Here's notes for my direct line of Eckenrodes. Much of the info was extracted from William
Kirkpatrick's 1987 book on the family.

Johannes Eckroth abt 1709-1757
Johannes Eckroth settled in what is now Lynn Township in Lehigh County, at the foothills of the
Blue Mountain, which formed the extreme northern boundary of the Penn-Indian treaty of 1732.
This general area was christened "Allemangel", meaning "lacking in all things", by Reverand
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg following his vist there in March 1747. He reported:

   "There lived in this locality German settlers, poor and miserable, sadly in need of
nourishment for body and soul. In view of the fact that many of the settlers had removed from
New Hanoverand in their loneliness recalled my services at that place, they earnestly entreated
me to pay them a visit."
   "The conditions I found were deplorable. Many grew up without the benefit of the church or
the school. Others became attached to the so-called preachers who forced themselves upon the
unsuspecting. Still others, who avoided both, became adherents of the Moravians..."

   The earliest records of John and Anna Margaret in America is when they were recorded as
sponsors at the baptism of Margaret Kuhn, at John Kuhn's house at Cedar Creek, on 17 April,
1744. It is most likely that he had arrived in Philadelphia on the 5th of September, 1743, on
the snow Charlotta, John Mason, Master, from Rotterdam, last from Cowes, and took the oath of
allegiance to the government at the courthouse in Philadelphia.
   Besides "Johannes Ickroth", a Henrich Eckenroth was also listed among the passenger on the
Charlotta. He has been considered to be a brother, and settled in Lancaster, where he married
Susanna Steissen. James Eckenrode, editor of "The Democrat" of Pocahontas, Iowa, and his first
cousin Joseph Farabaugh, of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, in 1927 gave voice to what appears to
have been a family legend that "John Eckenrode" with one brother and five sisters came from
Germany. Nothing has been found of the five sisters.
   The exact location within Philadelphia County where John and Anna Margaret settled and lived
until 1752 is not known. On Novermber 1, 1752, John placed an advertisment in Christopher
Sower's newspaper that read "Johannes Eckroth, Allemangel, Berks County, in the Blue
Mountains".
   Four years later, on November 22, 1756, after the conference with Chief Teedyuscung and the
Minisink Indians at Easton (November 8th to 17th), Lt. Col. Conrad Weiserset out to inspect
Fort Franklin, located over the Blue Mountain, north of Albany Township, Berks County, and Linn
Township, then Northampton County. Two days later, on November 24, 1756, he made the following
report by letter to Governor Denny:

   "I took my leave of them and they of me very canditly. Capt. Arnd sent an escort with me of
twenty men to Fort Franklin where we arrived at three o'clock in the afternoon (22 November,
1756) it being about 14 miles distant from Fort Allen. I saw that the fort was not tenable, and
the house was not finished for the soldiers and that it could not be of any service to the
inhabitant part there being a great mountain between them. I ordered Lt. Engel to evacuate it
and come to the south side of the hills himself with 19 men at John Eberts, Esq. and the rest
being 16 men more at John Eckenroad's both places being about 3 miles distant from each other
and both in the township of Linn, Northampton County."

   Between April 28 and May 28, 1757, some six months after the detahcment of 16 men under Lt.
Engel's command were stationed at John Eckenroad's, he was killed - "shot dead" -  by the
Indians while he was in the fields plowing. His burial site has not been found, but was
probably on his home farm.
   In the June 1, 1764, accounting of the estate, his widow, Anna Margaret, included a
disbursement after July 1763 of 4 pounds 5 shillings "for her son's expenses who was a prisoner
among the Indians". Although it is not known how and when (or which son) was taken prisoner, it
probably did not occur at the time of his father's death as there is no reference to it in the
accounts of the shooting.
   Anna Margaret never remarried and continued to live on the family plantation until 1785. On
April 11, 1764, she purchased 105 acres of land adjoining to the south, which she on November
1, 1784, conveyed to her son Christopher. Sometime after May 8, 1785, she with her son Henry,
her daughter Mary Elizabeth and their families moved to Paradise and Berwick Townships in York
(now Adams) County, where she died on September 6, 1790, and was buried in the Conewago
Catholic Cemetery.

Christopher Eckroth abt 1742-1813
   On August 7, 1777 “Stofel Eickenroth” of Lynn Township, Northampton County subscribed to the
“Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity to the State of Pennsylvania”. Other subscribers on the same
day were his brother George and his brother-in-law Frederick Lutz. During the Revolutionary
War, Christopher served in 1778 as a Corporal in Captain Matthias Probst’s 6th Company, 3rd
Battalion of the Northampton County militia. This was the same unit in which his brother George
served as Private 6th Class and his brother-in-law, Frederick Lutz, served as Sergeant.
   On April 27, 1779, at the age of about 36 years, Christopher married Anna Margaret Henrich,
widow of John Weibel. Her father was Christian Henrich, who had arrived in America on September
21, 1742 on board the “Francis and Elizabeth”. His home, at Spitzenberg, in Berks County, was
used as a Mass House for that area by the Catholic priests from the Goshenhoppen Mission at
Bally. Christopher and Anna Margaret had only three children, Peter, John and Elizabeth, all
born in Lynn Township.
   About 1784 or 1785, Christopher’s mother, Anna Margaret, and his older brother Henry moved
to York County. Before leaving, they sold two tracts totaling 186 acres to Christopher. On
March 27, 1802, he sold the property to Jacob Donat and moved temporarily to Albany Township in
Berks County. On May 20, 1806, he purchased 205 acres of land in Chillisquaque Township in
Northumberland County, joining his nephew Adam who had settled there between 1796 and 1800.
Christopher’s plantation was located at the northern base of the Montour Ridge which today
forms the southern boundary of Liberty Township, Montour County, probably in the southwestern
corner of the township.
   The 1810 census shows five households, son Peter, Christopher, son John, son-in-law George
Miller and nephew Adam living side by side in Chillisquaque Township. Christopher’s nephew
Jacob was included in the household of his son Peter. Shortly afterward, Jacob married and
established his own household.
   Christopher and Anna Margaret’s dates of death are unknown, but Christopher’s will was
written August 15, 1811, and probated on March 8, 1813. In his will he left his real estate
equally to his sons, with the condition that they support their mother for the rest of her
life. She may not have lived much longer, for in April 1817 John, Peter and their sister's
husband George Miller all sold their property in what was by that time Liberty Township,
Columbia County, and by December 1817 all had moved to Westmoreland County.

Peter Eckenrode 1780-1858 m Anna Maria Eck b1778
   On November 26, 1798, at his father ‘Stophel’s’ house “near the Blue Mountains”, Peter
married Anna Maria Eck. The couple was still living in his father household two years later,
according to the 1800 census.  When his father sold the home plantation in Lynn Township in
1802, Peter accompanied him, first to Albany Township, Berks County, and then, after about
1808, in Chillisquaque Township, Northumberland County.  There, on July 19, 1810, he purchased
a 28 acre tract of land from Daniel Montgomery and wife and established his own farm. By this
time he had seven children, and his unmarried cousin Jacob was helping out on the farm while
boarding there.
   By December 1817, Peter, his brother John and his brother-in-law George Miller sold their
properties and had moved to Unity Township in Westmoreland County. Sometime between the 1820
census and August 1822, Peter and his family made another move to Allegheny Township in Cambria
County.  On August 16, 1822, he made an agreement with his son, Peter, Jr., whereby in return
for certain of his father’s personal property his son bound himself to “support of his father
and mother in meat, drink, clothing and lodging for the rest of their natural lives.” In 1824
their eleventh, and last, child, Susan, was born in Allegheny Township and baptized by father
Demetrius Gallitzin at St. Michael’s Church in Loretto.
   On April 1, 1825, Peter Jr., probably with his father’s financial assistance, purchased a
100 acre farm from his first cousin once removed Christian Bever. This tract of land called
“Clover Hill”  had originally been granted to Robert Owings and was located on the southwest
side of the “Proprietor’s Manor”. In accord with the agreement this tract became the homestead
of Peter Sr., his son Peter Jr. and the rest of the family. On June 30, 1838, Peter Jr. sold
the remaining 78 acres to his brother Daniel and Henry, and moved to set up his own independent
household elsewhere in the township.
   The 1840 census shows Peter Sr. as head of a household which includes his wife Mary, sons
Daniel and Henry, and daughter Susan. Although Peter Sr. was listed as ‘head of household’,
title to the property was in the name of his sons.
   Peter died on November 24, 1858 at the age of 78, and is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery in
Loretto. The date of his wife’s death is unknown, but she did not appear in the 1860 census.
Since Peter had very little personal property and no real estate, it was probably not deemed
necessary to go through probate procedures, as no probate papers have been found.

Mary Eckenrode 1810-1892 m John Stevens abt 1810-1894
   Mary was born in 1810 in Chillisquaque Township, Northumberland County, and accompanied her
family on it’s migration through Westmoreland County to Allegheny Township, Cambria County,
where on September 14, 1830 she married John Stevens. He was born about 1799, the son of
Aloysius and Elizabeth Notburga Stevens.
   When John’s father died about 1833, his widowed mother Notburga  remarried on May 29, 1834
to widower Jacob Eckenrode, Mary’s first cousin once removed, and migrated to Reading Township,
Perry County, Ohio in 1837 or 1838 with her other children by Aloysius.  On May 20, 1855,
Notburga and the other heirs sold and released 10 acres, 140 perches of land in Allegheny
Township, previously owned by his father, to John Stevens. In the 1860 census, Mary’s brother
Henry was living in their household.