[p. 824] architect, at New Castle, with offices on the sixth floor of the L. S. & T. Building, has been a resident of this city for the past eighteen years. He was born in Perry Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1866, and is a son of R. M. Eckles, whose death occurred at New Castle, in 1906.
Mr. Eckles' father was a very prominent citizen of Lawrence County. He was born in Perry Township, Lawrence County, in 1843, and was a son of William Eckles, who was a pioneer settler. R. M. Eckles was a general contractor and builder. He served three years in the Civil War and was a member of the noted "Round Head" regiment, of which all Pennsylvanians had reason to be proud on account of its brilliant achievements. R. M. Eckles served six years as auditor and six years as County Commissioner of Lawrence County. Mrs. R. M. Eckles, the mother of W. G. Eckles, was a daughter of Dr. George Welsh, and the great granddaughter of James L. Welsh, a soldier of the War for Independence and one of the founders and one of the first elders in Mt. Nebo Presbyterian Church at Whitestown, Pa.
W. George Eckles attended the public schools and Grove City College and then entered Duquesne College at Pittsburg, where he took a course in architectural drawing. For three subsequent years he taught school and then worked at his profession in Pittsburg for three years. In 1893 he embarked in business for himself, locating at New Castle. Specimens of his taste and skill may be seen in many of the important buildings there erected after his designs, among which may be mentioned the New Castle High School Building, and also three public schools at Johnstown, the High School Building at Butler, the residence of Hon. T. W. Phillips, the Home National Bank of Union City, the gymnasium and boys' dormitories in the State Normal School at Edinboro, the Almira Home for Aged Ladies, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church at Chicago. He is a director in the Union National Bank of New Castle and is a director in the North Highland Land Company.
In 1895 Mr. Eckles was married to Miss Nina H. Henderson, born at New Castle, whose mother, Mrs. Robert Henderson, was a daughter of the late Major James Patterson and a great-granddaughter of Captain John B. Clendenin, an honored soldier of the Revolutionary War. They have three children: Robert Arthur, Mary Louise, and Donald Henderson. With his family he belongs to the United Presbyterian church in which he is an elder and a trustee. He takes considerable interest in politics and is a stanch adherent of the Republican party. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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