Biography of William Eckert, pages 122 / 123.  History of Northeast Indiana; 
LaGrange, Steuben,     Noble, and DeKalb Counties, Vol. II, under the 
editorial supervision of Ira Ford, Orville Stevens, William H. McEwen, and 
William H. McIntosh. The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 
1920. 

   William Eckert. While there is now the fourth generation in the house 
of Eckert in DeKalb County.  William Eckert of Locust Dale Farm in 
Fairfield and a brother, Jacob H. Eckert, of Kendallville, belong to the 
second generation, being the only surviving children in the family of 
Sebastian Eckert, who located in Fairfield March 28, 1855, and since that 
time Locust Dale has been the family homestead.
   The present owner of Locust Dale, William Eckert, was born there June 
8, 1864, and his life has all been spent in one place, and his own 
children have had his childhood environment.
   There is Scotch, Welsh and German blood in the family. However, his 
father, Sebastian Eckert, was one of six children brought by their mother, 
Mrs. (Pfeiffer) Eckert, from Germany.  Their father, Peter Eckert, died of 
a fever in March, 1830, and in May of that year the mother and her 
children embarked for America.  They were three months on the Atlantic, 
landing in August.  She located in Franklin, Pennsylvania, and from there 
the family scattered, the mother finally going to St. Louis.  Sebastian 
was her only son.  The oldest daughter died in childhood.  The other 
four sisters were Elizabeth, Margaret, Eve and Barbara.  Sebastian, 
Margaret and Barbara all lived in DeKalb County, Elizabeth being the wife 
of John Sthair, a blacksmith, and Barbara the wife of Jerome Reynolds, a 
cabinet maker. Both these men once operated shops in Fairfield Center.  
All the family now lie buried in the Fairfield Cemetery.
   December 14, 1848, Sebastian Eckert married Susan Cox, daughter of 
Jacob and Jane (Denman) Cox of Wayne County, Ohio.  She was one of  nine 
children: Eli, Mary, Susan, Freeman, Andrew, Rebekah Jane, Alpheus, Samuel 
and Newton.  Three of them, Susan, Eli and Andrew, were later citizens of 
DeKalb County, and they lie buried at Fairfield.  The children of Sebastian 
and Susan Eckert were Elizabeth, Jacob, Margaret, Amiel, Alice, Florence, 
William, Belle, Luther, Kate and Spencer, the only two living today being 
mentioned above.  These children all had a common school education. The 
family were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  All but the two 
surviving brothers died before marriage. There are today only five voters 
in the Eckert family in DeKalb and Noble counties, and this  vote is cast 
solidly in the interests of the democratic party.
   William Eckert and Miss Mary M. Ringer were married June 8, 1886, which 
was his twenty-second birthday and the eighteenth birthday of the bride.  
They were married at the home of her parents in Richland Township. She was 
a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Wright) Ringer, whose family history of 
DeKalb County goes back to 1853, when they came from Stark County, Ohio.  
Jacob Ringer as an Ohio shoemaker had earned the money with which he 
brought his farm in Indiana.  He was the only son of George and Mary 
(Herbster) Ringer.  He had five sister, the oldest dying before the birth 
of the others.  The four to grow up were Mary, Susan, Leah and Margaret.
   The six children born to William and Mary Eckert are: Blanche R., wife 
of C.W. Getts; Ethel, who died at the age of eleven days;  Roswell, who 
married Irene Stomm and has a son, Donald Cecil; Imo, who was buried 
February 24, 1815, just one year from the date of her marriage with John 
Berkes; Granville J., who married Charlotte Bonbrake and has a son, 
William Louis, the first born in the fourth generation of the Eckert 
family in DeKalb County; and Martha Belle, the youngest daughter. The two 
grandchildren of Eckert household are William Louis and Donald Cecil.
   Roswell and Granville and their cousin, Russell Eckert of Garrett, were 
all young men under the draft.  Granville was temporarily exempted because 
he was engaged in agriculture.  Roswell had military training at Camp 
Taylor, Camp McClellan and Camp Grant.  He was battery clerk and was 
advanced to the grade of corporal when the armistice changed the prospect 
of so many young American soldiers.  Russell Eckert was at Fort Thomas.  
The Eckert children were all given the same educational advantages, and 
Granville and Martha have diplomas from the common schools.
   Sebastian Eckert, founder of the family in Indiana, died at the family 
homestead September 6, 1890, while his wife lived on until March 19, 1919, 
and had survived to welcome the two grandchildren of the fourth generation.
   The farm buildings at Locust Dale were built in the reconstruction 
period following the Civil war, when there was an abundance of native 
timber, and the farmstead today is one of the well kept places in 
Fairfield Township.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com