Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Tombstone Tuesday: George Adam Eckhart

My 5th great grandfather was George Adam Eckhart (1729 - 1806) and every once in a while I google to see if anyone out there has written more about him. He was a pioneer in Western Maryland and is sure to be mentioned in any history of the area. Here are two landmark works in which he gets some ink.
George Adam Eckhart and Philip Hansel of Allegany County, Maryland: Including their descendants of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Monongalia County, West Virginia, northeast Iowa, by H. Andrew Brown, 1989, self-published. Here it is on WorldCat: http://www.worldcat.org/title/george-adam-eckhart-and-philip-hansel-of-allegany-county-maryland-including-their-descendants-of-fayette-county-pennsylvania-monongalia-county-west-virginia-northeast-iowa/oclc/025100299
Allegany County: A History, Stegmaier, Harry I.; Dean, David M.; Kershaw, Gordon E.; and, Wiseman, John B., McClain Printing Company, Parsons, WV, 1976:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/allegany-county-a-history/oclc/3003703
There's even a discussion group about him on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/207582986009821/

I googled yesterday and found that on Tuesday, 14 Sep 2004, Mom posted an inquiry about him and this line to a RootsWeb mail list for Allegany County, MD. Here's the text of her post and the original question from Carol.

Can anyone tell me where George Adam Eckhart (Abt. 1729 - July 04, 1806)
and Anna Maria (Wittmeyer) Eckhart (Abt. 1732 - August 02, 1812) are buried?
Thanks for any help.
Carol


Carol,
They were supposed to have been buried in the old Eckhart Cemetery that was on the property now owned by the Jenkins family but it was destroyed years ago. I tried to walk to it years ago but there was nothing there but overgrown stumps and trees.

Virginia
(That's Mom)

I have been curious as to the exact location of the old Eckhart Cemetery, so using Google Earth, I flew over the general vicinity of the property to see this, below.  Please note: the old Eckhart Cemetery under discussion here is a family cemetery, not the cemetery for Eckhart Mines, which you can locate on FindAGrave here: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1443456

 
 
The some of the discussion on the facebook page, Descendants of George Adam Eckhart, was about the location of the old cemetery: was it completely gone or were there any tombstones left? Then one of the cousins posted this photo, below, which he was kind enough to go walk the property to take.
 


 
He also related that in an effort to preserve this old family cemetery from development, some of the living descendants had come together to provide for this grave marker. As you see, it marks George Adams and his wife Anna Marie, although there are countless others of his family and his slaves buried in the area. You can identify the location of this marker in the Google Earth image as the mound surrounded by brighter green grass in the right, middle.
 
Curiously, this marker is also listed on FindAGrave as being in the Eckhart Mines Cemetery! Which it is not! I suspect that this is not the only error on FindAGrave;)
 
 

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