Zachariah Eastin

Zachariah Eastin (1777-1852) was an Officer in the War of 1812 and fought at Tippecanoe and River Basin, and the Thames, and retired as a Brigadier-General.

Eastin was born January 17, 1777 in Goochland County, Virginia. He was the second son Augustine Eastin and Mary S. Ford. He married Nancy A Durbin on October 25, 1798. To this union was born Mary F. Eastin, Henry J. Eastin, Louisa A. Eastin (Stubblefield), Edward F. Eastin, Cassandra M. Eastin (Rankin), Robert Eastin, Thomas Eastin, and William A. Eastin. Zachariah died on January 14, 1852 in Henderson, Kentucky.

His father Augustine Eastin was a Baptist preacher. At one time Augustine was arrested and confined in the jail at Richmond, Virginia, for preaching to the British soldiers; and, for persisting in his purpose to continue to do so was threatened to be shot. Zachariah Eastin was seven years old when he moved with his father from Virginia to Bourbon County, Kentucky, at the time Boonesborough, and Bryant's Station, were established by the leaders in the Euro-American incursion into Shawnee lands. In specifying the conditions under which Virginia would accept Kentucky's separation at the convention in 1792, a committee composed of James Garrard, Ambrose Dudley, and Augustine Eastin reported to the Elkhorn Baptist Association in favor of forbidding slavery in the constitution then being drafted for the new state. Slavery was a major issue in the 1792 convention that finalized the document.

Zachariah served with distinction during the War of 1812 and the War against the Shawnee and their allies. He was commissioned by Governor Isaac Shelby, and W. D. Mardin, Sec., September 10, 1813, and was appointed Major, 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers. He served under William Henry Harrison, and served throughout the campaign with Generals Issac Shelby, Thomas Metcalfe, Joseph Desha, and Colonel Richard M. Johnson, all through his campaigns in the West and fought at Tippecanoe and River Basin.(2)  If the date of the commission is the actual date of his promotion as a Major, he must have been a Captain at the battle of Tippecanoe, which occurred November 7, 1811, and a Major at the battle of the Thames, which occurred late in 1813. Before the end of the war he was made a Colonel. Captains Bowen, Cox, Negley, and John Baskett, from Kentucky, all served as officers with him. He remained in the army after the war and was promoted to Brigadier-General from that time until 1824, when he resigned after a misunderstanding with General Desha. He retired to Henderson, Kentucky in 1843. Zachariah died on January 14, 1852, in Henderson, Kentucky.(3)(4)

Zachariah’s sons, Henry J. Eastin, Robert Eastin, Thomas Eastin, and William A. Eastin were all civil engineers. Henry J Eastin was one of the first engineers in the employ of the State of Kentucky during the period of internal improvements. Henry, Thomas, and William, constructed a saw and grist water mill through the use of a Dam on the Green River, at Spottsville, Kentucky.(5)