My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM EICHBAUM. William Eichbaum, one of the most prominent of the early citizens of Pittsburgh, was born at Monte Cenis, Burgundy, June 25, 1787, and died at his residence, 139 Wylie street, on Sabbath morning, Dec. 30, 1866, in his eightieth year. His father, William Peter Eichbaum, came to the United States just before the French revolution. His life had been an eventful one. Born at Altenach, Saxony, his wife an English woman, having eight children born to them, he had immigrated to Burgundy, at the invitation of Louis XVI, to assist in establishing glass-manufactories in that province. Having immigrated to Philadelphia in 1793, he crossed the Alleghany mountains in 1797, and became a resident of Pittsburgh and manager of the glassworks just then erected by O’Hara & Craig below Jones’ ferry, on the south bank of the Monongahela river, thus standing among the foremost of the pioneers, and notably of the German pioneers of the immense business now carried on in Pittsburgh and vicinity in the manufacture of glass. The son, William, from being the first apprentice to the bookbinding business in Pittsburgh, in the establishment of Cramer & Spear, became a partner in the firm. Before steamboats were invented he voyaged with Mr. Cramer to Louisville in an open boat. The firm connected printing and book-publishing with the bindery, thus furnishing reading matter to the new settlements. Tales, religious works and books of travel were among their publications, copies being still occasionally met with. Mr. Eichbaum was deeply concerned for the business prosperity of his adopted city, and freely invested his means in enterprises which would bring to it commercial advantages, in the commission business with S. F. Von Bonnhorst, in the Point Steam Mill Cracker Bakery, and in the foundry business with Mr. McHendry. He was also a stockholder in fire-insurance companies in Pittsburgh.

But beyond question the most important of the business enterprises in which he was engaged was that of securing the slackwater navigation of the Monongahela river. Without it, Pittsburgh could never have made such rapid strides in growth and business prosperity as it has. It is in part the realization of that dream which Washington fondly indulged in, of uniting the navigation of the Potomac with that of the Ohio. As early as March 24, 1817, an act was passed authorizing the incorporation of a company. But the majority of the citizens, at that early day, regarded those who advocated such a scheme as little short of lunatics. But Mr. Eichbaum was one of those who never yielded in his devotion to an enterprise which he regarded as feasible, and which would prove useful to the public. Hence, he allowed no discouragement to daunt him in his efforts, and with his associates, Thomas and John P. Bakewell, Morgan Robertson and Alfred Curling, he was unceasing in studying the methods of procedure, and in preparing for the public press skillfully devised paragraphs which should lead the minds of his fellow-citizens in its favor. Finally, after the lapse of twelve years, in 1829, a survey of the project was authorized, and seven years later, in 1836, the final act of incorporation was passed, and what at the outset had been regarded as a wild and visionary scheme became a reality, leading in its train prosperity and riches untold. In recognition of his valuable services in bringing the enterprise to a successful issue he was honored with the position of the first president of the company after its permanent organization.

Mr. Eichbaum enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the public in a remarkable degree. He was of the committee appointed by the citizens for the reception of Lafayette on his visit to Pittsburgh in 1824. For many years he was the efficient head of the fire department. On the occasion of the centennial celebration of the birth of Washington he was made chairman of the committee to conduct it. From 1822 to 1833 he held the position of postmaster of Pittsburgh, and it was while holding this office that his generous and accommodating disposition won for him that endearing esteem which he continued to enjoy through life, and which has been the theme of extravagant panegyric among those who recall his goodness of heart since his death. He was elected to and retained in each branch of the city councils as long as eligible, and then transferred, by the votes of the people, alternately for twenty-two consecutive years. In 1858 he was elected city treasurer, and held the office until his decease, in 1866, a period of eight years. To return to his business relations, in the great fire of April 10, 1845, Mr. Eichbaum, who was now possessed of an ample fortune, was stricken with almost overpowering force, losing nearly everything he had. “He met the consequences, however,” says a writer of the public press at the time of his death, “with fewer regrets than would be possible to most men. He had large resources in his conscious honor, in the esteem of his fellow-citizens, the companionship of his thoughts, books and friends, a mind stored with principles and facts, and trained to reflection, and large and practical views of divine providence, which enabled him to discern blessings in the disguise of adversities. His experiences of Christianity were, though private, eminently devout. Accustomed to private devotion, and expressing his freedom from the fear of death, since Christ was such a Savior, he had been long accustomed to look on his dissolution with composure.”

Mr. Eichbaum displayed marked inventive genius. To his active brain is due the machine that supplied faint-ruled letter-paper in the west. At first he was unable to prepare his ink properly to take the right effect. Befriending an expert bookbinder from the old world on his way to Louisville, who knew the secret, but who was bound by his profession to guard the knowledge, or only to impart it on payment of a stipulated extravagant price, he said to Mr. Eichbaum: “I cannot reveal the secret, and you have not the money to pay for it; but you have acted the good Samaritan by me, and I will give you a hint. Mix with your ink a certain small part of a very large animal.” For many days his brain was racked to know what that “small part of a very large animal” could be. Passing through the market one day he bethought him of oxgall. Procuring one and incorporating it with his ink, it caused it to fly and be diffused over the paper. He finally had the secret. Mr. Eichbaum also discovered the secret of manufacturing Russia sheet-iron, and held the patent-right of the planished rolls, but, owing to his advanced age, never made use of the invention. In conjunction with Henry McCarthy, he introduced the exceedingly useful invention of patent locks, used in the Sault Ste. Marie ship-canal, the Monongahela slackwater, and the dams of Green and Duck rivers, Ky.

In closing this brief notice we quote, from the writer above referred to, the following paragraph: “His venerable form has long been a landmark in our community to a younger generation of citizens that have grown up around him, while so many of those who were his contemporaries, and who with him helped to create the history of these two cities, have passed away before him. For sixty years of active manhood he has been identified with the wonderful developments of Pittsburgh and its vicinity. He lived here, as boy and man, seventy years. He came when ten years old, when Fort Pitt was a small outpost of civilization, containing but ninety-seven houses. He saw it expand into a great and populous mart of civilization, commerce and manufactures, and was among the foremost of the men of his generation who helped by their intelligence and enterprise to make it such, and to create the wealth that employs and feeds these hundreds of thousands. Looking back over this long and eventful history, he could have said, with AEneas, ‘Omnia vidi, pars fui.’”