American botanist in Massachusetts. Alvah Eaton was interested in the pteridophytes and worked particularly intensively on the genera Equisetum L. and Isoetes L., although he also studied some groups of flowering plants such as the grasses and orchids. Born in Seabrook, New Hampshire, he moved with his family to Salisbury, Massachusetts at the age of 12 and, growing up on a farm, developed a sound knowledge of plant cultivation. Graduating from Putnam School in Newburyport (taking half the time usually required) he taught in various schools in Seabrook and in California. Several years later ailing health led him to develop a florist business and he also worked as a gardener. For the last six years of his short life Eaton worked for the Ames Botanical Laboratory in North Easton, MA, where he undertook monographic, bibliographic and taxonomic work.

Self taught with regards to botany, Eaton became a member of the Linnaean Fern Chapter (later the American Fern Society) and he served as both its secretary (1898) and president (1899). Contributing papers to the Fern Bulletin from quite early on in his life, he was also an instigator in the creation the society's pteridophyte herbarium and looked after the collection as its curator from this time until his death. His publications were primarily floristic in nature, although he described numerous new species of Equisetum and Isoetes, as well as several grasses. Eaton also left behind two considerable papers in manuscript form at his death. One was a study of the Orchidaceae family, while the other was probably his most important contribution to science, a monograph of the Isoetes of North America. Amongst his numerous collecting trips were several journeys to little-explored regions of Florida where he searched for orchids, ferns and woody plants. Eaton married Constance E. Wilkins in 1904 and they had one son, Fred W. Eaton.

Sources:
R.G. Leavitt and M.A. Day, 1908, "In Memoriam: Alvah Augustus Eaton", Rhodora, 10: 209-214
W.N. Clute, 1902, "Alvah Augustus Eaton", Fern Bulletin, 10(2): 52-53
W.N. Clute, 1909, "Death or Alvah A. Eaton", Fern Bulletin, 16(4): 109-111.