John Clendenin Eckels and Mary Lee Kenyon
Husband John Clendenin Eckels 1
Born: 13 Apr 1824 - Silver Spring Twp, Cumberland Co, PA 2 Christened: Died: 22 May 1896 3 Buried: - Ashland Cemetery, Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PA
Father: Hon. Francis L. Eckels ( - ) 4 5 Mother: Isabella Clendenin ( -1844) 4 6
Marriage: 1 May 1851 7
Wife Mary Lee Kenyon 7
Born: 10 Nov 1828 - Dickinson Twp, Cumberland Co, PA 8 Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: Samuel Maxson Kenyon (1801-1869) 7 9 Mother: Eliza Jane Kincaid (1806-1856) 7
Children
1 F Cynthia Jane Eckels 3
Born: - near New Kingston, Cumberland Co, PA Christened: Died: Buried:
2 M Mervin Johnston Eckels 3
Born: 18 Jun 1854 - near New Kingston, Cumberland Co, PA 3 Christened: Died: Aft 1905 Buried:Spouse: Susan Tudor Kenly ( - ) 3 Marr: 11 Dec 1883 3
3 M Francis Kenyon Eckels 3
Born: 7 Sep 1856 - near New Kingston, Cumberland Co, PA 3 Christened: Died: 25 Mar 1887 3 Buried: - Ashland Cemetery, Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PASpouse: Katie Sheibner ( -1904) 3 Marr: 25 Dec 1879 3
4 M John Clendenin Eckels 3
Born: 22 Dec 1858 - near New Kingston, Cumberland Co, PA 3 Christened: Died: Aft 1905 Buried:Spouse: Alice E. Smiley ( - ) 10 Marr: 19 Feb 1891 10
5 M Charles Edmund Eckels 3
Born: 15 Aug 1861 - near New Kingston, Cumberland Co, PA 10 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Margaret Galt ( - ) 10 Marr: 24 Nov 1892 - Petchaburi, Thailand 10
6 M William Alexander Eckels 3
Born: 4 Nov 1863 - near New Kingston, Cumberland Co, PA 10 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Anna Longley Williams (1878- ) 10 Marr: 24 Jun 1904 - Shandon, Butler Co, OH 10
7 F [Infant] Eckels 3
Born: Christened: Died: in infancy Buried:
General Notes: Husband - John Clendenin Eckels
He was born in the northwestern part of what is now Silver Spring township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. When five years of age his father moved to a large farm lying in Coffman's Point, on the south side of the Conedoguinet creek, on the eastern border of Silver Spring township, where he farmed as a renter for six years. Here began the boy's education. He was first sent to a school taught in a log house which stood on the north side of the turnpike, a little way east of where that road crossed the Silver Spring as it coursed northward towards the Conedoguinet. The next school he attended was on the McGuire farm, on the north side of the Conedoguinet, taught by his cousin Jonathan Eckels, who, though of diminutive size and deformed, was in his day one of the most successful teachers in the county. Afterward he attended for a session or two, a school at Hogestown, which was also situated on the turnpike. In 1835 his parents moved a mile due north of New Kingston, to a farm which became John C. Eckels's home for nearly all the rest of his lifetime. Here he attended a school located near Crider's Mill, on the road leading to Hogestown, and by this time he had reached boyhood's prime and won for himself prominence in class and on playground. He was beginning to feel the promptings of ambition, studied hard, and freely participated in the games and frolics which gave to the country school life of those days interest and zest. The adoption of the free school system wiped the school at this place out of existence and he then for several terms attended school at New Kingston. He also attended a Sunday-school which his father and John Herman organized and conducted in the old log school house near Crider's Mill, and in his leisure hours did miscellaneous reading which added much to his stock of general information. Between school terms he worked on the farm and with hands and mind thus constantly employed he steadily advanced upon the years of young manhood.
His standing at school had attracted attention and become the subject of conversation in the neighborhood; his conduct and address had won him the respect and favor of influential people, and one day a committee unexpectedly called upon him with a formal request that he come and teach a school which they represented. He appreciated the compliment but hesitated to accept the responsibility; besides his father feared it might prove too much of an undertaking and cautioned him against acting hastily in the matter. The committee, however, were urgent, and finally persuaded him to teach their school. This was in the autumn of 1843, and the school in question was known as Lambertons, in North Middleton (later Middlesex) township. He boarded in the home of Squire Abraham Lamberton, where he found congenial associates who encouraged and strengthened him in his labors. In February of that winter his mother died, which was a very heavy affliction, but in the Lamberton home he found sympathy, and he often afterward recalled how Mrs. Lamberton consoled him in his sore bereavement. His term of teaching in North Middleton township was the opening of his career. In the following summer a new school house was built and a new school created in the immediate vicinity of his home. He did hauling and in other ways assisted in the erection of this building, and the school, because of its situation and associations, came to be known as the Eckels school. He became its first teacher, teaching it in the winter term of 1846-47 at a salary of $16 a month. In the spring of 1847 he entered New Bloomfield Academy, of which Rev. Matthew B. Paterson was the principal, and from Mr. Paterson received his first instruction in the science of surveying, in which he afterward so long and so successfully engaged. He spent one term in the New Bloomfield Academy and on his return home resumed teaching at the Eckels school, which he taught, in all, four winter terms. In the autumn of 1850 he was employed to teach in the New Kingston school, and he continued to teach there until in the spring of 1852, when he started farming on the Eckels homestead, his father removing to New Kingston.
He grew to manhood on the home which his father bought in 1835 and, circumstances being favorable, he started farming on it in the spring following his marriage. He farmed continuously for twenty-seven years. After his father's death he purchased the place and improved it. To him it was the most loved spot on earth, for it had been the home of his parents, it was his home for forty-four years, and upon it all of his children were born and grew to maturity. He was a surveyor and along with his farming did much surveying. His reputation as a surveyor and draftsman spread, and in 1862 he was elected county surveyor continuing in that office for about twelve years. His friendship for the cause of education led to his election as school director in Silver Spring township, in which capacity he continued for twenty years. Besides these trusts of a public nature he was also frequently called upon to act as trustee and guardian in private estates in which line he had much to do up to near the time of his death. In 1878 he was elected to the office of county treasurer and for three years discharged the duties of that position. After his election as county treasurer he relinquished farming and removed to Carlisle in order to be near his post of duty and to give several of his sons college advantages. After his term as county treasurer he again became interested in the settlement of estates, also in business enterprises, and for about fourteen years was a director of the Farmers' Bank of Carlisle. In the autumn of 1879 he purchased a home on South West street, Carlisle, where he lived until the end of his days.
In religion he was a Presbyterian, as were his ancestors before him. He united with the Church at Silver Spring when nineteen years of age, and in 1851, the year in which he married, transferred his membership to the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. In June, 1861, he was elected an elder, and from that date down to the time of his death, a period of thirty-five years, discharged the duties of his eldership. He was a delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly at Detroit in 1872, also at Saratoga in 1883. He also attended the Assembly which met in Philadelphia in 1870; the Centennial Assembly in 1888, and the Assembly which met in Washington, D. C., in 1893. He was an industrious and zealous friend of the Sunday-school, was teacher of a Bible class almost continually, and for several years superintendent of the school.
1 Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 121.
2 Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 122.
3 Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 126.
4 Editor, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warners, Beers & Co., 1886), Pg 410.
5 Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 121, 679, 760.
6 Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 121, 760.
7 Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 123.
8 Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 125.
9 Editor, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warners, Beers & Co., 1886), Pg 374.
10
Editor, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 127.
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