ABSTRACT
John Joel Eakright was the grandson of Samuel Eakright, an English immigrant who arrived in 1811 and almost immediately enlisted to fight England in the War of 1812. This chapter discusses John Joel's family adjustment to American frontier life. John Joel Eakright was reared on his father's farm and received his education in Butler and the high school at Auburn. In 1873 he began teaching school and continued this vocation successfully until 1885, when he compiled a history of DeKalb county. Resuming his pedagogical work then, he continued it until he had taught twenty-three years, of which period eighteen years was in his home district, and in later years he taught many children of former pupils, and in these children he plainly observed traits of character that had been noticeable in their parents. In 1884 Mr. Eakright was elected justice of the peace for a term of four years, and in 1895 he was elected trustee of Wilmington Township.
