USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families > Part 19
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On May 1, 1851, John C. Eckels was married to Mary Lee Kenyon, by Rev. O. O. McLean, pastor of the Dickinson Presby- terian Church. Mary L. Kenyon was a daughter of Samuel Maxsou Kenyon and Eliza Jane (Kincaid) Kenyon. Both the Kenyons and the Kincaids were intelligent and progressive families, and in their day prominent and influential in the affairs of Cumberland county. The former were from New England, Roger Kenyon, the father of Samuel Maxson, being born in the State of Rhode Island. He married Esther Max-
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son and soon after his third child was born moved to Connecticut. From Connecticut he came by sea to Baltimore and from there to Adams county. Pa .. where he followed the avocation of farming until near the end of his life. His wife died in their home in Adams county and is buried at Round Hill, in that county. After her'death he removed to Allegheny county. to which locality his son had preceded him. and where he died at an advanced age. Roger and Esther (Maxson) Kenyon had the following chil- dren : Esther, who married William Moor- head. and lived near York Springs; Denni- son, who enlisted in the army and was lost in the campaign against the Indians in Flor- ida; Samuel Maxson: Robert, who married Eliza Halbert, of Carlisle, and removed to Pittsburg, and later to Missouri; Phineas, who went to California: and William, who died of yellow fever on board a vessel coming from Florida, and was buried at sea.
Samuel Maxson Kenyon was born at Westerly, R. I., July 27, 1801, and was yet very young when his parents moved to Con- necticut, and only a youth when they lo- cated in Pennsylvania. His boyhood days were spent with his parents on the farm, but it is known that he also lived several years with "Judge" Neely, who was a farmer near Gettysburg. When about sixteen years of age he came to Carlisle, and attended a select school taught by a famous teacher named Gad Day. Stephen Culbertson and Dr. Robert Young, late of Mechanicsburg, were two of his schoolmates. About the time he reached his twentieth year he began teaching at a schoolhouse situated on the York road, in Dickinson township, at a place which was frequently known as Kenyon's Cross Roads. Later the place was known as Weakley's, and at present the schoolhouse is known as "The Hedge." Here he taught
a long time, and after some years bought a lot and built himself a house. Along with his teaching he also did farming, and for seven years farmed the farm now owned by John Monroe. Afterward he moved to a point on the Walnut Bottom road, where he lived during the latter years of his life. He taught for over forty years, and with the exception of one term all his teaching was done in Dickinson township. The Peffers, the Weakleys, the Hustons, the Stuarts, and other old families, whose names are insepa- rably connected with that part of Cumber- land county, were his patrons, and in some instances into the second generation. He began teaching long before the free school system was created and his schools, though raised by subscription, were nearly always large, and included a winter and a summer term. After an interruption of several years he taught at "The Savannah," which he taught against the advice and protests of his family. In 1849 he was elected justice of the peace, and afterward, at the expiration of each term, re-elected until his death.
The religious predilections of the Ken- yons were Baptist, but on locating in Cum- berland county Samuel M. united with the Presbyterian Church in Carlisle, then in charge of Rev. George Duffield, of whom he was a great admirer. He continued in this church until after he became permanently settled in Dickinson township, when he transferred his membership to the Dickinson Presbyterian Church because of it being nearer and more convenient. On Nov. 15, 1827, he was married to Eliza Jane Kincaid, the Rev. Dr. Duffield performing the cere- mony. Eliza Jane Kincaid was born on March 14, 1806, and was a daughter of John Kincaid and Mary Lee, his wife. John Kin- caid was married to Mary Lee on April 27, 1796, by Rev. Dr. Robert Davidson, and en-
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gaged at farming in Dickinson township until well advanced in years. He died while visiting one of his children in Sinking Val- ley, Huntingdon county, and is buried there. Mary Lee Kincaid, his wife, died Sept. 12, 1866, at the age of ninety-five years, and is buried in the graveyard of the Dickinson Presbyterian Church.
Samuel M. and Eliza Jane (Kincaid) Kenyon had the following children : Mary Lee, Jane Ellen, Esther Elizabeth, Anna Grizzelle. John Roger. Charles Cummins, James Woodburn and Benjamin Franklin. Six of these eight children became teachers, several of them teaching for a long while and with distinguished success. Samuel Maxson Kenyon died Sept. 12, 1869; Eliza Jane Kincaid, his wife, died Sept. 21, 1856, and the remains of both rest in the graveyard of the Dickinson Presbyterian Church in Penn township. Mary Lee Kenyon, the eldest child. was born Nov. 10, 1828, in Dickinson township. She received her edu- cation in the public schools of her native district under the immediate supervision of her father, and early began teaching. Among the schools she taught were Shady Grove and Savannah, of Dickinson township, Cen- ter, of Southampton, and Green Hill. of West Pennsboro. Her teaching career ter- minated with her marriage, but subsequently she several times taught as substitute for her husband. upon occasions when he was temporarily called away upon other business.
John C. Eckels had grown to manhood on the home which his father bought in 1835 and circumstances being favorable he started farming upon it in the spring follow- ing his marriage. He farmed continuously for twenty-seven years. After his father's death he purchased the place and improved it, increasing the productiveness of its acres and the convenience and appearance of its
buildings. 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 sur- veyor 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 and did some of his most beneficent and lasting work. Besides these trusts of a public nature he was also frequently called upon to act as trustee and guardian in pri- vate 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 treas- urer and for three years discharged the duties of that responsible position with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. After his election as county treasurer he re- linquished 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 fall of 1879 he pur- chased a home on South West street, Car- lisle, where he lived until the end of his days.
In religion John C. Eckels was a Pres- byterian, as were liis 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
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long years, discharged the duties of his elder- ship with the most reverent and conscien- tious fidelity. 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 Phila- delphia in 1870: the Centennial Assembly in 1888. and the Assembly which met in Wash- ington. D. C., in 1893. He was an industri- ous and zealous friend of the Sunday-school, was teacher of a Bible class almost contin- ually and for several years superintendent of the school. He died May 22. 1896, and was laid to rest in Ashland cemetery at Carlisle.
John C. and Mary L. (Kenyon) Eckels had children as follows: Cynthia Jane, Mervin Johnston, Francis Kenyon, John Clendenin. Charles Edmund, William Alex- ander, and a daughter who died in infancy. Of the six children named five had the ad- vantage of higher institutions of learning, three became college graduates, and all of the five in their earlier years engaged at teaching. Cynthia J., on leaving the com- mon school, attended a young ladies' semi- nary at Mount Joy, Pa. She is unmarried, and her aged mother and she comprise all of the family that is now left in the home at No. 156 South West street, Carlisle.
Mervin Johnston Eckels, the eldest son, was born June 18, 1854, and prepared for college at the Chambersburg Academy. He then entered Lafayette College and gradu- ated from that institution in 1877. After his graduation from college he taught in the Academy at West Nottingham. Md., until in 1879, when he entered the Western Theo- logical Seminary at Allegheny as a member of the class of 1882. He was ordained a minister of the gospel by the Presbytery of Baltimore in October, 1882. The first charge to which he was called was at Havre de Grace, Md., where he remained three
years. Next he was called to Salisbury, Md., where he continued five years, after which he served a charge at Bradford, Pa., for three years He then received and accepted a call to the West Arch Street Presbyterian Church. in Philadelphia, which he has continued to fill ever since. In 1894 Lafayette College conferred upon him the degree of D. D. He is a member of the Board of Publication of the Presbyte- rian Church; a trustee of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and a trustee of Wilson Col- lege, Chambersburg. During the summer of 1901, and again in 1904, he took trips abroad visiting England, Scotland and Ireland, also France, Switzerland, Italy, and other coun- tries on the continent.
On Dec. 11, 1883, Rev. Mervin J. Eckels was married to Miss Susan Tudor Kenly, of Harford county, Md., by whom he has had two children, both of whom died in infancy.
Francis Kenyon Eckels. the third child, was born on Sept. 7, 1856. On leaving the public school he learned the printing trade in the office of the Valley Sentinel and after- ward for a long time worked as a journey- man in Mechanicsburg. Later he worked in Carlisle and was foreman of the Sentinel composing room when he died. On Dec. 25, 1879, he married Katie Sheibner, of Me- chanicsburg, and by her had one child, a daughter, who died at the age of six and a half months. He died on March 25, 1887, and afterward his wife had her home with his parents in Carlisle until her death. She passed away Jan. 7, 1904, and with her hus- band is buried in Ashland Cemetery.
John Clendenin Eckels, the fourth child, bears his father's name. He was born Dec. 22, 1858, and was educated in the common school and at the Cumberland Valley State Normal School. Before completing his
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course at the normal school he was called home by the illness of his father to attend to the management of the farm. With his farm duties he found time and inclination to do teaching and taught the Hepburn school in Middlesex township and the Eckels school in Silver Spring township, each one term. When his parents moved to Carlisle he took entire charge of the farm and farmed until 1881, when he also came to Carlisle. At first he clerked in a store. but soon formed a partnership with L. R. Brenneman, and under the firm name of Brenneman & Eckels conducted a retail shoe business. Mr. Bren- neman sold his interest to W. C. Stuart, and Eckels & Stuart continued the business until in July, 1903. when Mr. Eckels sold out to Mr. Stuart for the purpose of going into the insurance and real-estate business, in which he is now engaged. In 1897 he was elected a director of the Merchants' National Bank of Carlisle, and was made secretary to its board, which place he still holds. On Feb. 19. 1891, he was married to Miss Alice E. Smiley, daughter of Rev. James W. and Maria Emma (Green) Smiley, of Carlisle. Rev. W. A. West performing the ceremony. Mr. and Mrs. Eckels belong to the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, the church of their parents, in which Mr. Eckels is an elder and clerk of the session. Formerly he held the place of trustee. He is also presi- dent of the Y. M. C. A. of Carlisle, and is active and influential in whatever sphere he is called upon to act.
Charles Edmund Eckels, the fifth child. was born Aug. 15, 1861. and graduated as A. B. from Dickinson College in 1885. He then taught in Cecil county, Md., and pri- vately studied theology. After being thus engaged for two years he entered the Senior class at Princeton Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1888. He then
placed himself in the hands of the Presby- terian Board of Foreign Missions, who the same year sent him as missionary to Siam, in which field he has been devotedly laboring ever since. He is now in charge of the sta- tion at Nakawn-see-tamarat, Siam, on the west coast of the Gulf of Siam. On Nov. 24, 1892, at Petchaburi, Siam, he married Miss Margaret Galt, a missionary from the State of Illinois, by whom he has the fol- lowing children: Annabel, John Clendenin, Mary Happer, and Charles Kenyon.
William Alexander Eckels, the youngest son, was born Nov. 4, 1863, and prepared for college at West Nottingham Academy, Md. He then entered Dickinson College, from which institution he graduated as A. B. in 1883. After graduating he taught in academies, high schools and colleges of sev- eral different States and in 1898 received the degree of Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins Uni- versity. He is now Professor of Greek in Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. On June 24. 1904. at Shandon, Ohio, he mar- ried Anna Longley Williams, who was born at Kalgan, China, May 30, 1878. Her father, Rev. Mark Williams, D. D., has been since 1866 a missionary of the American Board (Congregational) in China, and is now a professor in the North China College at Tungcho. Her mother, Isabella (Riggs) Williams, was a daughter of Dr. Stephen R. Riggs. the veteran missionary to the Da- kotah Indians, compiler of the Dakotah Dic- tionary, who for a short time served in the capacity of chaplain at the Carlisle Indian School.
CALVIN COULSON, in his lifetime an industrious farmer of South Middleton township, was the son of William Coulson, who located in Cumberland county about thirty-five years ago.
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William Coulson was born in York coun- ty, Pa., but came to Cumberland county, and engaged in farming. He died at the age of sixty-five years upon the same farm in South Middleton on which he made his first home upon coming to the county. He was greatly respected for his many excellent qualities, many of which were inherited by his son. the late Calvin Coulson. He was the father of the following children : Calvin ; Sarah J., married; Margaret, married ; Lou- isa, married: Catherine R .. married; Alex- andria, married: Jacob C .. married; Levi S., married ; Ira J., married ; and Anna May, married.
Calvin Coulson was born in York coun- ty, Pa., and was brought to South Middleton township by his father. working with him until his marriage. On Aug. 6, 1876, he married Rachel A. Johnson. daughter of William and Rebecca Johnson. After their marriage the young people lived upon the Coulson farm, and then, after six years, they went West, settling in Kansas with tlie intention of farming, but after six months they returned to Cumberland county, and in 1889, Mr. Calvin Coulson bought the old Sheaffer farm consisting of forty-nine acres, in South Middleton township. Upon this property he and his wife located, and lived very happily until his demise at his home in 1901. He left his widow and one child, Mima, now attending school, a very bright and charming girl.
Mr. Coulson was a man of great energy, a hard worker, and a man universally re- spected. He died in the prime of life, and is deeply lamented by many outside his home circle.
CHRISTIAN DIETZ (deceased), who for many years was one of the representative men of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was born .in
York county, this State, Oct. 3, 1832. He was of German-American origin, being a son of Daniel and Lydia (Stoner ) Dietz, whose ancestors came from Germany and were among the early settlers of the Keystone State.
When Christian Dietz was but five years of age his parents came to Cumberland county, settling in East Pennsboro township, in 1837, with their six children : David, Mary, Zacharias, Christian, Lizzie and Nancy. All are now deceased except Nancy, now Mrs. Martin Brinton.
On Jan. 24, 1856, Mr. Dietz married Miss Elizabeth Wilt, of Cumberland county, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Wilt, both natives of Lancaster county and descend- ants of German parents. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Dietz was blessed with chil- dren as follows: George W. (deceased) married Elizabeth Shuman, and they had three children, Christian S., Frank and Walter. Alice J. married Fred S. Mumma, and . had seven children, Ralph, Milton, Edith, Frederick, Frank, Robert and Will- iam. Rebecca married Frank Basehore, and had four children, Samuel, Mary, George and Mabel. Milton married Flora Schaef- fer, and they had two children, Wilber and George. Catherine married M. W. Hertz- ler, and had one daughter, Cora E.
In politics Mr. Dietz was a Democrat, and served in various township offices, be- ing a conscientious official. His religious affiliations were with the St. John Lutheran Church. At the time of his death he owned four of the best farms in Cumberland coun- ty, having been an active and prosperous farmer for many years. In 1889 he re- moved to Mechanicsburg, where he lived re- tired in his beautiful home at No. 319 East Main street. His death occurred in April, 1902, and the city thereby lost one of its
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CHRISTIAN DIETZ.
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solid, reliable men and excellent citizens, while in his home his memory is ever green. In addition to his other interests Mr. Dietz was president of the Mutual Fire Insurance Co., and in all his operations he displayed the traits of character which gained him success-sterling honesty, steadfastness of purpose and unlimited capacity for hard work.
Since her husband's death Mrs.' Dietz has resided at her home on Main street. where she is surrounded by the comforts provided by his devotion, and dispenses a gracious hospitality to her large- circle of friends, who admire her many virtues. In the Lutheran Church she is a very active factor, and hier charities are many, although oftentimes unknown except to the recipients.
WILLIAM TRICKETT, LL. D., was born June 9. 1840, in Leicester, the capital of Leicestershire, in the heart of England. While he was only in his second year his parents removed to the United States, and settled in Philadelphia, where the son was brought up attending the primary, second- ary and grammar schools, and finally at thirteen, entering the Central high school, from which he graduated in his seventeenth year. When eighteen and a half years of age he became attached to the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for five or six years preached at various points in the States of Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. His health failing about this time he found it necessary to adopt some other avocation, and, relin- quishing preaching, he entered upon a course in Dickinson College, from which institu- tion he graduated in 1868, remaining for one year after his graduation as principal of its preparatory school. In the summer of 1869 he was elected an adjunct professor of
Philosophy in Dickinson College, a position he held for two years. In 1871 he went to Europe, where he remained for sixteen months, traveling and studying in Germany, Switzerland and France. While thus en- gaged in Europe he was elected Professor in Dickinson College, which place he accepted on his return, in 1872, and filled until the fall of 1874, when he resigned it and took up the study of law. He prepared for the law at Carlisle, and was admitted to the Cumberland County Bar in 1875, and to practice in the Supreme Court in 1877. A few years after entering upon the practice of his profession Mr. Trickett turned his attention to the writing of law books, at which he has kept assiduously ever since, and in which line he has won great distinction. In 1881 he produced in two volumes the Law of Liens in Pennsylvania, and in 1891 an additional volume on the same subject ; in 1884 the Law of Limitation and the Law of Assignments; in 1893, the Law of Bor- oughs, to which he added a supplementary volume in 1898; in 1894, the Law of High- ways; in 1900 the Law of Guardians and the Law of Partition; in 1901, the Law of Witnesses ; and in 1904, the Law of Land- lord and Tenant, and at present he is en- gaged on several other important works.
Mr. Trickett never sought office, but in 1891 he was elected to a Constitutional Con- vention, which convention, however, did not meet. In 1898 he was one of the Democratic nominees for Superior Court Judge and re- ceived 412,580 votes, while his colleagues on the ticket received an average of 353.117. His favorite studies in his earlier years were theology and philosophy ; in later years. law, sociology and politics in the Aristotelian sense. He is a member of the American Bar Association ; of the Pennsylvania Bar Asso- ciation; and of the American Academy of
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Political and Social Science: in 1890 De- Pauw University conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.
In 1890 Dr. Trickett was elected dean of the Dickinson Law School, which had then just been incorporated to continue the work of an earlier school originated by Hon. Jolin Reed, a former president judge of the Courts of Cumberland county. He has been dean continuously ever since, a period of thirteen years, during which time 300 lawyers have been trained in the school, who are now practicing their profession in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and other States. Besides the oversight of the school he has, during his incumbency, given lectures ser- eral hours daily on the law of Real Property, Contracts, Evidence. Decedent's Estates, Bills and Notes, Corporations and Constitu- tional Law. During the first year of the school under its charter he did all the teach- ing that was done. The school has, during the fourteen years, reached a maximum of over 100 full students, besides students of the College who have taken a practical law course.
FREDERICK SEIDLE, one of the leading representatives of the manufactur- ing interests of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was born in Philadelphia, Oct. 26, 1825, son of Frederick ( Sr.) and Magdalena ( Bergner) Seidle, both of whom were natives of Wur- temberg. Germany. These parents came to Philadelphia in 1825, where the father en- gaged in 2 produce business, both in that city and Lancaster until 1836, when he re- moved to Cumberland county and purchased a farm in Silver Spring township. There he and his wife spent useful lives, and died firm in the faith of the Mennonite Church. Their family was as follows: Conrad, deceased; Frederick : Martha ; Anne ; Lizzie and Cath-
erine, the latter of whom is the wife of Christian Brenner, of Philadelphia.
Until he was eighteen years of age, our subject remained upon the farm, receiving a limited common school education in Silver Spring township. At the age of nineteen years he came to Mechanicsburg, and served an apprenticeship at the trade of carpenter and cabinetmaker. Although he started out in life with a very small capital, by hard work, good management and honest methods he has made a success of his life. He at- tended the Paris Exposition in 1878, with exhibits of his manufactured material, and received several gold medals. Mr. Seidle also traveled over France, Germany, Eng- land, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland, visiting many carriage and manufacturing establishments, and he took orders enough to keep his business running for over a year.
Prior to the Civil war, Mr. Seidle en- gaged in business with Samuel Eberly, for the purpose of manufacturing wagon mate- rial, such as spokes and other articles per- taining to wagon making, and also hay rakes, sash and doors, and all kinds of building material. About this time he took out patents on what is known as the Seidle hay rake, and later made large sales of it throughout the entire West. In 1860, the partners closed their business, and engaged in bridge building for the United States government. After a year Mr. Seidle returned to Mechanicsburg, and engaged in the manufacture of hay rakes until 1865, when he again embarked in the spoke, hub and wheel industry, from time to. time enlarging his plant, until he is the leader in his line in this locality, and one of the largest in the United States.
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