The town is named after Benjamin Harrison Eaton, a pioneer of irrigation who played a leading role in transforming the arid prairie of the Great Plains east of Colorado's Front Range into a thriving agricultural region with water brought from the nearby Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. Much of the farming country around Eaton, Colorado continues to depend on the irrigation systems engineered by Eaton and others to this day. Eaton later served as Governor of Colorado from 1885 to 1887. The town of Eaton was incorporated in 1892. Eaton was first named Eatonton to avoid conflict with the Eastonpost office in El Paso county. When Easton had changed its name to Eastonville, the last syllable of Eatonton was dropped, and the town has since been known as Eaton. The first citizens of Eaton began to settle in 1880. One of the only occupations available was working on irrigation ditches from Eaton to Greeley. On September 28, 1892, a petition was submitted to the county judge signed by 36 residents requesting that Eaton be incorporated, including Benjamin Eaton himself. The county judge ordered that an election be held to decide whether or not the remaining residents desired Eaton to be incorporated. 50 votes were cast and every one of them were in support of incorporation. Eaton's incorporation was effected October 27, 1892.
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,690 people, 1,033 households, and 765 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,403.9 people per square mile. There were 1,067 housing units at an average density of 556.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 91.12% White, 0.04% African American, 0.52% Native American, 0.78% Asian, 5.76% from other races, and 1.78% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.64% of the population. There were 1,033 households out of which 36.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.0% were married couplesliving together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.9% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.07. In the town, the population was spread out with 28.6% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 26.6% from 25 to 44, 25.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.2 males. The median income for a household in the town was $47,314, and the median income for a family was $55,144. Males had a median income of $38,839 versus $27,292 for females. The per capita income for the town was $20,816. About 3.4% of families and 5.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.6% of those under age 18 and 10.1% of those age 65 or over.
