Surname Saturday: Mary Ann, Last Name Unknown, wife of John Eckhart

Here it is, the whole week has gone by and it's time once again for my favorite blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers called Surname Saturday. If I don't get anything else "genealogy" done during the week, the week has been a success for me if Surname Saturday gets posted.

This week we launch into the 4th great grandmothers, with the 2nd and 3rd GGMs and a lot of the GGFs having already been covered in previous posts. If you want to check a surname, just type it in the search box over there on the right.

The featured celebrity ancestor today is an interesting woman. She was the wife of a wealthy and prominent man who owned an inn on the Old Pike in the early years of the 1800s, owned slaves and had a head for business, and who owned quite a bit of very valuable property in the area that's now known as Eckhart and Eckhart Mines, Allegany, Maryland. Mary Ann, his wife, however thought differently about the slaves and apparently tried to free them, especially her personal servant, Matilda, and her children. That caused a furor. But I'm getting ahead of the story. First, the line up stepping back through the generations. Here we go!

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. Read on:)
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 (Find A Grave # 25555482)

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 running right through his property. He was appointed a road commissioner, for which he paid $300 a year fee to the state. In return he was to maintain the road and earned the right to keep a roadhouse, that 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, our mysterious Mary Ann who married John then 29 when she was just 17, inherited the bulk of his estate and then 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. The theory is that Mary Ann, after the dust-up with the sons fled to West Virginia to live with her son Adam and took Matilda.
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. It was shortly thereafter that Mary Ann moved to West Virginia to live with her son Adam. She took that fortune, many millions of dollars in today's money, and her slaves with her.
The old Eckhart land, purchased for $20,000, held some of the best quality coal found anywhere during 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. If you are related to this line, 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 - 1856. He married Sarah Hayes.
David Eckhart 1824 - 1854. (Find A Grave # 32156854)

That's all we know about Mary Ann. A comprehensive book by H Andrew Brown, "George Adam Eckhart and Philip Hansel of Allegany County, Maryland," sketches out what happened to Mary Ann after John died, and hints that the Adam Eckhart family and some Hansels moved on to Ohio after spending some years in Monongalia, Virginia (now West Virginia) and freed any remaining of their slaves in Ohio. Both Mary Ann and her son David are buried in the Hunt-Eckhart Cemetery, Morgantown, Monongalia County. Also in this cemetery are two boys, James T. who died at four years of age and John W. who died at two years of age. Perhaps Adam, his wife Sarah Albright, along with Adam's sister, Mary Ann and her husband John Hansel are all to be found buried in Ohio. Must say that I'm curious about this line of the family that moved on west.

The book by Brown does not shed any light on Mary Ann's maiden name or any details of her birth family or where they might have resided. Not much to go on. We're looking for a female born about 1780, probably in Western Maryland, probably of the German Lutheran faith. This lot stuck to their own.

 

The above are screen shots from Find A grave for:

Top: The Hunt-Eckhart Cemetery,

Bottom: Mary Ann ? Eckhart.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/07/surname-saturday-mary-ann-last-name.html

SNGF: About Those Houses

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings blog throws out a challenge every Saturday for some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, or SNGF. I try to do as many as I can but as a relative newbie don't make it as often as I would like. This weeks is right up my alley because it's about family homes. Here's what he said in his blog post:
1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 January 1913 - 100 years ago.
2) List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible). Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?
3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post

I've decided to change up Randy's challenge a tad and talk about three houses that were occupied by ancestors in 1913 and list all the relatives who called each their home at some point in their lifetimes.  I chose these because they are houses that held each family through at least two and sometimes three generations and 1913 is a good confluence year for them. They are:
1) the Zeller and Kelly family residence at 89 West Main Street, Frostburg, Maryland
2) the Eckhart and Kelly family residence in Eckhart Mines, Maryland, and
3) the Williams family home in Ocean Mines, Maryland.
So here goes!

1) the Zeller and Kelly family residence at 89 West Main Street, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland
This house was built in the 1840s on the main thoroughfare of the town, also known as the Old Pike, The National Road, and the Cumberland Road. Built in the first couple of decades of the 1800s, the National Pike was the first road west paid for by the federal government.

This is a photo taken in the early 1900s in the general vicinity of the Zeller and Kelly house to document the National Road. The house would probably have been on the right.

We have the house history going back to its origins, but for this exercise, here are the ancestors and families who might have lived there in the decades before and after 1913. Here's the house as it was recently in October of 2012.

1. Helen Gertrude Zeller, my grandmother, born in this house 6 Aug 1894, and died there 13 Feb 1985. She left the house to my Dad, Francis Patrick Kelly. She married John Lee Kelly on 30 Sept 1913 in Frostburg, Maryland. She inherited the house from her father, Gustav Zeller. Grandma and Grandpop lived there with all six of their children:
Helen Lee Kelly Natoly 1914 - 1989
Francis Patrick Kelly, Dad, 1916 - 2007
Bernard Michael Kelly 1918 - 2007
John Delbert Kelly, living
Christiana Kelly Fraley 1923 - 1993
Louise Kelly Chaney 1924 - 2002
As you can see Grandma was living in the house in January of 1913 but not yet married to Grandpop. That would come later in the year in September, and the babies started arriving the next August right there in the house
2. Gustav Zeller, my great grandfather, born 3 Feb 1858 in Allegany County, Maryland was the first in the family to own the house. He died 3 Dec 1927. He married Moretta Workman born 3 Apr 1880 and died 24 Mar 1946. I don't know if they both died in the house but if I had to guess, I'd guess that they did. They lived in this house with all five children. The boys left after marriage but Grandma, the apple of GGF's eye never left the house.
Charles Sample Zeller 1880 - 1966
Adelbert (Bert) Zeller 1883 - ?
Gustav William Zeller 1884 - 1964. He owned a house across the street and down three houses.
Helen Gertrude Zeller, Grandma
Anna M. Zeller Mar 1882 - Sept 1882
There was always a full house at 89 West Main Street, and many ancestors lived there for a while after they were married or between houses. My family lived there one summer while the new-to-us house was getting ready. During the Great Depression a few traveling salesmen boarded there as well.


2) the Eckhart and Kelly family residence in Eckhart Mines, Allegany County, Maryland



This is the house where my Grandpop John Lee "Lee" Kelly 1892 - 1969 was born, and the photo was taken last year with one of the many remodels in progress. Uncle Delbert Kelly tells of walking from the house at 89 West Main Street, above, to this house maybe 2 miles east on the Old National Pike, as a young boy of six or so, to visit his grand mother, Christiana Eckhart Kelly 1861 - 1932, who scared the daylights out of him. After the long walk downhill he would enter by the front door to sit properly for a visit in the front parlor on the stiff leather chair! Afterward, Delbert and Grandpop took the trolley back up the hill to home.
Here are the ancestors who lived in this house:
1. Christiana Eckhart Kelly 1861 - 1932, most likely born in this house to her parents, John Eckhart 1831 - 1917 and Mary Myers Eckhart 1837 - 1909. She met and fell in love with my great grandfather Francis Patrick Kelly 1854 - 1932. Yes, you have not been fooled: Dad and his own grandfather were named the same! 
By 1913 they had a house full of kids:
Mary Kelly 1880 - 1949
Eugene Francis Kelly 1888 - 1986
Margaret Ann Kelly 1909 - ?
Edith Bridget Kelly 1891 - ?
John Lee Kelly, my Grandpop, 1892 - 1969
Dora Elizabeth 1894 - 1962
Francis Patrick Kelly Jr. 1897 - 1946 (yes, another Francis Patrick Kelly!)
Also living with the family at the time of the 1910 US Census was Christiana's father, John S. Eckhart 1831 -1917 who was the great grandson of the town founder, George Adam Eckhart 1729 - 1806. I can only imagine which other of my ancestors lived there and am willing to bet there were more than three.

3) the Williams family home in Ocean Mines, Allegany County, Maryland.

Ocean Mines, known locally as simply Ocean, sits in the George's Creek Valley. Ocean Mine Fields were one of the richest coal mine fields in Western Maryland. The little mountain town of Frostburg sits at the top of the George's Creek valley where the Ocean Mine Field runs and this house is perhaps three miles south of Frostburg.
My great grandfather Daniel Williams 1852 - 1920 and his wife Jane Price Williams 1862 - 1939 called this house their family home and would have been living there with most of their eight children in January of 1913. Daniel was born in Wales, was a miner or collier there, and worked in mining when he came to the rich coal fields of the George's Creek area. Most anxious to purchase his own home and settle down, as were the vast majority of miners there, it was not possible at the time to also purchase the mineral rights. So that's why the mining company ran a mine shaft right under the house! And the house eventually sank!
Here's the list of the kids living in the home in 1910:
James Henry Williams 1882 -1936
William Williams 1884 - 1964
Thomas Williams 1890 - 1951
Joseph Williams 1895 - 1948
Cambria Williams, my grandfather 1897 - 1960
Charles Williams, Aunt Betty's father, 1899 - 1979
Aunt Betty and her parents also lived in this house. She remember stories of hearing the miner's voiced under the house as they worked the min shafts! Spooky!

So those are my hand-picked and often loved homes of the ancestors. I do hope that you are not too bored by my rambling SNGF adventure!


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/sngf-about-those-houses.html

Reading A Probate Sale List is FUN!

Have been reading the probate sale list of the possessions of John Eckhart, 1768 - 1835. He was born and died in Western Maryland and lead, from what I can tell, an interesting life as a farmer and roadhouse owner on the National Highway which was the main route west.

His father and the start of the Eckhart line here in America, was George Adam Eckhart, 1729 - 1806. Adam was born in Germany and died on his own 650 acres of land in what would become the town of Eckhart and later Eckhart Mines. Reportedly he was an indentured servant when he came here, but I haven't seen any records yet so it remains just a theory. John was his prosperous son.

John must have died without a will because his belongings were sold at probate. (Am I using these terms correctly? My newbie colors are still strong;))

The sale list included slaves... will I ever get over that, not likely. Just found a group online Come To The Table for descendants of slaves and slave owners. Think there's a real need out there for all of us to chat about our relationship to all of this information, especially if it's new to us. Remember, I would have bet the farm that there wern't any slave owners in my heritage as we wern't in plantation country. Finding out that there were slave owners is difficult to process. Comments such as, "That's just how it was," and "You aren't responsible", while having a vein of truth to them don't begin to cover it.

But I digress. The probate sale list covered so much stuff! I once had a researcher working on her dissertation about New York upstate agriculture contact me looking for a probate list for Nehemiah Newans. I was perplexed at her wanting it until now when reading John Eckhart's probate list. It really gives you a picture of life based around agriculture!

Here's a bit of it. Left column is the item sold, middle column is how much it went for and the right column is who bought it. Notice that John's widow, Mary Eckhart had to buy back her own stuff... and then split the proceeds of the sale with other heirs! Crazy! And sorry about the spacing but this is just cut and paste gone wild:)

pots & kettles                                    $1.68                              Mary Eckhart   ;

waggon/coal bed                              $ 31.50                           Mary Eckhart   ;

pot hook                                             $.18                                 John Mcgittigan;

102 bushels rye                                 $ 68.67                           Mary Eckhart   ;

2 pot holders                                      $.87                           Mary Eckhart   ;

rye & wheat                                       $ 34.00                           John Neff      ;

bundled straw                                    $11.39                        John Porter    ;

lot of flax                                           $  2.12                            John Neff      ;

stack of oats                                      $ 12.62                        Robt. ?Lowry   ;

stack of hay                                      $ 15.40                           Wm. Ridgely    ;

stack of hay                                      $    21.00                        Mary Eckhart   ;

hay in mow                                        $ 41.00                           Jos. H. Logsdon;

auger/coal                                          $    71.67                        Thos. A. Cheney;

sow & 4 pigs                                      $ 11.00                           Mary Eckhart   ;

5 sows & pigs                                     $    30.50                        Mary Eckhart   ;

3 sheep/whte cow                             $ 24.42                           Mary Eckhart   ;

red milk cow                                      $    19.00                        Hannah Eckhart ;

black cow                                           $ 16.25                           Danl. ?Quilly  ;

white cow                                           $    13.25                        Wm. Ridgely    ;

rye in the field                                   $ 35.00                           John Eckhart   ;

black mare colt                                 $    40.00                        John McGittigan;

sorrel horse                                         $ 31.50                           Mary Eckhart   ;

tan horse                                            $    50.00                        John McGittigan;

black mare                                         $ 18.00                           Josiah Porter  ;

old gray mare                                    $     2.01                         John H. Logsdon;

black horse                                        $ 22.50                           Danl. O'Brian  ;

blk smith tools                                   $    11.62                        John McGittigan;

hay fork                                             $   .22                              Josiah Porter  ;

copper stick                                       $    36.10                        Jese W. Cheney ;

hay fork                                             $   .32                              John Neff      ;

shovel plow                                        $     1.46                         Mary Eckhart   ;

cockery ware                                     $  1.25                            Edw. W. Donato ;

old slate                                              $      .20                           Mary Eckhart   ;

axe/pewter/iron                                 $  1.50                            John McGittigan;

Durkely Gotes                                   $    50.69                        Mary Eckhart   ;

Durkely Gotes                                   $ 57.97                           Mary Eckhart   ;

dining table                                        $     5.00                         John McGittigan;

bedstead                                             $   .50                              Hannah Eckhart ;

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/reading-probate-sale-lists-is-fun.html

Whetstones vs. Eckharts

Having recently announced here that I was declaring a new project for myself, that is the pursuit of all information about Capt. Jacob Whetstone of the American Revolution, on my mother's side, the Eckhart bunch on my father's side jumps in demanding attention! (See posts below, if you want.)

I had a nice blue binder started for the Whetstone project and was up and running. Had a work plan and everything.

Then Cousin Cynthia sent Mom some posts from the facebook page of a group, Descendants of George Adam Eckhart of Eckhart MD ... and I was off task. Way off task! But it's been fun too. Met a lot of cousins and learned a ton of stuff.

Now I have yet another blue binder for the Eckhart thing - see, I can't even call it a project yet. Funny, that, because as a relative newbie my first big project was on my Dad's side, Nehemiah Newans who also served in the Revolutionary War as did Capt. Whetstone... and my Eckhart connection, one Mary Myers Eckhart, was great granddaughter of Nehemiah Newans. I've learned a lot about Newans and his great grandson, Thomas F. Myers, Mary Myers Eckhart's brother. It would be good to tie it all together and get a better picture of that side of the family.

So I'm off taking slave inventory to try and figure out where the Eckhart slaves went to after Mary Ann, wife of John Eckhart (son of George Adam Eckhart), died. John died in 1835 and his estate went to Mary Ann... but I haven't seen his will yet. Anyway, the land was sold almost immediately to the representative of a mining company, so we know where the land went and the story behind that. (See post below.) But what about the slaves? So how could I not follow that up?!!

I guess that no matter how well you plan your genealogy projects, there might be an opportunity you have to jump on:)

Picture of the day from my archive:

Mary Catharine Myers Eckhart

(1837 - 1909)

My Myers/Eckhart connection

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/whetstones-vs-eckharts.html

The One Thing I Didn't Want to Know

OK, so I'm pretty new to this genealogy thing and really enjoying the ride. Just got back from a visit back east to see Mom. Spent a lot of time copying some of her massive files too. She's been at this for about 25 years or so. The depth of her work is amazing!

Soon after I got the genealogy bug I asked Mom if any of our ancestors ever owned slaves. The question was prompted by an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? She said no, that she thought not. All of our ancestors fought for the Union. They were from Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and West Virginia, which as we know split off from Virginia to side with the Union. Case closed. Clean conscious. No worries there that some ancestor participated in that blight on our nation's history.

Sitting on the airplane going to see Mom I had occasion to read up on the Eckharts starting with my 4th GGF George Adam Eckhart (1729 - 1806) and his son, my 3rd GGF John Eckhart (1768 - 1835). Well I just about jumpped out of my seat when I read that John's widow, Mary Ann wanted to free her slaves. How can that be?!! Oh yes, it was all true, to my deep horror.

Stuff like this makes you think and examine our life and times in contrast to the life and times of those who lives in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now I'm in no way making any excuses here: slavery is wrong anytime and anyplace. How do you justify that? You can't.

I read on and found that slaves where the most prized of all "possessions" and the values placed on these African-Americans was between $400 and $600, which in about 1800 was a small fortune.

I'm still shocked and trying to figure out how to deal with it. Do I need to feel guilty?

Location of the Eckhart Mansion now long gone, in Eckhart, Maryland.