Dorman Bridgman Eaton (1823-1899), American lawyer and author, was a strong advocate of civil service reform and wrote the draft on which the Civil Service Act of 1883 was based.

Dorman Eaton was born in Hardwick, Vt., on June 27, 1823. After graduation from the University of Vermont and Harvard Law School, he practiced law in New York City. He distinguished himself as a legal scholar by editing a new edition of James Kent's Commentaries and other works, and as a practicing attorney, especially as counsel for the Erie Railroad. In connection with some of the bitter controversies involving the railroad, he was attacked and seriously injured by unidentified assailants.

Meanwhile, Eaton began his lifelong interest in governmental reform, assisting in the creation of a New York City municipal board of health and a professional fire department and in the reorganization of the police courts. In 1856 he married Annie Foster.

In...