Showing posts with label John Eckhart (1831 - 1917). Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Eckhart (1831 - 1917). Show all posts

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



Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Tombstone Tuesday: Christiana and Frank P. Kelly

Was looking through Mom's tombstone photo file and ran into these two that I hadn't noticed before. They belong to my great grand parents and Dad's father's parents: Christiana Kelly (1861 - 1932) and Frank P. Kelly (1854 - 1923). Frank's full name was Francis Patrick Kelly but everyone called him Frank. He is just one of seven or eight Francis Patrick Kellys, including my Dad who everyone called Pat, on Mom's Big Tree. This couple rests in St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery in Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland and here's a link to this cemetery on FindAGrave.

His wife was Christiana Eckhart Kelly, but here on the tombstone, as you can see, her name was spelled with two "n"s. Additionally, we have records with the surnames spelled both as Kelly and Kelley. Sounds about right, doesn't it? Just enough to drive our search a tad crazy:)





This couple holds a bit of special interest for me because they were the first big inter-religious marriage in this line: a Catholic groom and a Lutheran bride. And they had to work at it to get the blessing of the bride's family. Their strategy, and one taken by many a couple, was to have kids so as to put the pressure on. Here's a link to a recent post about it, "Treasure Chest Thursday: Secrets", and you can find it here.

Christiana Eckhart Kelly came from an old family in the area of Western Maryland and Eckhart (or Eckhart Mines as it's now named) going back to the Revolutionary War. Her great great grandfather was George Adam Eckhart who purchased military lots and combined them with the lots of Jacob Loar to form the large parcel he owned. Eventually his son's wife sold the most valuable parcels to a mining company. This bituminous coal-rich land came to be known as The Big Vein and made the coal barrons rediculously wealthy. And that, my friends is a whole other story for another day!

Uncle Delbert still tells of being a boy and visiting his grandmother Christiana on Sundays, walking down the hills to the old Kelly house, across from Kelly's pump, and having to sit at attention on the big leather chair and mind his manners. One gets the impression that he was on very best behavior, and totally out of character for one of the Kelly boys.


Dad as a school boy,
Francis Patrick Kelly (1916 - 2007)

Frank and Christiana's family, about 1913.
Please click on the image to read names and dates.
And yes, there's another Frank Kelly Jr. in this picture.


John Lee Kelly (1892 - 1969), Dad's Dad, and his mother,
Christiana Eckhart Kelly (1861 - 1932)

Christiana Eckhart Kelly's parents:
John Eckhart (1831 - 1917) and
 Mary Catherine Myers Eckhart (1837 - 1909)
 

 
Tombstone Tuesday is a weekly blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers. You can find the whole week's list of prompts here. Thanks, GeneaBloggers for inspiring genea bloggers!!


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/tombstone-tuesday-christiana-and-frank.html

Friday, March 30, 2012

Murder? Theft? Bribery?

Yesterday I posted that it finally struck me like a bolt of lightning how facebook can be used for genealogy when I joined the group, "Descendants of George Adam Eckhart of Eckhart, MD". Rich, bless him, created the group March 22, just eight days ago and already the group has almost 20 cousins.

But the most extraordinary thing is that we're sharing family history. And photos too... you know me, I love the photos... but this story takes the cake!!!

There's always been an oral history story in my Eckhart line about how the Consolidation Coal Company, the Consol, "stole" the Eckhart land from the family. Their man, "Jenkins", supposedly went to the county court house and paid a clerk to make one (or more) of the parcel deeds "disappear". It's hard, I would imagine, to get evidence to substantiate that claim now. I think at one point Mom did try to go and look to no avail. So I doubted the story or at least just chalked it up to family legend and lore. But here's a twist!

Here's what Rich posted to the Eckhart facebook group and it's very interesting indeed! And sorry about the font size craziness... I just copied and pasted and it went berserk:)

I was just reading some of the "history" of the Eckharts on the Genealogy web site. Here is an excerpt: "The original Eckhart farm was 600+ acres extending into what is now Frostburg. The Eckhart mansion stood close to where the McDonald's and Food Lion are in Frostburg now. There is actually a saw mill there now.

Nearby there are some small cottages built on rock foundations; those were the slave quarters. Everything was left to John, & he became quite a wealthy man. Harry said Matthew St. Claire Clark bought the Eckhart land. John Edwin Eckhart said a man by the name of Jenkins ended up with Consolidation Coal Co., and they bought out the Eckhart Farm".
Interesting reading, but I think a few facts were left out.

From research that I did, the Eckhart farm was indeed sold to Matthew St. Claire Clark, in 1835. The land was purchased from Mary Eckhart. The excerpt does not include the fact that her "wealthy" husband and her oldest son, had both died within 5 days of the sale.



It seems Mr St. Claire Clark, who was the Washington D.C. based attorney for The Consolidated Coal Co. of New York, was also privy to the fact that the land contained the largest vein of coal ever found in Maryland. Mr St. Claire Clark had authorized the production and publication of a book which described in detail the minerals located within "our new land purchase in Eckhart, Maryland". The book was published shortly after the purchase of the land. So shortly after, that it seems Mr. St Claire Clark had to have his geologists working on the land before they even owned it.


Finding the mother lode of coal in 1835 was like finding the mother lode of gold in 1849. Who knows how many people lost their lives in the name of greed? I believe John and his son did.
 
 
Today's photo from my archive, the town of Eckhart Maryland taken about 1909:



Thursday, March 29, 2012

Worth At Least Two Posts!

Today's news is worth at least two separate posts but I'll combine into one.

Working on Capt. Jacob

I continue to search for information about my ancestor, Capt. Jacob Whetstone (1738 - 1833). Holy-Toledo! These papers are still piling up! I needed one of those big blue binders and some diver tabs so it was off to Staples.

Recently, was on Fold3 and had intended to return there (see post below) on the hunt for his Revolutionary War records. Instead, I spent the day sitting on the Ancestry.com looking at and printing out census pages.

If you'll remember, there is some confusion about multiple Jacob Whetstones with ours having a son, Jacob Jr. (1776 - 1889). I wanted to see where they were living with proximity to each other because I remember Mom saying that you can track them pretty well on the US Census. I can use her records but where's the fun in that? Plus, I think it gives me better comprehension of the line of time marching through their lives.

I also made a spread sheet of sorts for each of the UN Census listing all the relevant Whetstones (and close name variations) with Capt. Jacob's brothers, Abraham and Henry as well as son's Jacob Jr., Solomon, Isaac, and John... if I spotted them on the census search. I also noted any Whetstones (or variations) living nearby. I only checked the page before and after the listing page and I hope that's enough, but am still pretty new at this so don't know for sure.

Good practice dictates working backward but this time I began at a starting point of which I was certain: the census closest in time to his war service and geographically to his place of birth.

So what did I find so far? That sure as Mom said, the 1790 census shows Capt. Jacob and his son Jacob Jr. living close by. I have more work to do on this track checking all the other census years... which I'll do as soon as I get all these papers organized in the new big blue binder, with tabs.

Social Media

I like and use facebook mostly to keep up with friends and the art world. (You might remember that when I'm not doing genealogy I'm a landscape painter.) I never really used it much for genealogy but have "liked" pages about it. Today... WOAH!

Mom who is 93 years old and on facebook alerted me to the fact that Cousin Cynthia posted a comment to a photo of our great great grandparents, John Eckhart and Mary Myers Eckhart!! There's a fracebook group page, Descendants of George Adam Eckhart of Eckhart, MD., with this picture on it.

How cool is this?? It's the first time I'm looking at the faces of these great great grandparents!! I am so grateful to Rich who put the page together and posted this picture:) Thanks cousin!

And now I know how to use facebook to connecting with living descendants of my ancestors;) NICE.



John Eckhart (1831 - 1917) and
Mary Catherine Myers Eckhart (1837 - 1909)
Posted by Rich!

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/03/worth-at-least-two-posts.html