1925 Biography - Victor H. Eckard

Victor H. Eckard, who is successfully established in the work of his profession as a consulting and manufacturing chemist, with well equipped offices and laboratory in the Wieck Building in the City of Baton Rouge, is here receiving a representative support and is rendering an efficient service of distinct commercial value.

Mr. Eckard was born in Haseldorf, Holstein, Germany, January 6, 1879, and is a scion of one of the representative Danish families of that section. His paternal great-grandfather was a sugar planter in the Danish West Indies, now known as the Virgin Islands. His grandfather was educated in Eaton. England, and was during his later life an official at the Danish Court. Anatol Eckard, father of him whose name introduces this review, was born in Denmark, in 1848, and there he was reared and educated. He became well educated, with college training, and in Holstein, a part of Denmark prior to German aggression, he became administrator of a large Danish estate. In 1900 he resigned this position and established his residence at Doberan, Mecklenburg, Germany, where his death occurred in 1912. He was a conservative in politics, and he and his wife were communicants of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Eckard, whose maiden name was Theresa Kauert, was born on the island of Femarn, in 1833, and was in Berlin, Germany, at the time of her death 10 1918. Of the children the eldest is Fritz, who served in the German army in the World war and who is now engaged in the practice of law in Denmark; Victor H., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Fannie is the wife of Capt. Ernest Stever, who was a captain in the German navy in the World war, and they now reside at Wilhelmshafeil, Germany; and Anna Marie resides near Cobleltz, Germany.

Victor H. Eckard attended the gymnasiums of Ploen and Glueckstadt, in Holstein, and after this preliminary education he was a student in three of the great European universities, those of Greifswald, Heidelberg and Kiel, in the last mentioned of which he was graduated in 1900 with the degree that marked him as a Fellow of the Association of Chemical Manufacturers. Thereafter he took a postgraduate course in chemistry at Zurich University in Switzerland, and in 1903 he came to the United States. He landed in the port of New York City and thence went to Burlington, Iowa, where he remained a short time. In January, 1905, Mr. Eckard came to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and took special work in chemistry at the University of Louisiana. His services were then retained as a sugar chemist, and his service was in Cuba and Porto Rico as well as Louisiana, where he became well known as superintendent of sugar factories, he having made numerous trips hack and forth. Since January, 1923, he has been independently established in business as a consulting and manufacturing chemist in the City of Baton Rouge.

As a naturalized citizen of distinctive loyalty and appreciativeness Mr. Eckard has identified himself with the democratic party, and his interest in the welfare of his home city is indicated by his active membership in the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. Here also he is a member of St. James Lodge No. 47, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

January 18, 1906, recorded the marriage of Mr. Eckard and Miss Pattie Brian, daughter of Capt. E. F. Brian, who is secretary and treasurer of the Louisiana State Board of Pension Commissioners and who is the subject of a personal sketch on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Eckard have a winsome daughter, Yvonne, who was born December 23, 1917.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 194-195.