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BIOGRAPHIES

Source:
 COMMEMORATIVE
BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
of the Counties of
HARRISON AND CARROLL, OHIO

Containing
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, and of Many of the Early
Settled Families.
ILLUSTRATED
Publ.
CHICAGO:
J. H. Beers & Co.
1891

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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E. R. Eckley
  GEN. E. R. ECKLEY.  In the land of the Teutons the Eckley family first sprung into existence, the name being essentially German.  Thence a branch of them, some time in the long ago, migrated to English soil, where were born the more immediate ancestry of Gen. Eckley.  The first of the family to come to America was John, who remained for a time in New York, and then moved to New Jersey.  He had five sons, viz.: Barnabus, who became the founder of a large mercantile firm in Boston, Mass., John, who was chief justice of the courts of Pennsylvania; Ephraim, who changed the spelling of the name to "Akley," was hanged in Long Island by the Tories (he was the grandfather of Prof. Akley, of Cleveland, Ohio); Peter, the grandfather of Gen. Eckley, and Joseph, who was with Washington at the capture of Trenton, accompanied Crawford as a lieutenant on his expedition against Sandusky Indians, and was supposed to have been killed.  These brothers were all engaged in the Revolutionary War, Peter as a member of the New Jersey troops.  At the battle of Harlem Plains he was shot in the leg, from which he never fully recovered.  These brothers had a sister, named Elizabeth, who married Major Callaway, a particular friend of Daniel Boone, of Kentucky.  A daughter of Boone and one of the Callaways were captured by the Indians, but were retaken by their fathers.  The Government gave Boone and Callaway each a township tract of land in Missouri, and named two counties, respectively, Boone and Callaway.  Both these men became members of the State Legislature of Missouri.  In New Jersey Peter Eckley was married to Esther, daughter of Thomas Ralph, who had a son (Ephraim) an officer in the Revolution, and who was wounded at the battle of Princeton.  The Ralphs moved to Westmoreland County, Penn., where Ephraim Ralph joined Col. Lockry's expedition against the Indians.  There were two detachments of troops, Ralph being second in command.  The first detachment, under Lockry, led the advance, and the second was to land on a given signal.  Simon Girty, the renegade white chief of the Indians, ambushed the first, exterminating it, and having discovered the signal for the second detachment to land, he gave it, and on their arrival he surrounded them, killing all, including Ralph, except three who returned home - Ralph's servant, by name John Orr, an Irishman, being one of them.  He made his way from Detroit to Fort Pitt, accompanied only by his dog, and had little else to guide him on his retreat save the stars by night and the sun by day.  Coming to Beaver River, he swam across, but as his dog did not follow, he recrossed the stream for his faithful four-footed friend.  Arriving at Fort Pitt, Orr told his direful tale.  He afterward became sheriff of Westmoreland County, Penn., and was the first of the family of that name in Western Pennsylvania.
     The grandparents of our subject remained some time in Pennsylvania, and in about the year 1800 they came to what is now the State of Ohio, whither their eldest son had preceded them.  They finally settled in Richland County, same State, where they died, the grandfather at the age of eighty years, and the grandmother when ninety-two years old.  They had a family of eleven children, the record of whom is as follows:  Lydia died at the age of twenty; Ephraim  was the father of Gen. EckleyJoseph died in Pennsylvania; George died in Illinois; Esther, wife of William Neely, in Illinois; Peter died in Hillsboro, Ohio; Charity is the deceased wife of Lewis Hardenbrook, of Mount Gilead, Ohio; Thomas died in Carroll County, Ohio; Eleanor is the deceased wife of Bentley Finley, of Mount Gilead, Ohio; Levi was at one time a member of  the State Senate of Georgia, and afterward lieutenant governor of the State, thence moved to Illinois and from there to San Francisco, Cal., where he kept a hotel and died; John was in Iowa when last heard from.
     Ephraim Eckley grew to manhood on his father's farm, and when Ohio was yet a Territory he came hither, becoming a river trader, in the plying of which vocation he made no less than twenty-two trips to New Orleans.  He has wedded to Sarah Van Gilder, a descendant of an old Dutch family, ship-builders at Cape May, for whom a square in New York City is named.  Jeremiah Van Gilder met and married a Miss Sarah Sharpe, of New Jersey.  The Sharpe family were of English extraction, and were numerous in the eastern States.  The parents of Mrs. Sarah (Van Gilder) Eckley died, the father in Allegheny County, Penn., and the mother in what is now Richland County, Ohio, whither she had come in 1816, when this region was a wilderness.  She was twice married, and by her first husband, Jeremiah Van Gilder, she had five children - two sons and three daughters - who all lived to great ages; Sarah, the mother of Gen. Eckley, died aged ninety; Sophia, died aged eighty-six; Margaret, died earlier in life; John, died aged eighty-three; Peter died earlier in life.  Until 1814 the Eckleys remained in what is now Jefferson County, Ohio, and then six families moved to Mohican Valley, the VanGilders following in 1816.  Later they (the Eckleys) proceeded to Olney, Ill., where the father of our subject died in 1863, at the age of eighty-four years, and the mother in 1870, aged ninety.  They were the parents of seven children, viz.:  Jeremiah, who died in New Orleans in February, 1834 (he was editor of the Feliciana Gazette); Peter, who moved to Indiana, then to Illinois, and finally to Iowa, where he died "la grippe" in the spring of 1890, at the age of eighty-five years; Daniel, M. D., who practiced medicine for half a century, and is now a resident of Minerva, Ohio; Lydia, deceased wife of Joshua Johnson, of Illinois; Ephraim Ralph, the subject proper of this commemorative sketch; Harvey, M. D., in Circleville, Ohio (who was with Houston in the Texan revolution of 1836, then moved to Jackson, La., where he was a merchant, and from there proceeded to Tennessee, where he married; at the time of the Civil War he was arrested and imprisoned six months for his Union sentiments, being taken to Vicksburg; after his release he returned to his home.  He was afterward made collector for the Western District of Tennessee, which office he filled for sixteen years; then moved to Kansas, where he now resides), and Milton, who died in Kansas.
     Gen. E. R. Eckley is a native of Jefferson County, Ohio, born Dec. 9, 1811, and was consequently but three years of age when the family moved to Mohican Valley, yet the General says he still remembers that memorable trip made over three-quarters of a century ago.  In this new wild home he grew up, surrounded by dangers from many sources, and helped clear the farm, chopping down the "lords of the forest" and clearing away the brush, many a day.  The first school he attended was held in the old traditional log school-house, with greased paper windows, etc., and his first teacher was a one-legged man who knew but little more than his scholars.  Thus passed the boyhood and youth of our subject, and at the age of eighteen he became a teacher, also a clerk in a country store.  About this time the "Yankees" began to come into the settlement, schools and other institutions were improved, New England ideas were disseminated in the community, and among the innovations introduced was the first "school marm" (a Miss Baird) ever seen in those regions.  In 1833 young Eckley made preparations for a journey to Louisiana, but having received the offer of a clerkship in a store in Harrison County, Ohio, he pretended to his people that he was going there (something he really had no intention of doing), but instead, he came to Carroll County, same State, where an uncle was desirous of having him teach school.  This he did for one year, commencing in the fall of 1833.  In the meantime he began reading law under Judge Johnson, now residing in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years.  In 1834 Mr. Eckley moved to Mansfield, Ohio, where he was acquainted with some of the lawyers of the place, and here the business of a certain firm having gone into the hands of a receiver, our subject was appointed "master," which found him occupation for another year.  About this time the county surveyor was making arrangements to have some surveying done in Indiana, and succeeded in getting Mr. Eckley to join his corps of assistants.  The party proceeded to the Hoosier State, but the summer having set in wet, they dreaded the ague, so prevalent in those days, and the members of the expedition, which was abandoned, were scattered to the four points of the compass, our subject returning to Richland County, where he spent the summer.  He surveyed and laid out the first lots where the town of Crestline, in Crawford County, now stands.  In the fall of 1836 he came to Carrollton, Carroll County, where his home has since been made.  Here he was admitted to the bar in October, 1837, and here he practiced his profession up to the breaking out of the Civil War.  In 1843 he was elected to the State Senate, representing the district composed of Carroll and Jefferson Counties, and in 1845 he was re-elected, his district being composed this time of Carroll and Tuscarawas Counties.  For the next term he was out of the Senate, but in 1849 he was returned; this proved a stormy session, there being a revolution of parties, and four weeks were occupied in organizing.  In 1851, when the new constitution was adopted, he was a Whig candidate for the lieutenant-governorship of Ohio, Samuel F. Vinton being the candidate for governor on the same ticket.  Mr. Eckley, however, was unsuccessful in this.  In 1853 he was sent to the House of Representatives from Carroll County, and was voted for as a Whig candidate for United States Senator by said Legislature.  In 1856 he was delegate to the Fremont Convention, held at Philadelphia, and in 1860 was appointed a member of the convention which nominated Lincoln, but was unable to attend.
     On June 10, 1861, the Civil War having now broken out, our subject was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-sixth O. V. I., and in December following was promoted to colonel of the Eightieth O. V. I.  He was in West Virginia with his command, whence he brought his regiment same year to Cincinnati, where it was turned over, and Col. Eckley then took command of a regiment at Camp Meigs.  On Feb. 17, 1862, they broke camp and proceeded direct to Cairo, Ill.  On Mar. 8, following, they were ordered to proceed up the Ohio and land at Paducah.  Here Sherman turned the camp over to Col. Eckley, and went to Pittsburg Landing.  Our subject remained in camp at Paducah until April, and then moved farther up the river, but was met by a messenger boat with orders for him to stop at Dresden Roads, and allow neither friend nor foe to pass.  Then orders came to fall back and fortify the road; missing Shiloh the command again proceeded up the river, debarking at Hamburg.  Col. Eckley was then assigned to the command of a brigade near Corinth, after which he was again given command of a brigade in the Army of the Mississippi, and followed Beauregard to Booneville, Miss.; from here he fell back to within six miles of Corinth, remaining there in camp until the early fall of that year.  On Sept. 19, 1862, his command were engaged at Iuka, and, on Oct. 3 and 4 following, they participated in the battle of Corinth.  In March, 1863, he left his regiment and returned home.  In the fall of that year he went to Congress, having been elected to same some time previously, where he served six years, having been elected three times.  He was one of the twenty-two members who opposed the immediate giving to the rebels full rights of citizenship.  The General is now peacefully resting on his laurels, respected and honored by all who know him.
     Gen. E. R. Eckley was married, in 1837, to Martha L. Brown, of Carrollton, who is still alive, and there were born to them five children, viz.:  Helen A., who married Dr. James Westfall, a surgeon in the Union Army; William J., who was a captain in the War of the Rebellion, and at its close was appointed a lieutenant in the regular army, joined his command in New Mexico, and died at Fort Sumner in 1867; Harvey J., an attorney of Carrollton, Ohio; Ralph B., who died in infancy, and Martha L., who married Dr. W. C. Skeels, a physician of Carrollton.  The Eckley family were originally Episcopalians, but after coming west were generally attached to the Presbyterians.
Source: Commemorative Biographical Records of the counties of Harrison and Carroll, Ohio - Illustrated - Published: Chicago - J. H. Beers & Co. - 1891 - Page 782
  PETER EICK, a prominent farmer of Monroe Township, Carroll County, was born in Huntingdon County, N. J., July 6, 1820.  His father, also named Peter, was born in the same county, Sept. 6, 1791, and was a son of Peter Eick, who was born in Germany and in an early day immigrated to the United States, settling in New Jersey, where he married Margaret Hopler.  To this union were born Anthony, Elizabeth, John, Jacob, Peter, William, Catherine A., Julia A., Lany and Mary.  Peter Eick, the father of our subject, grew to manhood on the farm in New Jersey, and July 30, 1817, married Miss Elizabeth Jennings, who was born in New Jersey in 1799, a daughter of Peter Jennings.  This union was blessed with seven children, named as follows:  John, who resides in Harrison Township, Carroll County; Philip, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio; Peter, our subject; Elizabeth Dilly, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio; Mary, deceased; Sarah Beamer, in Harrison Township, Carroll Co., Ohio, and Lany, who resides in Carrollton, Ohio.  In 1821 Mr. Eick came to Ohio and purchased the farm now owned by our subject, of which there had been a few acres cleared, and a small cabin erected thereon.  Mr. Eick resided on this land till the marriage of our subject, when he purchased a farm near Sherrodsville, where he resided till the death of his wife, which occurred Aug. 25, 1880; he then resided with our subject till his own death Dec. 17, 1882.  Mr. Eick came from New Jersey with a team and wagon, all the property he had, and would have returned to New Jersey, but his money was gone, and he was obliged to remain; yet, at his death, he owned 220 acres of choice land.  Mr. and Mrs. Eick were members of the Presbyterian Church for over forty years.  Politically, he was a Whig till 1855, but from that date to his death was a Republican; served several terms as trustee of his township.
     Peter Eick, our subject, grew to manhood on the farm where he now resides and was educated at the common schools.  On Oct. 31, 1849, he married Miss Esther E. Barrick, who was born in Monroe Township, Carroll Co., Ohio, Aug. 7, 1831, a daughter of George and Mary (Maughiman) Barrick.  By this union there were ten children, viz.: John, born Sept. 13, 1850, deceased; Henry, born Oct. 10, 1853, resides in Monroe Township; Milo, born Mar. 8, 1855, deceased; Philip M., born Sept. 3, 1858, deceased; Alice A., born Feb. 27, 1862, deceased; Eli B., born Sept. 22, 1864, resides in Monroe Township; Jacob, born Feb. 11, 1867, died in infancy; Martin, born Feb. 20, 1868, deceased; William G., born Feb. 21, 1872, also at home.  Mr. Eick has lived where he now resides since he came to Ohio, and has been identified as one of the leading men of his township.  Politically, he is a Republican, and he and wife are members of the Lutheran Church.
Source: Commemorative Biographical Records of the counties of Harrison and Carroll, Ohio - Illustrated - Published: Chicago - J. H. Beers & Co. - 1891 - Page 1135
  WILLIAM C. ELLIOTT

Source: Commemorative Biographical Records of the counties of Harrison and Carroll, Ohio - Illustrated - Published: Chicago - J. H. Beers & Co. - 1891 - Page 1113

NOTES:
 

 

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