redding, where 
they both lived for the remainder of their lives.
 
The family home on West Street has been identified as being the Classical 
Revival style.  Judge Eaton�s will mandates that this two-story residence and 
all its antique contents become a public museum to be known as The Behrens-Eaton 
House.  His will also establishes a non-profit group that will repair the house 
from monies pro�vided from a trust fund, and money from this same trust will 
maintain the house and operate the museum.  Plans are underway to make the 
Judge�s dream a reality.  
 
Judge Eaton was always a student of history.  He wrote many articles for the 
Covered Wagon, the annual publication of the Shasta Historical Society, and he 
lectured on Shasta County history to countless classes of students from 
elementary to college age. 
 
In addition to his love for history, the Judge�s other primary interests were 
his church, the Boy Scouts, and the Masons.  Since 1946, he served as Lay Reader 
of the Episcopal Church, and he administered the chalice of Holy Communion since 
1969.  He was active in Boy Scout affairs since 1927, and he was a member of the 
Executive Board of the Mt. Lassen Area Council between 1954 and 1977.  He has 
also received the Silver Beaver award which recognizes his contributions to 
scouting on the national level.  It the highest award a volunteer can receive.  
Judge Eaton was a Master Mason since 1940, Chaplain of the Royal Arch Masons 
since 1958, and a member of the Jurisprudence Committee of the Grand Lodge of 
Masons since 1979.  The Judge has also been a member of the Executive Commit�tee 
of the Shasta College Museum and Research Center since the museum�s inception in 
1972.
 
(from Remembering Judge Eaton by Dottie Smith and Trudy Vaughan, Nov. 2003)

Richard Behrens Eaton was born December 22, 1914 in Albany, Oregon where his 
parents were living. His father, Walter McCrum Eaton, had worked two years at 
Coram Smelter and returned to Shasta County in 1913 to marry Edna Mabel Behrens 
at her father's home in Redding.
 
When Walter Eaton died in military service in 1918, Edna returned to Redding to 
be with her friends and family. Richard had more adult contacts than other 
children. Though it was a household of women, discipline was strict. Edna 
laughed affectionately about seeing Richard pedaling furiously to beat the deadline 
for getting home from swimming in the Sacramento River.
 
Richard spent only six years in Redding Elementary School -- No kindergarten, 
skipped second grade and a special two-year program telescoped grades six, seven 
and eight. Richard graduated from Grammar School in 1926, from Shasta High 
School in 1930, from Stanford in 1934 and in 1938 received his professional 
degree from that institution. The next two years he served as a law clerk for 
Jesse W. Carter, as an associate in Glenn D. Newton's office and in his own 
private practice.
 
In 1940, with war imminent he went on active duty as a 1st Lieutenant in the 
Army of the United States. He served in East Africa, North Africa, Sicily, and 
Italy, receiving three battle stars and a decoration. He left Active Duty in 
1946 and in 1964 retired from the Reserve as a Lt. Colonel.
 
Returning to civilian life in 1946, Richard reopened his office and in 1948 he 
became United States Commissioner; in 1950, he became Justice of the Peace and 
City Judge of Redding. Then in 1951, Governor Earl Warren appointed him Judge in 
the newly-created Second Superior Court in Shasta County. Judge Eaton served 
twenty-five years in that post, having been reelected unopposed four times; 
during that period he had served in thirteen other counties and the 3rd District 
Court of Appeal. He then retired, but not from public service. He continued in 
his service to the Boy Scouts of America, to the Episcopal Church and performed 
frequent weddings. He has been a Master Mason since 1940, served as Chaplain of 
the Royal Arch Masons since 1948 and on the Jurisprudence Committee of the Grand 
Lodge of Masons for thirty-one years. He has talked to classes at Shasta College 
and students at the Whiskeytown Environmental School.
 
And all the while he advised the Shasta Historical Society and from time to time 
has written for the Covered Wagon.  He died July 29, 2003 at age 89.
 
Source:  Shasta Historical Society - Aug. 2002