The Eckermann Addition

Found Photo Project #7-B

By Eilene Lyon

Last September I shared this portrait of the Eckermann family on their Idaho ranch. I said that I hadn’t found any other images of the family, but I was incorrect.

I purchased two other photos in the same store at the same time. The name Eckermann does not appear on them and the handwriting on the back is different than the one labeled “Arthur Eckermann.” I pulled these two images from my files to begin working on them and was astonished to find the two couples already in my Found Photo family tree on Ancestry.

It turns out, the women in these photographs are Arthur Eckermann’s sisters! I believe the writing on the back of these two portraits was done by Arthur’s daughter, Evelyn (Eckermann) Osborne (1931–2012). The wedding portrait is labeled: Aunt Del Lute / Dads sister. “Del” is Adele Gulematine Eckermann (1889–1961), shown with her husband, Harrison Franklin Lute (1871–1947).

In the ranch photo, I pegged the woman to the right of the young girl as being Adele. It may be her or she may be the next one to the right. She and Harrison married on November 30, 1915 in Idaho County, Idaho.¹ Harrison was a rancher, a lifestyle Adele knew well.

The family portrait is Wilhelmina “Minnie” Marie Eckermann (1885–1970) with her husband, Peter Jurgen Hardwig Reuter (1877–1957), also a farmer. Their two boys are Carl (1907–1996) on the left and Herman (1905–1990) on the right.

Minnie and Peter married on March 7, 1905, so I assume she was not part of the 1911 Eckermann ranch picture.² However, one of her younger sisters must have been her spitting image, because the girl next to Arthur looks just like Minnie must have looked a decade earlier.

This portrait is labeled on the back: Uncle Pete—Aunt Minnie Reuter / Carl & Herman. The handwriting is the same as the Lute marriage portrait. Peter Reuter’s younger brother, Carl Reuter, married Minnie’s younger sister, Johanna Eckermann in 1910, so there were a number of Reuter double cousins banging around Idaho County, Idaho, in the early 20^th century.³

There is much more research to be done on the Eckermanns, but I have contacted a descendant who will hopefully be happy to re-home these three lovely portraits.

Feature image: Reuter family portrait and Lute wedding portrait.