Zebina Eastman (1815 - 1883)

Zebina Eastman was best known as an abolitionist newspaper editor in Illinois although he engaged in several occupations over a long career. He was born in North Amherst, Massachusetts, on Sept. 8, 1815, the descendant of Eastmans who had settled at Salisbury, Mass. in 1640. Orphaned at the age of six, he was reared by a guardian. Eastman learned to set type when he was fourteen years old and completed the preparatory course at Hadley Academy in Massachusetts. In 1834-1835 he edited and published the Vermont Free Press at Fayetteville (Vt.), a venture that within a year absorbed the small amount of money that he had inherited from his family. He then wrote for various periodicals and published "Traditionary Tales of New England."