My Genealogy Hound

ALONZO ECKER, contractor, Wilkinsburg, was born in 1854, in Pittsburgh, Pa., where his father, Emanuel Ecker, settled in 1831. The latter was born in 1812, in Cumberland county, Pa., married Mary Ann White, a native of Pittsburgh, in 1832, and died in 1884, a few minutes after casting his ballot for James G. Blaine for president. His father was a Dunkard preacher, and Catharine M. J. Ecker, a well-known writer, is his half-sister. For over forty years he was a prominent contractor in Pittsburgh, and built the Monongahela House, present city hall, many schoolhouses, churches, etc. His wife was a daughter of Rev. John White, a Baptist clergyman, who dropped dead one morning while waiting for the ferry, on his way to preach. His wife’s father,____ Ziegler, was a revolutionary soldier. At one time his wife entertained together in her house her mother, grandmother, daughter and grandson, making five generations. Emanuel Ecker had seven sons and five daughters, Alonzo being the eleventh child. With the exception of nine years, during which the family dwelt on a farm in Armstrong county, his youth was passed in Pittsburgh. When nineteen years old he began to learn the bricklayer’s trade with his father, and has followed it ever since. In 1880 he became a resident of Wilkinsburg, and three years later the building firm of Ecker & Glantz was established. Among other buildings they erected the Presbyterian and U. P. churches at Wilkinsburg, and Pennsylvania Female College and German school buildings in the East End. Mr. Ecker married Ida, daughter of Frederick and Sarah (Terry) Bishop, of Allegheny, where Mrs. Ecker was born, and their children are Harvey F., Laura J., Louisa B. and Chester R. Mr. and Mrs. Ecker are Baptists; he is a member of the I. O. O. F. and Knights of the Mystic Chain.