JOHN F.
EBERHART
Source: Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois with Portraits 3rd. ed. revised and extended (Chicago: Calumet Book & Engraving Co., 1895), pp. 151-154.
JOHN FREDERICK EBERHART, fifth child of Abraham and Esther Eberhart (nee
Amend), was born January 21, 1829, at Hickory, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, his
early years being busily spent upon his fathers farm, situated in the then
new-settlement region.
In 1837 he moved with his parents to Big Bend (on the Allegheny), in
Venango County, Pennsylvania, still occupying himself with agricultural pursuits, save in
winter, which time was given over to district schools. At sixteen he left school, becoming
himself a country pedagogue, his first charge being located at the mouth of Oil Creek
(near Franklin), Pennsylvania, where, after the manner so eloquently depicted by Eggleston
in The Hoosier Schoolmaster, he boarded round and received
his few dollars per month for teaching the young idea how to shoot.
The following year he took advanced tuition in drawing, writing and
flourishing, afterward teaching these accomplishments to others. After some further
schoolteaching, and having himself completed the curriculum of the Cottage Hill Academy at
Ellsworth, Ohio, he entered Allegheny College, in 1849, whence he graduated July 2, 1853,
having, like many another contemporary who has since made his mark, worked his
way through college by teaching and working upon farms. He always took a leading part in
his classes, as well as in many field sports, outlifting, outjumping and outrunning all
his several hundred classmates. Perhaps we may allow this to speak as a prophecy of later
superior achievements. In oratory he was proficient, as is sufficiently attested by the
plaudits of the several thousand auditors who attended his Fourth of July oration near his
old home at Rockland, Pa., two days after his graduation.
The succeeding fall he assumed the duties of Principal of the Albright
Seminary at Berlin, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. This first institution of letters
founded by the Evangelical Association developed and prospered under his fostering care.
And here a digression is briefly made in order to call attention to the fact that the Rev.
H. W. Thomas, now pastor of the Peoples Church, Chicago, was a pupil of his at this
time.
The first serious disappointment in his life work, as Mr. Eberhart had
first planned it, occurred after two years confinement over school duties, at which
juncture several consulting doctors of medicine prognosticated a growing consumption,
which he could not outlive beyond a few months at the furthest. Packing up his
possessions, he set his face toward the great West, a country destined to give him that
abundant measure of renewed life which he has since spent in the interest of others as
well as himself. April 15, 1855, was the date of his first coming to Chicago, at which
time in the then Muddy City he remained only a short interval, on his way to
Dixon, Illinois, where for a time he edited and published an early newspaper, called the
Dixon Transcript. About this time he also prepared and delivered lectures upon
chemistry, natural philosophy, meteorology and astronomy, they being among the first
popular lectures to be illustrated by practical apparatus. He also at this period traveled
for New York publishing houses, and was largely instrumental in establishing
district-school libraries in the state. But, best of all, in this invigorating climate,
with its changes of diversified labors, attended by abundance of outdoor sports and
healthy exercises, he regained and fortified that healthful virility which through more
than three and a-half decades has amply sufficed to keep him well engaged in honorable
pursuits; until at this writing, through untiring self-efforts, he stands prominent and
time-honored among the early educators of Illinois and the West.
On locating in Chicago, he purchased and for three years edited and
published, The Northwestern Home and School Journal, interspersing such labors
by lecturing before and conducting teachers institutes, not only in Illinois, but
also in other western states, coming thus into personal contact with the leading educators
of the day, such as Elihu Burritt, Henry Barnard and Horace Mann.
He was elected Superintendent of Schools of Cook County in the fall of
1859. This office he uninterruptedly held for ten years, during which time he earnestly
labored to arouse a unanimity of interest and enthusiasm of which our local school history
affords no parallel. Our free schools in the county up to this time had never been under
proper supervision, and were when he assumed the duties in a neglected condition. But he
began a thorough systematic visitation of schools, conferring with teachers and directors,
organizing institutes, etc.; until, finding it impossible to secure otherwise the services
of adequately qualified teachers, he began his agitation for a county normal school, and
with such success, that in 1867 a school was opened at Blue Island, through provisions
made by the Board of Supervisors. This school, since removed to Normal, has grown to be a
power in the land, being sought by many pupils coming from long distances, and always
having a large attendance roll. Among other noteworthy acts we may call to mind the
following: Mr. Eberhart was among the organizers of the Illinois State Teachers
Association, the first seventeen consecutive sessions of which he attended; he assisted in
establishing the State Normal University, and in making many valuable changes in the state
school law, including the original act authorizing counties to establish normal schools,
and was the principal mover in forming the State Association of County Superintendents,
which chose him for its first President. As President of the County Board of Education, he
was the means of introducing the kindergarten into the Cook County Normal
School, and also aided in establishing the system of free kindergartens in the city.
During all this time he was a member of the American Institute of Instruction, as well as
one of the first life members of the National Teachers Association. Mr. Eberhart
received many overtures to accept professorships and presidents chairs in some of
our leading institutions of learning, but he always declined, principally because he did
not again wish to risk his health and life in such work.
Always imbued with a liking for travel and outings, and with generous
tastes for a liberal, rational enjoyment and improvement of life and its grand
possibilities, after a quarter of a century spent as before briefly indicated, he set
about accumulating a fortune out of real estate. At the time of the panic of 1873 he was
esteemed one of the millionaires of the city. However, through joint interests with
others, which he had to settle, he lost his possessions, but is now again a wealthy man,
and is content in making a wise use of his powers and gifts, being a liberal parent and
husband, and munificent in charity donations.
Personally Mr. Eberhart is rather slender, but well proportioned, six feet
in stature, of affable manners, positive in opinion, Republican in politics and of deeply
religious convictions.
Christmas Day, 1864, the subject of this sketch was married to Miss Matilda
Charity Miller, a daughter of Joseph C. and Mercie H. Miller, of this city. This most
estimable lady was born in Toronto, Canada, but in infancy was brought to the United
States, where, prior to her marriage, she became a prized teacher. She has become the
tenderest of mothers, and full of thoughtful kindnesses toward unfortunates in life. Six
children have blessed their union, namely: Maude Winifred, born November 1, 1866, and who
died February 11, 1873; John Joseph, born September 8, 1870; Frank Nathaniel, December 17,
1872; Mary Evangeline, April 3, 1875; Grace Josephine, June 4, 1877; and Wilfred, June 12,
1881, and who died December 26, 1882.
A brief genealogy of the family is here added:
The name has been variously spelled, Everhart, Everhard, Eberhardt,
Eberhard and Eberhart being the most common forms. Such changes of patronymic spelling are
by no means unusual in German descendants living upon American soil; but Eberhart is
believed to be the most general, as well as correct, English orthography, and is used by
the branch which is the subject of this sketch.
This family, which from 1280 to 1723 (a period of four hundred and
forty-three years) gave birth to counts and dukes reigning over the province of
Wurtemberg, is of Swabian (Bavarian) German origin. Through the middle ages its numerous
descendants have figured very conspicuously in the history of that country and the
advancement of civilization. As a generation they have lived ahead of their respective
years; have been a martial, well-educated, honorable and religious branch of the human
race.
One Eberhart rendered invaluable assistance to Martin Luther, hero of the
Reformation, since which era most of the families have belonged to the Lutheran Church. Of
its many men of letters, space permits a reference only to Johannes August Eberhardt,
friend of Frederick the Great, Privy Councilor to the King of Prussia, member of the
Berlin Academy, one of the greatest scholars of the eighteenth century, who composed many
able treatises, some of them authority to this day.
Of the sovereigns of this family, whose deeds and virtues are celebrated in
prose and verse (the lyric king of German song, the immortal Schiller, pausing in
Parnassian flights to do them homage), we must chronicle how Duke Eberhard the
Noble, Duke Eberhard the Groaner (or Rushing Beard), Duke
Eberhard the Mild, Duke Eberhard with the Beard, Duke Eberhard the
Younger, Prince Eberhard and Duke Leopold Eberhard were some
of the most noted rulers springing from the loins of this famous race.
The first above was the founder of the royal line, being the most daring
warrior Wurtemberg has ever produced, of whom it is written:
Then spoke Eberhard the Great,
Wurtembergs beloved lord,
No great cities boast my state,
Nay, nor hills with silver stored.
But one treasure makes me blest,
Though the days are fierce and dread;
On each subjects loyal breast
I can safely lay my head.
Eberhard ! cried one and all,
And meekly before him bowed,
Thou art richest of us all!
And their praise rang long and loud.
The grandson of The Noble was The Rushing Beard.
whose episode connected with the fatal conduct of his son Ulrich is famed in art,
compositions thereupon being hung in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington (District of
Columbia), in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and two canvases in the Museum of Rotterdam;
while in Wurtembergs capital is a life-size statue in marble of The Rushing
Beard, which is among the first objects of interest to attract the attention of the
visitor.
Intermarriages were made with such leading families as the Ulrichs,
Rudolphs, Henrys, Fredericks, Hartmans and Ludwigs, whose names are occasionally found in
the line of rulers, when a male heir was wanting to the Eberharts; or, perchance a female
sovereign for a time appears, as in the case of the Duchess Henrietta, widow of Eberhard
the Younger.
With the death of Charles VI, Emperor of Germany, in 1740 passed away the
glories of the House of Hapsburg. At this era the Eberhardts also ceased to reign in
Wurtemberg, being dethroned partly by their own injudicious counsels and conduct, but more
especially by the then growing ascendancy of the Catholics. This was the time of
self-expatriation of many of their line in quest of better fortunes, together with the
civil and religious freedom of the New World.
In 1727 three brothers, Michael, Peter and Joseph came to Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Of these, Michael Eberhart came from Germany in the ship Friendship,
John Davis master, landing in the City of Brotherly Love October 16, 1727. He had a son
Paul, born during the voyage to America, who lived in Northampton County, Pennsylvania,
until 1773, when he removed to the Manor Settlement near Greensburg,
Pennsylvania. He had a third son, Christian, who married Anna Maria Snyder, of his native
place, where he died in 1849, at the advanced age of seventy-seven. He had a second son,
Abraham, who was born December 28, 1797, and who married, August 22, 1820, Esther Armend,
of New Salem, Pennsylvania. At twenty-five he removed into the wilderness of Mercer
County, Pennsylvania, where he cleared a farm and erected a sawmill on the Little
Neshannock. He afterward lived in Illinois and Iowa, and was the first to take up
residence in the suburb of Chicago Lawn, October 2, 1877. He died August 7, 1880, and was
interred in Rose Hill Cemetery. He was a man of great good sense and stanchest probity.
From him descended a fifth child, John Frederick Eberhart, the subject of the foregoing
sketch.
Submitted by Sherri Hessick on May 27, 2007.
DISCLAIMER: The submitter is not related to the subject of this biography nor is she related to anyone mentioned in the biography.