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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
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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. Eckley;
Joseph 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 |
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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 |
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WILLIAM C. ELLIOTT.
About a century and a quarter ago there came from Germany to America the
great-grandfather of the gentleman whose name here appears. He settled
in Jefferson County, Ohio, and to him was born a son, Thomas, who
married Keziah _____, to which union was born in Jefferson County,
Jan. 25, 1800, Richard, the father of William C. Elliott.
Richard Elliott was reared in his native
township, and experienced all the vicissitudes and dangers of pioneer life.
When a boy of about eleven years he met with a serious accident; he was
driving a span of horses one day when he accidentally fell off the sled and
got caught somehow in the traces, whereby he was deprived of any means of
stopping the horses, who dragged him about forty rods in the woods, tearing
the flesh off one of his legs in a frightful manner. He was a thorough
"Nimrod," a dead shot and was wont to kill bears, wolves, etc. He was
also a great climber and wrestler, and although a small man he never found
any one who could throw him; however, he was not quarrelsome or given to
fighting. He was one of the most expert coon hunters of his day, and
when he succeeded in treeing one of those willy animals, he would readily
climb the loftiest tree in the forest and bring his "coonship" down.
However, like many other hunters, he at times made a mistake or
miscalculation; on one occasion he climbed a tree after what he supposed to
be a coon, and when he got near enough to the animal to see it distinctly,
he was more than surprised to find himself face to face with a wildcat, who
with angry, glittering eyes, was making for him. What Mr. Elliott
did under these circumstances can be better imagined than described;
however, we are told that "discretion is the better part of valor." He
was one of the first singers in this section, and for twenty-five years led
a church choir. He was twice married, the first time in 1821, to
Elizabeth Mick, a native of Jefferson County, Ohio, and five
children were the result of this union, two of whom are now living: Mary
A., now Mrs. James Kerr, residing in Kentucky, and Sarah Jane
now Mrs. William Kurtz, in Minerva, Stark Co., Ohio. Mr.
Elliott's second marriage occurred in 1836, with Mrs. Catherine
Clinton a widow, also born in Jefferson County, daughter of William
and Catherine Wright.
Mrs. Elizabeth Wright (nee Cassleman),
grandmother of our subject, was born in Virginia, and at the age of seven
years was stolen, along with her sister Mary, by some Wyandotte
Indians. The girls had crossed the Ohio River near where Steubenville
now stands, to be company to a man who engaged in making sugar, there being
extensive sugar cmps on the Ohio side of the river. At about dusk to
the evening five Indians sprang upon them and secured the two girls, but the
man who was with them fled and made bank, but was tied. Being hotly
pursued, and thinking to save himself, he jumped into the river, where one
of the Indians shot him, and our subject's grandmother often related to him
how well she remembered seeing the blood boil up while the unfortunate man
sank to rise no more. This occurred on a Tuesday evening, and from
that time they traveled all night, lying hid during the day, without a
morsel of food till early the following Friday morning, when the Indians
killed a bear which they roasted and ate. The children were carried to
where Upper Sandusky now stands, where a man named McIntosh paid
twenty-five dollars for Elizabeth, whom he sent to school and treated
very kindly all the time she was living with him. After a time a
trader on the old Tuscarawas path received tidings of the girl, and carried
the news to her parents in Virginia, opposite Steubenville; so the father
set out on horseback for the place, and brought his daughter home in safety
after an absence of seven years. Her sister Mary, who was the
elder of the two, while in captivity among the Indians, was found to marry a
young chief who took her to Western Ohio, whence, after an absence of
fourteen years, she made her escape, leaving her child, a son, behind.
She made her way homeward through the wilderness traveling by night and
hiding by day, her only sustenance being what she could gather, in the way
of nuts and berries, in the woods. After much suffering she at last
reached her old home, where she lived ten years, finally dying in Portage
County, Ohio, at the age of ninety-eight years. Gen. Eckley,
some time after her escape from the Indians, saw her son, and declared he
was a fine specimen of the red man.
In the spring of 1837 Mr. and Mrs. Richard Elliott
came to Carroll County, and took up their residence on a tract of land in
Washington Township; then, in 1850, they removed to Brown Township, locating
on a farm, where their deaths occurred, the father's Dec. 4, 1876, and
the mother's Feb. 23, 1890, when she was aged eighty-nine years, three
months sixteen days, having been born Nov. 7, 1800. They were
consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Four children
were born to this honored pioneer couple named as follows: Martha
Etta, William C., Richard M. and one that died in infancy.
William C. Elliott was born in Washington
township, Carroll Co., Ohio, Sept. 28, 1839, and during a few weeks in the
winter months of his boyhood he attended the district schools. One day
he had an adventure with his teacher, named Mills, who wished to whip
him for some reason, but the boy ran out of school, teacher after him; the
boy as he ran came to a spring which he jumped, but the "dominic" fell in
and got a ducking that effectually cooled of his wrath. Young
William was a studious youth, and when but eleven years of age he would
take his book into the field where he might be working, and as opportunity
offered sit down and con his lesson. In 1859 he entered the seminary
at Malvern, and in evenings, while there, he taught a geography school.
He had commenced a classical course, and as he acted as tutor he had
favorable opportunities of educating himself. In 1863 he returned home
and took charge of the home farm, his father having taken sick, and the
following year he bought the place.
On Nov. 8, 1864, Mr. Elliott was married in
Fulton County, Ill., to Nancy J. Long, a native of Brown Township,
Carroll County, daughter of Joseph and Betsy Long, early settlers of
that township, but who removed to Illinois in 1863, where they are still
living, now well advanced in years. Mr. and Mrs. Elliott
located on the home farm, his parents living with them until their death.
Five children have come to bless the marriage of our subject and wife, as
follows: Annie M., now Mrs. Elmer L. Pennock, of Augusta
Township, Carroll County; Alban H.; Kittie E.; John W., who died at
the age of two years and five months, and Bessie M. The parents
are members of the Pleasant Grove Methodist Episcopal Church, in which
Mr. Elliott is class leader, Mrs. Elliott being active in woman's
work in same. In politics Mr. Elliott is a Democrat; is
secretary of Oak Ridge Grange, No. 661, and is a member of Brown Township
Agricultural Society. He has acted as a teacher in the public schools
for eight years, is a member of the school board, and takes a lively
interest in all educational matters. Mr. Elliott's farm
contains 125 acres of highly improved land, devoted to general agriculture,
chiefly grain and stock-raising.
Source: Commemorative
Biographical Records of the counties of Harrison and Carroll, Ohio -
Illustrated - Published: Chicago - J. H. Beers & Co. - 1891 - Page
1113 |
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