Easton Has an Inventor and a Painter in the Farm Country

Easton rewards a slower look at Washington County farm country. Two famous names come out of that quiet setting: George H. Corliss, born in 1817 and known for the Corliss steam engine, and Anna Mary Robertson Moses, born in 1860 and remembered as Grandma Moses.

That pairing is wonderfully odd in a rural town. One story is steam power and engineering. The other is painted farm memory. Neither one turns Easton into a museum district. They sit inside a place of farms, roads, libraries, fairs, and local gathering rooms.

Easton’s civic story adds another layer. Citizens established Marshall Seminary in 1863, rebuilt it after an 1873 fire, and later saw it become the Easton Union School.

In 1891, the Easton Political Equality Club formed with encouragement from Mary S. Anthony, sister of Susan B. Anthony. For a farm town, that is a lively civic thread, and it makes the local library and old school story feel less sleepy.

Easton has more shape than a quick drive can show: invention, painting, school ambition, suffrage organizing, and farm country all sharing the same Washington County ground.