BIO: James ECKELS, Cumberland County, PA

    Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
    OCRed by Judy Banja

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    >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
    Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 63-64
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    JAMES ECKELS. Nathaniel, Francis and James are favorite names in the
  different generations of the Eckels family. These three were sons of the
  first Eckels who settled in Pennsylvania. Although not proven by documentary
  evidence it is reasonably certain that the father's name was Francis, and
  that he was married twice. Tradition has it that he had six children by his
  first wife, and six by his second, but very little is known of any of them
  excepting the three here named. Nathaniel was born Oct. 2, 1744, and died on
  Sept. 16, 1830. He is buried in Pine Hill graveyard, in Silver Spring
  township. Francis was born in 1751, and died Aug. 13, 1814, and is buried in
  the Old Graveyard at Carlisle. According to tradition Francis was born at sea.
    James Eckels, youngest child of Francis Eckels, Sr., by his second
  marriage, was born Oct. 15, 1772, in Cumberland county. In 1817, he settled
  at or near Fair Haven, Allegheny county, where he married Nancy, daughter of
  John and Esther (Twinen) Cameron, who were early settlers in Washington
  county, Pa. By this marriage he had the following children: James, Jr., John,
  Esther Ann, Robert, Sarah, Amelia and William. John became a Methodist
  Episcopal minister, married Caroline Leech and settled at Cambridgeboro,
  Crawford county, Pa.; Esther Ann married Samuel Donaldson, a farmer; Robert
  married Elizabeth Ramsey, and engaged at farming; Sarah married Perry
  Donaldson, and settled in South Dakota; Amelia married John Gibson,
  capitalist; and William died unmarried.
    In 1832 James Eckels removed to Clarksville, Mercer county, where he died
  Jan. 1, 1860. He and his wife, Nancy Cameron, were both active members of the
  Presbyterian Church, and among the first to be interred in the new cemetery at
  Clarksville. After settling in western Pennsylvania James Eckels became
  effectually separated from his relations in the Cumberland Valley, and it is
  not known that he ever exchanged visits with them. He, however, never faded
  from their memory, and members of the present generation of the Cumberland
  county Eckelses recall having frequently heard their fathers speak of him. In
  1854, a grand-nephew, James S. Eckels, Esq., now of Princeton, Ill., who is a
  grandson of Nathaniel Eckels, taught school in Mercer county, and then met
  him and had several conversations with him.
    James Eckels, Jr., oldest son of James and Nancy (Cameron) Eckels, was born

    64  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

  at Fair Haven, July 11, 1819, and went with his parents to Clarksville,
  Mercer county, in 1832. In 1840 he embarked in the furniture and undertaking
  business at which he continued until 1874. On Sept. 8, 1842. he married Mary,
  daughter of James and Mary (Gaston) Warnock, who were early settlers of
  Beaver, now Lawrence county, Pa. His children were Edwin Dowling; Frances A.,
  who married A. T. Brown; John Warnock; Helen; Amanda Caroline; Emma; Frank
  Cameron; Anna; Walter Howard and Mabel, who married Dr. E. W. Shields. Edwin
  D., Helen, Amanda C., Anna and Emma are dead, as is also Mr. Brown, the
  husband of Frances A.
    In 1881 James Eckels, Jr., and family moved to Pittsburg, and in 1892 he
  and his wife celebrated their golden wedding. His wife died June 14, 1895,
  and he died while visiting his daughter, Mrs. A. T. Brown, at Gallipolis,
  Ohio, Jan. 31, 1899, and with his wife and deceased children is interred at
  Clarksville. His grandchildren are James W., Mary W., Florence and Grace,
  children of Edwin D. and Anna (Wilson) Eckels; Edwin A., Mary E., Harry and
  Louise, children of A. T. and Frances (Eckels) Brown; Robert Bonner, son of
  John W. and Mary (Echols) Eckels, and Margaret and Jean, children of Frank C.
  and Margaret (Paisley) Eckels.