California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


HENRY ECKENRODE. � Although but a young man, Henry Ecken- 
rode has had a wide and varied experience. With his keen sense of 
obligation to his country and an enthusiasm for what he believed to be just 
and right he made a most excellent war record, serving with the distinction 
that" is befitting in a son of a prominent pioneer family of western Pennsyl- 
vania. 

He was born at York, Pa., December 2, 1886. His father and mother, 
Joseph and Annie (Keffer) Eckenrode, are residents of Steelton, Dauphin 
'County, Pa., where the father is a boilermaker. His maternal grandfather, 
Andrew Keffer, a member of a pioneer family of Pennsylvania, is sheriff of 
Adams County, Pa., and resides at McChemestown, Pa. 

Of the twelve children of the parental home eleven are living, Henry 
being the fourth child and the only one of the family in California. Henry at- 
tended the common schools of his native state, and learned the baker's trade 
in his native town of York. Going to Philadelphia he obtained a situation as 
baker with the Hamburg-American steamship line on the Steamship Barce- 
lona. He landed at Hamburg and from thence came back to New York, after- 
wards going to Philadelphia, where he enlisted August 10, 1907, in the United 
States Marine Corps for a period of four years. He trained at the Philadel- 
phia Navy Yard, and on December 4, 1907, left for Hampden Roads, Va., 
where he was reviewed on December 16th, by President Roosevelt, and start- 
ed on the cruise around the world. Returning to the United States, he landed 
at San Francisco, in April, 1908, safe and sound, and afterwards went to the 
Philippine Islands, serving at Cavite two years and going thence to China, 
where he was stationed at Peking. Returning to San Francisco in 1909, he 
went to New York and served in the New York Navy Yard. He was honor- 
ably discharged August 9, 1911. After receiving his discharge at Philadelphia 
in 1911 he went to the Panama Canal and took a position on the police force, 
serving eighteen months under General Goethals. Returning to Seattle he re- 
enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to Nicaragua where he served at 
Comito, Manaugua and Bluefields. After serving over two years of his second 
term of enlistment he was honorably discharged by purchase of his time. 

Returning to California in 1917, he became acquainted at Monterey with 
a fair daughter of one of the pioneer families of the Parlier section. Miss 
Hannah Petersen, with whom he was united in marriage' October 18. 1917. 
They are the parents of one child, Bernice C. As the Petersen boys are in the 
army, Mr. Eckenrode rented the twenty-acre Petersen ranch in 1918 and re- 
sides at the Petersen home. Strong, active and energetic, he is again adding 
prestige to his native state by making a name for himself in the Western 
land where he has taken up his abode.