Paranoid, Or Was Someone Really Stealing from Them?

Am working on the Eckhart bunch right now... the Eckharts, descendants of George Adam Eckhart of Eckhart and Eckhart Mines, Maryland. Down through the decades, they have been telling a tale of intrigues and rumors that "someone stole our land." (See posts below.) Here I am over 200 years later sitting at the computer trying to piece together what really might have happened back then. To be completely candid about this matter, have to say, I get two pictures: one of double dealing and one of paranoia. Here's what I'm finding so far.

George Adam Eckhart came to this country about 1750. He acquired through purchase and whatever, in total almost 650 acres of land. Some of this land was used for farming and his family and children settled on some other parcels. He died in 1806. His will left a third of the estate to his wife Anna Marie and two-thirds to his son John who was named executor of the estate.

I'm getting a feeling that John was quite the business man, and it was written that he "became quite wealthy". In 1830 he ran a roadhouse where one of the four stagecoach lines that serviced the National Road (that was built in 1812 or so) stopped. That was pretty big business then. He also owned 8 slaves.

Coal was found on the Eckhart property along about the same time as the National Road was built. Some sources report that John had already found coal on his land and was already offering it to local residents to heat and cook with. It's also written that he dug the first deep mine on his land about this time.

John married a woman named Mary Ann, whose surname is not yet known. John died in 1835. Ten days later, more or less, she sold the land to Matthew St Claire Clarke. (See post below, "Cousin Rich, The Sleuth".) Clarke was an agent for a mining company and had already had the land surveyed and the minerals assayed. He also wrote a report for the mining company.

Mary Ann accepted the tidy sum of $20,000 for the land. What is that in today's money, I thought? Go to: www.measuringworth.com 

Here's what it said when I plugged in $20,000 in 1835:

If you want to compare the value of a $20,000.00 Income or Wealth, in 1835 there are three choices. In 2011 the relative:
historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is $527,000.00
economic status value of that income or wealth is $10,900,000.00
economic power value of that income or wealth is $227,000,000.00

As for John's slave's value, it was listed in probate as $3600 in 1835. Back to the Measuring Worth Calculator again to find this, values of commodities, which sadly, slaves were at that time:

If you want to compare the value of a $3,600.00 Commodity in 1835 there are three choices. In 2011 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $94,800.00
labor value of that commodity is $810,000.00(using the unskilled wage) or $1,790,000.00(using production worker compensation)
income value of that commodity is $1,960,000.00


That's a fortune!!

After her husband's death, it's said that Mary Ann wanted to free her slaves, but the sons stepped in. In 1836, a year after Mary Ann came into a considerable fortune, her sons filed a Writ of Lunacy against Mary Ann. A trustee was appointed. She appealed from her home now in another state, West Virginia, living with her son Adam.

I'm wondering how long the negotiations with Clarke went on. Were they going on as John Eckhart lay dying? Or was he kept in the dark? There's no way of knowing.

Additionally, Mary Ann's oldest son, Jacob, died either within five days of his father or within the next year. Suspicious?
Was $20,000 a fair sum? Did Mary Ann know about the mineral wealth sitting right under her and her family? Did Mary Ann's sons have a legitimate concern for her mental health after the death of her husband (and one other son, close on) and the pressures Mr. Clarke possibly might have been making on her?

As the years passed, might not her sons and grandsons who stayed in Eckhart Mines not have felt some bitterness as they saw the Big Vein of coal on their ancestral land being mined by large coal conglomerates only interested in profits, leaving them in the coal dust? It would make me mad, I must say!

With this picture in mind it's easy to see how down through the years family oral tradition came to tell of land being "stolen" from us. The real-life Jenkins didn't come into the picture until the 1940s as far as I can tell, yet I heard my grandparents tell of "Jenkins" paying off the court clerk in Cumberland to get rid of the original Eckhart deed. Not likely.

Other branches of this family also tell stories, similar yet different, of wrong doing when it comes to clear title of the Eckhart land.

On a side note, the Jenkins firm did tear down the old home place and as I hear it, bull dozed most of the old family cemetery. That right there is enough to make a person super angry!

NOTE to Cousins: If I got any of this wrong, please tell me! It's complicated:)



The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/paranoid-or-was-someone-really-stealing.html

Cousin Rich, the Sleuth

Have been reading facebook post by cousins in the Descendants of George Adam Eckhart of Eckhart MD group with great interest. As time goes by the flurry of posts has fallen off but there was Easter and all too. (See posts below to catch-up.)

Where we are now is that Mary Ann's husband, John Eckhart (1768 - 1822?), son of George Adams (1729 - 1806) died and The Consolidated Coal Company's man finessed the sale from the Eckharts. What actually went down is left to CSI investigators.

The operative for the Consolidated Coal Company was a man with the improbably theatrical name of Mathew St. Clair Clarke... perfect with which to paint him the villain in this narrative!

Cousin Rich posted the following to the group's facebook page. Can you read anything into it? We sure could... bet then maybe that's just family lore of the Consol. "stealing" the Eckhart land coming forward;)

Again, so sorry for any strangeness with the fonts as I'm cutting and pasting from sketchy sources.

It's interesting to note that Mary's two sons tried to have her declared "crazy" after the death of her husband. I don't know the laws back in 1835, but nowadays, the sons could have challenged the sale of the property, based on the fact that Mary could have been under mental duress. If the laws were similar back then, that might have been their only hope of getting the land back - having her declared insane at the time of the sale, thus voiding the sale.

Here's the Wikipedia history of Matthew St. Clair Clarke (the person who represented Consolidated Coal Co. during the purchase of the Eckhart land. He is also the "author" of a book about "Our New Land Purchase in Eckhart Maryland").

Matthew St. Clair Clarke was admitted to the bar in 1811, and practiced in Greencastle, PA. Later he removed to Washington, D.C.

On December 3, 1822, he was elected on the 11th ballot Clerk of the House of Representatives in the 17th United States Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Clerk Thomas Dougherty. He was re-elected five times, serving throughout the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd United States Congresses, and opened the proceedings in the House of the 23rd United States Congress on December 2, 1833, when he was succeeded by Walter S. Franklin.

On May 31, 1841, Clarke was again elected Clerk of the House of Representatives in the 27th United States Congress. Clarke opened the proceedings of the 28th United States Congress on December 4, 1843, but was defeated for re-election by Caleb J. McNulty two days later.

In 1843, he was appointed Sixth Auditor of the United States Treasury and remained in office until 1845.

In 1852, his daughter Anna L. Clarke married Gen. William B. Franklin, the son of Clerk of the House Walter S. Franklin who had succeeded Clarke in 1833.

*** My observation: Clarke was out of elected office between the years 1833 and 1841. From 1834 to 1836: he had the land in Eckhart surveyed; he had the underlying mineral composition determined; he wrote a book extolling the land's great mineral value (primarily COAL); he represented the Consolidated Coal Co. during the purchase of the land; and who knows what else he was involved in.

Maybe he was the one who applied pressure on Mary Eckhart to sell her land (within 5 days of her husband [and maybe her son] dying). Maybe he was responsible for her having a mental break down and her sons trying to have her committed to a mental institution. We can only speculate as to what really happened and why the Eckharts sold their land.

Well! The plot thickens. And maybe, as Rich wisely points out, we never will know what really happened. The Eckhart people aren't talking from their graves above the little place called Eckhart Mines.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/cousin-rich-sleuth.html