JOHN EATON

John Henry Eaton was born near Scotland Neck, Halifax County, NC on June 18, 1790 and died November 17, 1856. He studied law and served in the army during the War of 1812. He became a Democratic member of the Tennessee House of Representative from 1815 to 1816. He served in the US Senate from 1818 to 1829. He was a close personal friend of Andrew Jackson and served in Jackson's official Cabinet as Secretary of War. and was also a member of the infamous Kitchen Cabinet. He was later Governor of Florida Territory from 1834 to 1836 and ambassador to Spain from 1836 to 1840. John during his tenure as a Secretary of War was involved with another cigar label notable named. Peggy O'Neal was also known as Margaret Eaton born in Washington DC on December 3 1799. She was married to John H. Eaton, a Tennessee senator and Secretary of War in the Andrew Jackson Administration. Peggy was renowned for being overtly flirtatious and sexual at a time when "respectable" women, as a group, were not and it was alleged that Timberlake, her first husban, had been driven to suicide because of her affair with John Henry Eaton. She was snubbed by Mrs. John Calhoun and other cabinet members wives. President Jackson sided with the Eaton's and this led to a split within his party's leadership as was know as the Petticoat Affair. Finally Eaton resigned his post along with several other cabinet members. After the death of her husband she married a young Italian dancing-master, named Antonio Buchignani in 1859. She was 59 and he was in his twenties. In 1866, Buchignani ran off with the bulk of her money and her granddaughter. She obtained a divorce from him and died in poverty in Washington D.C. on November 8, 1879.