The Eckstein Family
ELEANOR ECKSTEIN
Soon after her arrival in the village Eleanor began educating the local Negro children.
At first she taught them in a barn located at the back of her home.
When, in 1870, the village of Glendale rented a building near Lake Hannigan from C. L. Lundy to serve as a school room for the local Negro children, Eleanor began teaching there. This school was known locally as “the ice-house school.”
Eleanor continued teaching the local Negro children until she retired in mid 1879.
MARY (ECKSTEIN) KINMONT
Mary was the eldest of the three Eckstein sisters. In 1829 she married Alexander Kinmont, a brilliant Scottish scholar and devout Swedenborgian, and together they ran the Kinmont Academy, a private school for boys, in downtown Cincinnati.
In 1837 – 38 Alexander presented a series of lectures called the Natural History of Man. It is believed that Harriet Beecher Stowe, the American abolitionist and author of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, who lived in Cincinnati at the time these lectures were given, was influenced by Kinmont’s philosophy.
After Alexander’s death in 1838, Mary continued the Academy alone, until she moved to Glendale with her sisters and daughters.
ELEANOR KINMONT
In October 1877, Eleanor Kinmont founded an organization called the Monday Class, which still exists in Glendale to this day. The goal of the Monday Class was the intellectual improvement and recreation of its members. Under Eleanor’s leadership, this group dedicated itself to the study of a single subject for the entire year. Eleanor died on Christmas Eve 1910.
JANE KINMONT
Jane was Glendale’s first librarian. She worked in the Lyceum’s library, which was open to all Lyceum members and to any child of the village who paid the yearly dues. Until Hamilton County Public Library began to visit Glendale with its Bookmobile the Lyceum library was the only source of circulating books in village. Jane was also one of the original members of the Monday Class.
The Eckstein sisters descended from an interesting group of individuals, whose influence is still felt today.
