My Genealogy Hound

JOHN W. ECKERT. The manufacturing interests of Lehigh County are ably represented by the American Cement Company, of which our subject is Superintendent and Acting President. The headquarters of the factory are at Egypt, and the firm was incorporated with John M. Wilcox, of Philadelphia, as President; R. W. Leslie, of that city, Secretary and Treasurer; and John W. Eckert, Superintendent and Acting President. They own and operate four plants, known as the Egypt Portland Cement Works, the Pennsylvania Portland, the Columbia Portland and the Jordan (N. Y.) Portland Cement Works. The latter plant is located on the Erie Canal at Jordan, twelve miles from Syracuse, and the other three factories are operating in Egypt. The average capacity of the works in this place is about fifty thousand barrels of cement per month, and the plant in New York averages about five thousand barrels per month. The four factories combined employ about six hundred men in their different departments, and they are all fitted out with the best methods of machinery.

Our subject was born in Allentown, this state, March 13, 1859, and is the son of Charles and Emma Eckert, the former of whom is deceased, and the latter making her home at present in the above city. He was given a fine education in the public schools, where he was prepared to enter Lehigh University. While a student in that college he took a full course in analytical chemistry, and also made a special study of engineering. He was graduated from that institution in 1878, and, having made a study of the analysis of cement, wrote an essay giving an analysis of the raw material as found in Lehigh County for the manufacture of cement, and comparing it with foreign cement.

Shortly after leaving college our subject became associated as chemist with David O. Saylor, the pioneer Portland cement manufacturer of America. He remained in that capacity for about two years, and afterward accepted the superintendency of the works, remaining in the employ of Mr. Saylor until 1885. That year he became interested with the present company, of which R. W. Leslie and he were virtually the originators.

Charles Eckert, the father of our subject, was a miller by trade, in which branch of business he was engaged in Allentown, and at the same time was the proprietor of a large mercantile establishment in that city. At one time he was associated with Tinsley Jeter, of Bethlehem, in operating the ore beds of Whitehall Township. Our subject was a stanch Republican in politics, and has been very successful in life from a financial standpoint. Industry and enterprise are numbered among his chief characteristics, and he can certainly look back upon a busy life and feel that his labors have not been in vain.