Biography of John Joel Eakright, pages 586/587/588.  History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



John Joel Eakright



	An enumeration of those men of the present generation who have 
won honor and public recognition for themselves, and at the same time 
honored the locality to which they belong, would be incomplete were 
there failure to make mention him whose name forms the caption of this 
sketch.  The qualities, which have made him one of the prominent and 
successful men, for his career has been one of well-directed energy, 
strong determination and honorable methods.

	John Joel Eakright was born on March 15, 1852, in Wilmington 

township, DeKalb county, Indiana, about two miles south of Butler, and 
is a son of Abraham and Susannah (Miller) Eakright. Abraham Eakright 
was born in Wayne county, Ohio on December 30, 1827.  His father Samuel 
Eakright, was a native of England and came to America in 1811, and soon 
after enlisted in the service of the United States in the war of 1812, 
settled in Ohio and there married Mary Maxwell, a native of Ireland. In 
1836 they moved to DeKalb county, settling in Wilmington township, 
where he died in 1853, and his wife in 1872.  They had a family of 
thirteen children. When the family first moved to DeKalb county, their 
only neighbors were Indians, and it was eighteen months before Mrs. 
Eakright saw a white woman.  Their trading point was Fort Wayne, or 
Lima, reaching the former place by pirogue boating on the river.  None 
of Samuel Eakright’s children are now living and John Joel Eakright, 
the subject of this sketch, is the oldest member of the family.  
Abraham Eakright was married on June 19, 1851, to Susannah Miller, a 
native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and the daughter of Joel and 
Sarah (Eichelbarger) Miller, who came to DeKalb county in but 1847, 
locating four miles east of Auburn in Union township, where he bought a 
farm and lived during the rest of their lives.  The Eakright family 
took a prominent place in the early life of this locality and Samuel 
Eakright built the first bridge across the St. Joe river at Newville, 
where the new bridge now stands.  He was also the first road 
commissioner of DeKalb county.  Of the children of Abraham and Susannah 
(Miller) Eakright, John J. is the subject of this sketch; Sarah A. is 
the wife of Lewis Manrow and lives north of Sedan; Edward W. is 
deceased; Mary Alenora is the wife of William J. Hoagland, of Auburn, 
and Ellsworth A. lives on the old homestead in Wilmington township.  
Abraham Eakright’s family was unbroken for over forty years. He was a 
faithful and earnest member of the Untied Brethren church until his 
death, which occurred on December 31, 1891, on the day following his 
sixty-fourth birthday anniversary.  His life was long and useful, and 
he enjoyed the respect and esteem of all who knew him.  His wife, 
Susannah, was born May 28, 1831, and came from Pennsylvania to Richland 
county, Ohio with her parents, where they remained until about 1847, 
when the family came to DeKalb county. She, too, was a member of the 
United Brethren church from the age of sixteen years, and lived a 
sincere and faithful Christian life until her death, which occurred on 
April 6, 1904, in the seventy-third year of her age.

	John Joel Eakright was reared on his father’s farm and received 
his education in Butler and the high school at Auburn. In the fall of 
1873 he began teaching school and continued this vocation successfully 
until 1885, when he compiled a history of DeKalb county. Resuming his 
pedagogical work then, he continued it until he had taught twenty-three 
years, of which period  eighteen years was in his home district, and in 
later years he taught many children of former  pupils, and in these 
children he plainly observed traits of character that had been 
noticeable in their parents.  He had a good influence over these 
children, winning them and then stimulating them by kindness and 
argument rather than by force.  Because of the personal interest he 
manifested in his pupils and the close touch that has been maintained 
between him and them during subsequent years, he receives many letter 
of grateful appreciation from them and is today numbered among the 
successful educators of this county, though he has not been actively 
engaged in the profession for a number of years.  In 1884 Mr. Eakright 
was elected justice of the peace for a term of four yeas, and in 1895 
he was elected trustee of Wilmington township, serving the regular term 
and the extension period because of legislative enactment, amounting to 
a total of five years and three months.  In 1905 he was elected county 
surveyor, serving two terms with eminent satisfaction to all concerned, 
and was subsequently elected city engineer of Butler, but, owing to an 
injury received in a runaway accident, which disabled him after about a 
month of official service, he gave up the position and returned to 
Auburn, where he has since resided.  He is the owner of a splendid farm 
of one hundred and six and one-half acres in section twenty, Wilmington 
township, from which he derives a gratifying profit. Politically, Mr. 
Eakright is a Republican and takes a keen interest in the success of 
his party, as well as in local public affairs, giving his support to 
every movement, which promises in any way to advance the local welfare.

	On October 28, 1874, Mr. Eakright married Acelia Treman, who was 
born in Wilmington township about two miles west of Butler, the 
daughter of Edgar and Laura (Spencer) Treman.  These parents, who were 
both natives of Medina county, Ohio, were married there and came to 
DeKalb county in about 1841.  With Edgar Treman came John Treman, his 
father.  John Treman entered quite a tract of land and divided it among 
his children. Edgar owned eighty acres of land and there lived the rest 
of his life.  He was a farmer and also shoemaker, and his wife was in 
pioneer days considered an expert weaver.  Edgar Treman served as 
township trustee and was otherwise strong in his community, which was 
honored by his citizenship up to the time of his death, which occurred 
on May 21, 1885.  His wife was a good faithful woman, trained in the 
pioneer school of life and experience and knew how to work and rear a 
family successfully in the midst of difficulties which would deter the 
average woman of the present day and she gave to her children the best 
years of her pure, noble life.  Her death occurred in 1863.

	To Mr. and Mrs. Eakright has been born one son, Orton Edgar, 
whose birth occurred on September 9, 1877, and who was for many years 
in the employ of the Overland Automobile Company at Toledo, but is now 
a tester for the Auburn Auto Company.  He married Louise Bard.  John 
Joel Eakright is a man of marked literary taste and ability, and has 
written a number of poems, which have been published in current 
magazines and periodicals and which have received many commendatory 
words of praise.  He writes for pasttime rather than as a means of 
profit and has written by request a poem for the reunion of the Eighty-
eighth Indiana Volunteers.  It was greatly appreciated and copies 
distributed as souvenirs of the reunion.  His poems are varied in 
character, pathetic, humorous and other styles and all are very 
readable and of high literary merit.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com