After his graduation from Newton Theological Institution, Eaton served as a pastor at the First Baptist Church of
Natick, Massachusetts. At
Natick, he met Mary Winifred Parlin (May 11, 1874November 12, 1948), daughter of local merchant and Civil War veteran William D. Parlin and Mary Brown. They were married June 26, 1895, and had six children. In 1895, he became a citizen of the United States and was named pastor at a
Bloor Street church in
Toronto. In 1904, Eaton's commitment to evangelism got him arrested on the streets of
Cleveland, Ohio, for persistently ignoring by-laws prohibiting street preaching. However, he wanted to extend his ministry beyond the churches, into which many of the spiritually needy never stepped. At the same time, Eaton was the preacher at
Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, situated on Cleveland's "millionaire's row", and as a result he came to the attention of
John D. Rockefeller, a summer resident of Cleveland who attended church there. They became lifelong friends, and this connection influenced Eaton's future path. It also influenced that of another well-known Canadian who went on to have an outstanding career in the United States, his nephew,
Cyrus S. Eaton. He introduced him to Rockefeller in 1901, when Cyrus was still a university student. Cyrus went on to work for Rockefeller, and eventually become one of Cleveland's first citizens, and one of America's premier industrialists. Charles moved to
North Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1909, and started a
dairy farm, while at the same time preaching to a prominent New York City Baptist congregation, the
Madison Avenue Baptist Church. The area in which he lived separated from North Plainfield in 1926, and the Borough of
Watchung, New Jersey, was founded there. He lived there until his death. ==Journalism==