The Eckermann Ranch

Found Photo Project #7

By Eilene Lyon

I found this family portrait in an antique store in Sandpoint, Idaho. The only information on it is a name written in pencil on the back: Arthur Eckermann. I was astonished to discover this is a unique name and found him quite quickly. This does not show the entire Eckermann family, but it was taken on the 440-acre family ranch near Cottonwood, Idaho County, Idaho.

Herman Gottfried Eckermann was born in Germany in 1850 and immigrated to Iowa with his family when he was just four years old.¹ In 1882 he married Helene Christine Rave in Davenport, Iowa.² Helene (the mother on the left side of the picture) was born in Iowa in 1862 to German immigrant parents.³ Therefore their children are of fully German heritage. Three of their sons died very young and are buried in Iowa.⁴

Herman purchased the McCafferty ranch near Cottonwood and moved his family to Idaho in November 1899.⁵ He immediately began construction on the house in this photograph, completed in the summer of 1900.⁶ The Eckermanns had three surviving sons and seven daughters. The youngest, Agnes (next to her mother), was born in Idaho in 1903.⁷

Arthur Eckermann is the boy on the right side of the photograph. According to news reports, Arthur was a champion speller. He and his sisters consistently ranked at the top of their classes in their Cottonwood school district.

Based on the marriage dates of the daughters, I’ve placed this photograph in late summer or fall 1911. Two daughters were married by then and a third would marry the following March.

So, aside from little Agnes, the other girls in the picture are likely to be (oldest to youngest): Adele, Annine, Hilda, and Thekla. Which is which? I don’t know! My best guess is left-to-right: Adele, Thekla, Hilda, Annine. And let’s not forget the doggie next to Agnes.

No photographs of any of the people in this image have come to light on Ancestry or FindAGrave. I also have not found any descendants for now.

Annine married Hellmuth Peter Lage on March 5, 1912.⁸ Nine days later, her father Herman committed suicide by emptying a gun into his abdomen. The news of his death and of Annine’s marriage both appeared on the front page of the same newspaper.⁹ What an odd juxtaposition!

No one could understand why Herman did this. His farm was quite successful and several of his children were married and it seemed like all was well in the household.

The land remained in the family for many years (and maybe it still is). I found a property map from 1939 showing that Agnes and her oldest brother, Edward, owned it.¹⁰ There are no buildings on any of it today, except possibly a pole barn. The house in the photo probably no longer exists.

Helene died in 1930 at age 68.¹¹ Edward never married and live to 78. A son named Gustav (single) died of multiple sclerosis at age 49.¹² Arthur married, had two children, and died of a heart attack at 62.¹³ The daughters all lived into their 80s and 90s, except Johanna (1890-1932) who also died of a heart attack, complicated by peritonitis and appendicitis.¹⁴

All the girls except Agnes, the youngest, had children, so hopefully someday I will be able to reunite this lovely portrait with the Eckermann descendants.

Herman G. Eckermann and family on Ancestry.com

Feature image: Eckermann family on their ranch about 1911. Image size is 8.5″ x 6.5″. (Collection of the author)