Peter Eckrich — the Waldsee butcher

2 January 1864 – 30 March 1942

Peter Eckrich was an immigrant from Waldsee, Germany, who arrived in America at seventeen and set up as a butcher on Lewis Street in Fort Wayne. In 1894 he opened his own meat market; by 1907 the business had moved into wholesaling, and in 1925 it incorporated as Peter Eckrich & Sons. The last retail store closed in 1932, and the house stood thereafter as a wholesale packing company. A Quest Club paper tells the company's origin differently — a start in Peter Eckrich's kitchen in 1908 — and the Business record carries the two accounts side by side rather than choosing between them; the 1894 market is the documented founding. Eckrich died on 30 March 1942 and is buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Fort Wayne. One genealogy rendering gives his birth as 21 January 1864 against the 2 January date the company's and the genealogical society's accounts carry. The company's papers survive as the Eckrich Company Collection at the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center. The firm's course — the plants, the Armour years and the Smithfield era — is the Business section's.

Sources:

1. Businesses — "Peter Eckrich & Sons" (the 1894 market, the 1907 wholesaling move, the 1925 incorporation, the 1932 retail close, and the Quest Club 1908 kitchen account stated as a conflict).
2. Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana (ACGSI), people and timeline pages — the 2 January 1864 birth, the arrival at seventeen, the 30 March 1942 death and Catholic Cemetery burial, and the Eckrich Company Collection at the ACPL Genealogy Center.