On November 18, 1859, the Board of Supervisors of Brown County moved to create the Town
of Eaton from portions of the Town of New Denmark, located in the eastern part of the county. Election of officers followed on April 1st of the following year. Belgian, German, Irish, Polish and Scandinavian settlers populated the township. Fire spread through the town in 1871, and once again in 1886 when it destroyed almost every building. From 1876 through 1918 the town government engaged primarily in constructing a transportation infrastructure that grew from merely scraped roads to graveled highways with bridges. The town board created road districts, ordered new work, and charged path masters with responsibility for reporting and overseeing necessary repairs. Until 1894, path masters also monitored the shoveling of snow. Individuals shoveled snow on a day labor basis, the compensation being a dollar per day in 1889. The town accomplished repairs and maintenance of roads by means of a levy in cash and in the labor of landowners. In 1884, for instance, the town board ordered that two days roadwork and forty cents be raised on each forty acres of land. In 1888, the town board contracted to have August Brauns survey the whole town, placing stones or posts at the appropriate spots in each section. Over thirty-five residents appear on the payroll for this project in 1889. By the 1890s the town board approved the building of more bridges and graveling of roads. The increased levy of money for these new works resulted, from 1894 to 1897, in petitions for tax relief by landowners. They asked to work off their taxes in labor. Each year during this period, the Board of Supervisors resolved to accept labor in lieu of cash.
By the middle of the twentieth century, the town government was still primarily concerned with the repair and maintenance of roads. However, the system of funding roads through a combination of a cash tax and labor no longer existed. Town government accomplished necessary work on roads and highways through management of local tax revenue in combination with state and county aid money. From 1961 to 1965, the town also participated in the process of dissolving and consolidating its rural school districts with neighboring towns and with the City of Green Bay.
