Isaac Eckert

Isaac Eckert, Ironmaster, and Bank President, was born in the village of Womelsdorf, Berks county, Pennsylvania, in January, 1800. He was a son of Peter Eckert, a farmer and merchant of prominence in that neighborhood, and grandson of Valentine Eckert, who served in the Revolutionary War as Captain of a troop of cavalry. The privations and hardships he endured during and after the battle of Germantown resulted in an illness which shortly afterward terminated in his death. The maiden name of his mother was Brown, a member of a well-known family then resident in the vicinity of Erie, Pennsylvania. He received his elementary education in the schools of his birthplace, and completed his studies in the Grammar School of the University of Pennsylvania, at that time presided over by the venerable Dr. Abercrombie, of Christ Church Parish, Philadelphia. Before he had attained his majority he, in co-partnership with his elder brother, William, succeeded to the mercantile business of their father, and, about the year 1828, the brothers removed to Reading, and continued in the same occupation until 1836, when he retired from that connection and became associated with his younger brother, Dr. George N. Eckert--a gentleman of extensive scientific acquirements, whose attention was early directed to the development of the rich mineral resources of Schuylkill county, and who for a series of years ably represented that district in the Congress of the United States--and devoted his time and means to the manufacture of iron. In 1842-'44, the "Henry Clay Furnace"--one of the largest anthracite furnaces that, until then, had ever been projected in the State--was erected at Reading under their joint proprietorship. In 1855, another furnace of like extent was added to this upon an adjoining site. Both are still standing, and working with a capacity of 140 to 150 tons each. At the decease of Dr. Eckert his brother purchased his interest in these iron works, and continued their sole proprietor up to the spring of 1873, when he relinquished his active interest in them to his two sons, Henry S. and George B., by whom they are now carried on under the firm name of Eckert & Brother. In 1838, he was elected President of the Farmers' Bank of Reading, a State institution, since reorganized under the National Banking Laws with the title of the Farmers' National Bank, which office he held without intermission until his death, covering a period of thirty-five years. His eldest son, Henry S., has succeeded him in this position. He was also President of the "Country Bank Association," composed of the National banks east of the mountains, for eight years. In 1852, he was chosen President of the Leesport Iron Company, in which he was one of the principal stockholders, and of which he continued to act as the executive officer up to the time of his decease. He was a very considerable land-owner in Berks and Schuylkill counties, and his investments were uniformly safe and remunerative. He was one of the founders of the Berks County Agricultural and Horticultural Society, and for many years its President; in which capacity his early experience and subsequent thoroughly acquired knowledge of all matters pertaining to agricultural science were of inestimable advantage in promoting the objects for which that Society was established; and it is mainly to his lively interest and disinterested exertions in the direction of its affairs that its present flourishing condition, second to that of no similar association in the State, is due. It was his special pride to see the best breeds of horned cattle and other live stock, and the choicest varieties of standard fruits, introduced upon the farms of his native county, and the benefit of his assiduous efforts to these ends were made visible in the superior specimens of such stock and products which, during his administration, always constituted a chief attraction of the Society's annual fairs. He was selected by President Grant as one of the Commissioners to the Vienna Exposition of 1873; and was appointed, by Act of the Forty-second Congress, one of the two Commissioners from his District for the organization of the Board of Finance under which the Centennial Exposition for 1876 was undertaken. In the spring of 1867, and also in 1873, in fulfillment of his Commission to the Austrian Capital, he made extensive tours through the principal countries of Europe, and added materially to the fund of practical information upon all subjects worthy of the study of an educated American gentleman, which he made it one of the aims of his active and useful life to acquire. He was no politician or office-seeker, in the low sense in which these terms have come to be applied, but he always took a warm interest in the success of the political principles in which he had been reared, and to which he adhered through life-first as an old-line Whig, and afterwards as a loyal Republican. His influence and wealth were freely used for the benefit of his party, and during the War of the Rebellion he contributed liberally of his means toward the success of the Union arms. He was a Delegate to the National Convention at Chicago, in 1860, when Mr. Lincoln was nominated to the Presidency for his first term, and was one of the Presidential Electors for this State in 1864. Politically he was universally respected, and personally he was esteemed by men of all parties for his many admirable traits of private character. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and one of the two Wardens of Christ Church, Reading, which the Bishop of the new Diocese of Central Pennsylvania has accepted for his Cathedral. He was a liberal contributor to the Endowment Fund of this Diocese. He was prominent and zealous in all the enterprises of a literary, benevolent and charitable character of the city whose best interests he always had at heart, and gave generously toward their support. Plain and unostentatious in his deportment, he was distinguished for a cheerfulness and suavity of disposition and a winning courtesy of manner in his intercourse with his fellowmen, which won for him the affectionate regard of all who enjoyed his acquaintance. He possessed all the inbred qualities of a gentleman of the old school, and was a universal favorite in social and domestic life. To the young, particularly, he was invariably kind and sympathetic, and manifested his interest in their welfare by friendly counsel and valuable assistance. By many who were thus made the recipients of his paternal attention, he will be long remembered with feelings of love and gratitude. He retained the full possession of his mental and physical faculties, to a remarkable degree, to the very close of his well-spent life; and died, almost without a struggle, after an illness of only two days, on the 13th of December, 1873, having nearly completed his seventy-third year. He was married, in 1826, to Judith, daughter of Dr. Hahn, of Montgomery county, originally of Philadelphia, who survives him. His heirs are the two sons already named, and a daughter, the wife of P.R. Stetson, of New York. As a memorial of a justly loved and revered parent, they have donated to Christ Cathedral, in his name, a full chime of ten bells, weighing over five tons, which have been placed in the beautiful Gothic tower of that edifice. The appropriateness of this tribute is heightened by the fact that, upon various occasions during his latter years, he had expressed a desire to see the original design of the architect of the Cathedral, in constructing a bell-tower over its facade, carried out.

Source: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1874, pp. 332-333.

Contributed by: Nancy.