John P. Eckart
John P. Eckart is a man whose
initiative ability and progressive business policies have
made him an influential figure in connection with the
banking business and other lines of enterprise in his
native village and county, and he has made a splendid
record in connection with the development of the
substantial business controlled by the Guttenberg State
Bank, of which he was the virtual founder, as he was the
promoter of its organization, in the year 1900, and has
served as its efficient and popular cashier from the time
of its incorporation to the present. Its original board
of directors included also the following named and
representative citizens: Henry Eckart, Thomas S. Ives,
John Wolter, James E. Corlett, and Henry Brandt. The bank
was incorporated with a capital stock of twenty-five
thousand dollars, and its first executive corps. was as
here noted: President, Thomas S. Ives; vice-president,
John Wolter; cashier, John P. Eckart. For the
accommodation of the new institution a substantial and
modern building of two stories and basement was erected,
and the same is owned and utilized by the bank with the
second floor equipped and rented for office purposes. The
personnel of the executive officers in the year 1916 is
as here designated: President, Henry Eckart;
vice-president, Thomas S. Ives; cashier, John P. Eckart;
assistant cashier, Oscar B. Eckart. In addition to the
president and vice-president the present directorate
includes also Henry Brandt, F. X. Wollers and H. J.
Overbeck. The administration of the affairs of the
Guttenberg State Bank has been marked by circumspection
and progressive policies, though its business has been
directed at all times along careful and conservative
lines. Its total deposits are now nearly $400,000, and
its surplus fund is twelve thousand five hundred dollars.
It is one of the substantial and well ordered financial
institutions of Clayton county and its upbuilding
reflects special credit and distinction upon its able and
popular cashier.
John P. Eckart was born at Guttenberg, his present place
of residence, and the date of his nativity was May 17,
1864. He is a son of Henry and Dorothea (Benecke) Eckart,
both natives of Prussia, in which part of the great
German Empire the father was born in Braunweiler
Kunznacht and the mother in Seehausen, Kingdom of Saxony.
. Henry Eckart was reared and educated in his native
land, where he learned the trade of blacksmith, and in
1852 he immigrated to America. He remained in the State
of New York for some time and on the 9th of April, 1856,
he established his home at Guttenberg, Clayton county,
Iowa, where he engaged in the work of his trade and
established one of the pioneer blacksmith shops of the
county. He assisted in the erection of the first bridge
across the Mississippi river in this locality and he
continued in the work of his trade for nearly half a
century, his retirement from the same having occurred in
1892. He has long been one of the honored and influential
citizens of Guttenberg, his integrity being as sturdy as
the vocation which he long followed, and he has
contributed his quota to the civic and material
development and upbuildingof Clayton county, where his
circle of friends is limited only by that of his
acquaintances. Mr. Eckart is living virtually retired,
though he is president of the Guttenberg State Bank. His
political allegiance is given to the Republican party, he
served as a member of the village council for a long
period and was the resourceful and loyal mayor of
Guttenberg for several terms. He is a zealous communicant
of the Lutheran church, as was also his wife, who was
summoned to eternal rest on the 10th of October, 1894. Of
their children the eldest is Henry C., who is a
representative citizen of Guttenberg; Ida remains with
her venerable father in the pleasant home at Guttenberg;
John P., the immediate subj ect of this review, was the
next in order of birth; Augusta is the wife of Francis X.
Wolter, of Guttenberg; Herman is a resident of Salt Lake
City, Utah; Clara is the wife of Frederick J. Brezinsky,
of Mankato, Minnesota; and Oscar B. is assistant cashier
of the Guttenberg State Bank.
After making effective use of the advantages afforded in
the public schools of his native village John P. Eckart
completed a business college course. Under the direction
of his father he gained facility in the work of the
blacksmith trade, and he worked in his father's shop five
years, after which he was employed as clerk in a
mercantile establishment at Lemars, Plymouth county,
until 1889. For two years thereafter he was a commercial
traveling salesman for the house of Hood, Bonbright &
Company, of Philadelphia, and he next passed about a year
as salesman in a leading mercantile establishment in the
city of St. Paul, Minnesota. He then returned to his
native village, where he erected and placed in operation
the Excelsior mill, in 1892. He continued in control of
this industrial enterprise for the ensuing eighteen
months and then engaged in the banking business at Brush
Creek. Fifteen months later he sold his interest in this
business and returned to Guttenberg, where he engaged in
and developed a specially successful clothing business.
In 1900 he organized the Guttenberg State Bank, to the
executive affairs of which he has since given the major
part of his time and attention, though he is serving also
as treasurer of the Guttenberg Canning Company, in which
he is one of the principal stockholders. Mr. Eckart is a
staunch advocate of the cause of the Republican party and
while he takes a lively interest in public affairs of a
local order he has not sought official preferment, though
he served several terms as township treasurer. As a
progressive and public-spirited citizen Mr. Eckart
assisted in the organization of the Upper Mississippi
Improvement Society, of which important organization he
is serving as treasurer. In 1906 he was concerned in the
organization of the National River & Harbor Congress,
in the city of Washington, and he has taken lively
interest in the work of the organization. On the 31st of
July, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Eckart to
Miss Linnie K. Bormann, daughter of August and Mena
(Kottman) Bormann, of Elkader, this county. The four
children of this union are: Olga D., who is the wife of
Eugene Eberhard, of Guttenberg; and Una M., Ages G., and
Ila H., who remain at the parental home.
source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg.
101-102
-submitted by S. Ferrall
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