Saturday, February 9, 2013

Surname Saturday: The Eckharts from Eckhart, Maryland

Off we go on another Surname Saturday, a dandy blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers! This week we're going back in time with the Eckhart family. They originally came from Baveria, Germany and landed in Pennsylvania for a short stop. Then they started buying and selling land, as they liked to do, because for the first couple of generations that we can track here in this country, it was all about the land. And most of this line of ours were born and died on the Eckhart property in Allegany County, Maryland which now occupies the town of Eckhart Mines. (But see, no one in the family ever calls it Eckhart Mines because we know that the mining company changed the name from Eckhart, founded by George Adam Eckhart in 1789.)

So here's the line up.
 
1. Diane Kelly Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick " Pat" Kelly
1916 - 2007
3. Virginia Williams, that's Mom, living and loving it!

4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly 1892 - 1969
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly 1894 - 1985
 
8. Francis Patrick Kelly 1854 - 1923
9. Christiana Eckhart 1861 - 1932
 
18. John Eckhart 1831 - 1917
19. Mary Myers Eckhart 1837 - 1909
John Eckhart was born 5 Nov 1831 in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland and died 5 Mar 1917 in the same place. He married Mary Myers on 22 Apr 1859 in Allegany County, Maryland.
Mary Myers was born 20 Mar 1837 in Frederick County, Maryland and died 30 Oct 1909 in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland.
They had the following children:
9. Christiana Eckhart 1861 - 1932
Maggie L. Eckhart 1864 - ????. She married William Rechter.
Rachael Eckhart 1865 - 1940, who married Thomas W. Gracie, and then at his passing in 1909 in a horrible mining accident, she married Robert Strathan.
John Thomas Eckhart 1867 -1917. He married Rachael Pengilly.
Mary Catherine Eckhart 1868 - ????.
 
36. Jacob Eckhart 1801 - 1835/6
37. Delilah Porter 1812 - 1881
This couple were both born and died in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland. We find it no end of fascinating that Jacob and his father, John, died in close proximity time-wise to each other. Some ancestors have floated the theory that both might have been poisoned in order to sell the estate to the big coal companies.
They had the following children:
18. John Eckhart 1831 - 1917, who married first Mary Myers, and when she died, married Rebecca O'Brien.
Rachael Eckhart 1829 - 1895. She married Basil Anderson.

72. John Eckhart 1768 - 1835
73. Mary Ann ? Eckhart 1780 - 1850
John Eckhart inherited the bulk of his father's estate that wasn't reserved for his mother, aside from small items left to his siblings. It was just at the time that the National Road was being developed and he took advantage of its location through his property. He was appointed a road manager, for which he paid $300 a year. In return he was to maintain the road and earned the right to keep a roadhouse, which served those who stopped. In the US Census of 1820 he owned 8 slaves, as he did in the 1830 Census. He was very prosperous.
When John Eckhart died in 1835, his wife who inherited the bulk of his estate, attempted to free the slaves. Her sons took her to court and tried to have her declared a "lunatic" and seize the property, including the slaves. She relented and kept the slaves in bondage, but thwarted the sons by moving to Monongahila County, West Virginia. Her will stipulated that the slaves were to be given their freedom upon her death. Her son, Adam, took custody of seven of the eight slaves when his mother died in 1850. It is generally presumed that Maltilda, her favorite and personal woman servant, was already freed when Mary Ann died.
Shortly after John's death, Mary Ann was approached by Matthew St. Clair Clarke, acting as an agent for a large coal mining conglomerate. He offered and paid $20,000 for the bulk of the Eckhart land. Shortly thereafter, Mary Ann moved to West Virginia to live with her son Adam. She took her slaves with her.
The old Eckhart land, purchased for $20,000, held some of the best quality coal found anywhere at in the 19th Century. This is called The Big Vein and produced millions of tons of coal from the 1830s until after WWI.
It is generally thought that there is miscegenation in this line and that the former Eckhart slave, Maria Johnson, who married Samuel Denson on 7 Jan 1868, in Cumberland Maryland, is a descendant from this line. DNA testing, anyone? Please contact me at dianew858@hotmail.com.
John and Mary Ann's children are:
36. Jacob Eckhart 1801 - 1835/6
Mary Ann Eckhart 1806 - 1893. She married John Hansel and they moved away to Mallory Township, Clayton County, Illinois. Both are buried in the Hansel Cemetery there.
Adam Eckhart 1810 - 1891. He married Sarah Albright. They moved away to the Union District, Monongalia County, West Virginia.
John Eckhart 1824 - ????. He married Sarah Hayes.
David Eckhart 1824 - ????.
 
144. George Adam Eckhart (1729 - 1806)
145. Anna Marie Whittmyer Eckhart (1732 - 1812)
George Adam Eckhart, born in 1729 in Bavaria. He sailed aboard the ship Patience, and arrived in Philadelphia on 11 Aug 1750, from Rotterdam and last, Cowes, England. He married Maria Whittmyer on 15 Dec 1755, at Indanfield Lutheran, Franconia Twp., Philadelphia Co. (now Montgomery).
By about 1762 he purchased land in Frederick Co. Maryland, and now part of Carroll Co. Maryland. He sold the land in Frederick County after he and Jacob Loar had purchased military lots number 3644, 3645, 3646, and 3694, now in Allegany County and east of the town of Frostburg. It is generally thought that George Adam Eckhart went back to Germany and returned on the same ship as Jacob Loar, that being the ship Union, in 1774. By 1789 he was living in the area of Eckhart Mines, Allegany Co. MD where he died around 1806. The village of Eckhart was laid out in lots on 12 Jul 1789.
They had the following children:
George Adam Eckhart 1756 - 1822. He married Maria Margaretha Kreamer.
Maria Elizabeth Eckhart 1761 - 1856, She married John Tobias Stoyer.
72. John Eckhart 1768 - 1835
Sarah Eckhart 1769 - 1827. She married John Tobias who died. She then married Jacob Loar.
Katherine Eckhart 1773 - ????. She married Archibald White.
David Eckhart 1775 - ????. It's clear from the records that David had a mental impairment.


18. John Eckhart 1831 - 1917 and
19. Mary Myers Eckhart 1837 - 1909

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/surname-saturday-eckharts-from-eckhart.html



5 comments:

  1. Just found your blog... :)

    I'm descended from Sarah Eckhart m. Jacob Loar. I have lots of pictures from Frostburg, MD.

    Since your mom has apparently lived in Frostburg all her life, it would be neat to know if she knew any of our line of the family?

    Those surnames would likely be Dawson and Jarrett? I'm actually descended from Sarah Eckhart and Jacob Loar through two of their children. Margaret Loar m. Jared Dawson and Barbara Ann Loar m. George Beeman. George and Barbara Ann had a daughter, Sarah, and she married Jacob Jarrett, and they had a son, Orlando Jarrett. Orlando married Mary Matilda Jane Dawson, whose mother was Mary Dawson, daughter of Jared and Margaret Loar.

    A cousin who seems to have been well known is Nellie Betz.

    What a wonderful blog!

    Debby Potter


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    Replies
    1. Hello! I am also descended from Sarah and Jacob Loar!

      Tina Morris

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    2. I'm a descendant of Jacob and Sarah too!

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    3. I'm also a descendant of Jacob Loar. I think through one of the daughters who married into the Allum, Wood, Porter or Guessford families of Kentucky/Iowa? But I have a book written by one of the Loar relatives that shows the migration of the Eckhart family to Alleghany County...Lo

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  2. I'm also descended from them through Barbara Ann Loar and George Beeman. My family all came to Southwestern PA from there

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