BIOGRAPHIES

Source:
History of Berks County, Pennsylvania
 in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783,
by Morton L. Montgomery,
Vols. I & II,
publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets,
1894

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	CONRAD ECKERT was born at Longasalza, in the Kingdom of Hanover, Feb. 6, 1741.  During that year his father, John Eckert, emigrated from the place named to Pennsylvania, and settled in Heidelberg township, Lancaster (now Berks) County.  He was brought up at farming, and when a young man became a blacksmith, which he pursued for some time.  When the Revolution began, he was one of the active Associators of the county.  As such he commanded a company which was raised in Heidelberg township, and became a part of the 1st Battalion, commanded by Col. HENRY HALLER.  This battalion marched to service in New Jersey in December, 1776, but the companies left and returned home without permission, because they had not been paid according to the terms of their enlistment.  Captain Eckert is the "Captain Echard" mentioned by Gen'l. Israel Putnam as one of the captains who informed him that "their companies had run away to a man, excepting a lieutenant, sergeant and drummer."  His company afterwards formed a part of Spyker's Battalion, and participated in the campaign at and about Germantown and White Marsh during the Fall of 1777.  In this service, he was wounded in the battle at the former place, and his health in consequence became so impaired that he never fully recovered.  Subsequently, in 1778 and 1780, his company was connected with the 4th Battalion of County Militia.      Upon his return from military service, he carried on farming on the Eckert homestead, near Womelsdorf, until his death, Aug. 25, 1791.  He was married to Elizabeth Hain, a daughter of ____ Hain, in Heidelberg township, by whom he had seven sons, John, Peter, George, David, Daniel, Solomon and Conrad, and two daughters, Catharine (married to Henry Copenhaven), and Barbara (married to Daniel Reeser).  His remains were buried in the graveyard connected with Hain's Church.      Col. Valentine Eckert was an elder brother. Source:  History of Berks County, Pennsylvania in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783, by Morton L. Montgomery, Vols. I & II, publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets, 1894 - Page 224
Valentine Eckert	VALENTINE ECKERT was born at Longasalza, in the Kingdom of Hanover, in 1733.  He came to America with his parents in 1741, who settled in the Tulpehocken Valley at a point east of where Womelsdorf is now situate.  He was naturalized in September , 1761.  In June, 1776, he was one of the ten members of the Provincial Conference who represented Berks County in that important body; and in July following, he was selected as a delegate from the county to the Provincial Convention which was assembled for the purpose of framing a new government founded on the authority of the people.  In 1776 and 1779 he represented the county in the Provincial Assembly.  He was a resident of Cumru township and a blacksmith by occupation.  He offered his services to the Government in the Revolutionary War, which were accepted, and he commanded a company of cavalry Associators for a time.  He and his company participated in the Battle of Germantown, in October, 1777, where he was wounded.  He was appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the county on Mar. 21, 1777, and served in this office until his promotion to Lieutenant of the County in January, 1781.  He continued to act as Lieutenant until the close of the war.  While serving as Sub-Lieutenant, he also acted as a commissioner for the purchase of army supplied.      In 1784, he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the county and occupied this office for a term of seven years, when, by the Constitution of 1790, a president judge of all the courts was appointed to take the place of the several judges.  In the Pennsylvania Militia, he was brigade inspector for the county from Apr. 11, 1793, for a period of 20 years.  About the year 1816, he moved to the State of Virginia, and died at Winchester in December, 1821, in the 88th year of his age. Source:  History of Berks County, Pennsylvania in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783, by Morton L. Montgomery, Vols. I & II, publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets, 1894 - Page 223
George Ege	GEORGE EGE was born Mar. 9, 1848, and settled in Berks County about the year 1774, when he became the sole owner of the Charming Forge, a prominent industry then situated on the Tulpehocken Creek, in Tulpehoken (now Marion) township.  During the Revolution he was an ardent patriot and supplied the Government with large quantities of cannon balls.  He represented the county in the General Assembly for the years 1779, 1780 and 1782.  Upon the adoption of the State Constitution of 1790, he was appointed an Associate Judge in 1791, and he served continuously until 1818, a period of twenty-eight years, when he resigned to devote his attention entirely to the management of his extensive business in the manufacture of iron.      In 1804, he was the largest manufacture and land owner in the county.  Then he owned and carried on the Charming Forge with 4000 acres, Berkshire Furnace with 6000 acres, Schuylkill Forge, near Port Clinton, with 6000 acres, and four large farms in Tulpehocken and Heidelberg township, together containing 1000 acres.  In 1824, the assessed value of all his property was near $400,000.      He died at his home on the Charming Forge property, Dec. 14, 1829, aged nearly 82 years.  He had been actively engaged in business from 1774 to 1825, a period exceeding half a century, and for some years after he had reached the age of three score and ten.  His remains were interred in the cemetery connected with Zion's Church at Womelsdorf.  His daughter Rebecca was married to Joseph Old, a prominent iron master who carried on the Reading Furnace in Chester County, and a son Michael was married to Maria Margaretta Shulze, who was a daughter of Rev. Emanuel Shulze.      Judge Ege was distinguished for great kindness of heart and humane impulses.  Among his possessions heart and humane impulses. Among his possessions were many slaves, numbering about forty, and he was always known to treat them with much consideration.  Occasionally renegade slaves from the South found a comfortable home with him and also employment at one or other of his iron industries.  A trusty slave, by the name of Tom Nelson, is particularly remembered for his integrity and devotion to the interests of his master, the Judge, having frequently been intrusted with large sums of money which he carried from Charming Forge to the bank at Reading.  Judge Ege was then a director in the "Bank of Deposit,"  The first bank at Reading.  When Washington stopped at Womelsdorf in 1794 on his way to Carlisle, during the excitement growing out of the "Whiskey Insurrection," Tom was especially desirous of driving his master to Womelsdorf, not only to enable the Judge to pay his compliments to the great Revolutionary hero and first President of the United States, but to afford himself the opportunity of seeing him.  Judge Ege was personally known to Washington on account of his patriotic spirit during the Revolution, and of his prominence as a large manufacturer of iron, cannon balls, & c. Source:  History of Berks County, Pennsylvania in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783, by Morton L. Montgomery, Vols. I & II, publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets, 1894 - Page 225