Eby Christian Eikenberry (1868-1953)

From the Co-operative Manager and Farmer, Vol. VI, November 1916.

  Eby Christian Eikenberry rose to become an honored son of Preble County, Ohio, gaining prominence in that county through several civic and business endeavors. A former president of the National Association of Grain Dealers, Eikenberry entered the political forum as mayor of Camden, Ohio, and later as a Democratic National Convention delegate. In the late 1920s, he was elected to the first of two terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, resigning during his second term. The son of Levi and Rebecca (Eby) Eikenberry, Eby Christian Eikenberry was born near West Alexandria, Ohio on November 21, 1868. As with a number of previous men featured here, Eikenberry's curious first name was given to him as it was his mother's maiden name.

  Both Eby and his younger brother Charles Murray Eikenberry (1875-1938) attended the public schools of Preble County, and both enrolled at the University of Ohio at Athens. Eby Eikenberry left that university in his junior year, and in 1895 took on the post of assistant cashier at the Commercial Bank of Camden, Ohio. He married in Ohio on April 23, 1896, to Anna Baird Phares (1870-1959), and the couple's near six-decade marriage produced one son, William (1906-2002). Eikenberry and his wife also adopted two foster children, Eugene and Enola Appleby.

  Prior to his marriage Eikenberry was elected as Preble County superintendent of education, serving from 1890-95. This would begin a long interest in educational affairs in his region, as he later served on the Camden, Ohio school board and from 1917-22 was president of the Preble County Board of Education. 

  In addition to his later political service, Eikenberry's main area of prominence was his long career as a grain merchant, a business that he first entered in 1897.  He would partner with his brother Charles Murray in the firm Eikenberry Bros. Co., dealing in flour, feed, and seeds. The brothers later added grain to their business, operating two-grain elevators in the towns of Camden and Collinsville. By 1914 Eby Eikenberry had joined another firm, Payne and Eikenberry, which, in addition to having a grain elevator in Collinsville, established another in Hamilton, Ohio.

  In 1912 Eikenberry was elected as president of the Ohio Grain Dealer's Association, and during his four-year term held the additional role of vice-president of the National Grain Dealer's Association, to which he'd been elected in 1914. In 1916 he was elected as president of that organization, and in 1917 was reelected at the group's annual convention held at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo, New York. In his 1917 annual convention address, Eikenberry made note of American entrance into the First World War; federal supervision of grain inspection following the passage of the Grain Grades Act; and the signing of the Food Control Bill by President Woodrow Wilson. During his address, Eikenberry further noted that:

"The history of the past year has no parallel in the records of the grain trade. The industry has undergone radical change in its conduct extending even to principles that hitherto have been regarded as fixed and fundemental. It is impossible to discuss the affairs of the National Association without recognition of the dominating political influences. War and its issues outstand; all else is comparitively insignificant...Crises in world affairs demand of individuals and groups of individuals much of labor and sacrifice of which the quality and importance can only be determined by the character of the finalities in which they are instrumental in shaping." 

Portrait from the Grain and Farm Service Centers, 1917.

  Further business success outside the grain industry would come to Eikenberry with his time as president and vice president of the First National Bank of Camden, and in 1920 was vice president of the Camden Loan and Building Association Co. He later succeeded to its presidency and also held directorships in the Hawthorne Milling Company of Cincinnati and the Ohio Grain Dealer's Mutal Fire Insurance Company. During WWI, he was affiliated with the Food and Drug Administration, serving as chairman of the Grain Advisory Committee.

  Eikenberry first entered the political life of Preble County with his election as county school superintendent, and from 1907-08 served as mayor of Camden. In 1912 he was an alternate delegate from Ohio to that year's Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, where Woodrow Wilson was nominated for president. Eikenberry set his sights on a seat in the Ohio General Assembly in 1930, and after winning the Democratic primary outlined a campaign platform in the Lewisburg Leader, which noted:

"Mr. Eikenberry has repeatedly declared that the farm and small home are bearing more than just their fair share of the tax burden and that every effort should be made in the formation of the new system to equalize the load with that carried by other forms of property. He maintains that this would be the most effective forms of farm relief."

From the Lewisburg Leader, 1930.

  Eikenberry went on to defeat Republican incumbent Arthur H. Morton that November and took his seat in January 1931. While an incumbent legislator, Eikenberry held the additional post of president of the Camden National Bank and in October 1931 was a featured speaker at the Preble County Banker's Association. In 1932 he was unopposed in his bid for reelection, and that November won a second term. Early in the 1933 session, he came out in favor of "measures sponsored by the Preble County Taxpayer's League", and also authored a bill "permitting building and loans to liquidate." In October 1933 Eikenberry resigned his seat due to his appointment as liquidating agent for the Brookville, Ohio Building and Loan Association, and served in that capacity for an indeterminate period.

  After leaving state government Eikenberry continued residence in Camden and in 1939 survived injuries that he sustained after being struck by a vehicle while crossing a street downtown. His later years saw him as a trustee for the Ohio University at Athens, having first been appointed to that board in 1913. He served until his death at the Mercy Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio on May 3, 1953, at age 84. Eikenberry was survived by his wife and children and was interred at the Greenwood Cemetery in Hamilton.

From the Lewisburg Leader, May 7, 1953.