The Hyphen Family Lineage

Note: Researching the family of Elizabeth (Huffman) Eckert

In the text Christian Metzger: Founder of an American Family 1682-1942 (p178), the passage on Elizabeth reads:

"3. Elizabeth Huffman
b. 4/24-1839, Ohio
m. --- 1856, John Eckert, and had a family of six.
They were Mary, who m. John Campbell; Howard Eckert;
Kate, who m. an Utterback; Lillie who m. --- Hopps;
Ellsworth Eckert; and Fannie who m. --- Wright;
all of whom had children."

I have managed to find records and information for all of her children, though I believe the text to be in slight error in the statement that all six of Elizabeth's children had children, as noted in the entry for her daughter Katherine "Kate" (Eckert) Utterback. (Kate does not appear to have had any surviving children, though there is a fifteen-year gap in the records I have found that could allow for the birth of one or more children to have occurred, assuming they did not survive past youth or adolescence.)

Elizabeth's husband John appears to be a veteran of the Civil War, as his gravesite is marked with a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) insignia. I have not researched the details of his service, though I would guess that this was between the births of his daughter Kate and his son Howard. Given the time of his residences, I would assume he served in an Illinois regiment, possibly in the infantry.

The children and grandchildren of Elizabeth and John spanned the country with their migrations and relocations, and I have not found complete records in a few cases, but the following summary is the best I can present.

- Mary, the oldest, married John A. Campbell and appears to have had only one son (Ralph). I believe Mary and John married in Nebraska, then moved to Colorado, and finally to California, where they are believed to have died sometime after 1930.

- Kate, the second-born, married Thomas Hinman Utterback, likely in Nebraska, and the two of them moved to Springfield, Sangamon Cty, Illinois, where Thomas was in the grocery business. After his death in 1924, Kate appears to have gone to live with her younger brother Ellsworth in Iowa, and after his death in 1928 went to live with her older sister Mary in California. After Mary's death (sometime after 1930), Kate appears to have lived with her younger sister Lillian in Idaho. I have not found a death date or burial location for Kate, though her death must have come some time after 1940, as she was counted in the federal census that year.

- Howard, third-born and oldest son, married Clara Smith and settled in Jasper Cty, Missouri for many years, where they had two daughters. Sometime in their retirement, the couple moved to California, though after their deaths they were buried back in their longtime home of Jasper Cty.

- Lillian, fourth-born child, married Henry William Hops, and the two of them moved to Illinois for some time before relocating to Idaho Falls, where they would remain for the rest of their lives. Lillian had at least three children, one daughter and two sons.

- Fannie, fifth-born child, married Jerrie B. Wright and relocated to Mills Cty, Iowa, where they spent the bulk of their married lives; the two of them had one daughter and two sons.

- Ellsworth, the youngest of the six children, appears to have had the most tumultuous life of the siblings. He married Susan Clime and had two daughters, but appears to have spent most of his adult life estranged from his wife and children. The family moved to Jasper Cty, Missouri early on, and then Ellsworth left for Colorado, where he lived with his older sister Mary while his wife and daughters remained in Missouri. After many years, Ellsworth moved to Iowa where he lived with his older sister Kate until his death.

Note: Potential unaccounted-for grandchildren of Elizabeth and John

In the 1900 US Census for John and Elizabeth's household is a thirteen-year-old girl, designated a granddaughter, with the indexed record reporting her name as "Lula Eckert" and her birthplace given as Nebraska, while her mother's birthplace as Illinois and her father's birthplace is "unknown." (Visual inspection of the original form shows that her name was likely written "Zula," though the handwriting is not entirely clear.) This same girl appears present in the 1910 US Census with John, named "Zula Eckert," aged twenty-two and born in Nebraska, listed as a daughter with both parents' birthplaces given as Switzerland (which was John's birthplace). Eight weeks after that census record was taken, Zula married Ralph Evans Vinton in Mills Cty, Iowa on 21 Jun 1910, and the two of them had two sons (Gordon Eckert Vinton, b. 10 Apr 1914; Keith Evans Vinton, b. 30 Dec 1918). The family resided in Glenwood, Mills Cty, Iowa, for some time before moving to Blair, Washingotn Cty, Nebraska, where Zula died in 1954 with Ralph following many years later in 1980.

My initial assumption was that Zula, bearing the Eckert name, must have been a daughter of one of Elizabeth and John's sons, Howard or Ellsworth - and my thinking was that Ellsworth was the more likely candidate. Seeing that the birthplace for Zula's father was listed as "unknown" on the 1900 US Census, while her mother's birthplace was listed as Illinois, shifted my thoughts to assuming that Zula must have been born to one of the two younger daughters of the family - either Lillian or Fannie. The birth record for Zula's youngest son, Keith, gives her full name as Zula Dale Eckert, so perhaps Dale was her father's surname or given name. Her actual relationship to the family is unconfirmed at this time.

Another potential grandchild who hasn't been accounted for is a sixteen-year-old boy in the household of Jerrie B. and Fannie (Eckert) Wright in the 1910 US Census in Mills Cty, Iowa. The indexed record appears to name him Elius R. Burnside, and a visual inspection of the original form appears to match this listing. His birthplace and that for both of his parents is given as Illinois, and it is worth noting that he was absent from Fannie and Jerrie's household in the 1900 US Census. My first assumption was that he was a son of Jerrie's from a previous marriage, though that made little sense upon inspection - certainly he would bear Jerrie's name and be designated a son instead of a step-son, were that the case.

The next assumption is logically that he was a son of Fannie's from a prior marriage or relationship, and that his surname is that of his father's. There is a gap of fifteen years between the last record I can find for Fannie as a teenaged girl in her parents' household in 1885 and her listing in the 1900 federal census with Jerrie (when Fannie was pregnant with their oldest daughter, Marvel), so it is possible that she was married or otherwise had borne a child in that time. The difficulty in determining this is that I have not found any other record for this boy before or after the 1910 federal census that would allow be to confirm anything about him. As with Zula, his exact relationship to the family of Elizabeth and John is unknown at this time.