Anthony Eickhoff

Gerhard Anton Eickhoff (September 11, 1827 – November 5, 1901) was a German-American journalist, editor, author, lawyer, Congressman from New York, United States Treasury auditor, and New York City Fire Commissioner.

He was born in the rural hamlet Kaldewei, part of the village of Benninghausen, Prussia, today suburbanized into Lippstadt, Northrhine, Westphalia, Germany. His parents Caspar Eickhoff (1803–1867) and Maria Catharina Trockel (1803–1863) and their forefathers were peasants in the hamlet Kaldewei, born in serfdom to the Cistercian Cloister of Benninghausen (founded in 1240, secularized in 1804), but ultimately released from serfdom by the Grand Duke in 1809.

After his school education he started to work as a teacher in Lippstadt and publicized radical writings in pre-revolutionary Prussia until 1847. In 1847 he decided to emigrate to the United States and boarded the ship Itzstein & Welcker sailing from Bremen on October 24, 1847 and arrived in New Orleans on January 6, 1848.

He married Louise Elisa Neuenschwander around 1855. She immigrated from Switzerland to the United States. Their children were Henry Eickhoff (January 17, 1856 – October 17, 1933) and two daughters. Anthony Eickhoff's grandson was lawyer Henry Eickhoff, Jr. (February 17, 1898 – August 12, 1954).

His first employment was as deckhand on a Mississippi steamboat, later he became a teacher in a Jesuit school in St. Louis and studied law. Early he began to work as journalist, founder and editor of several German newspapers. In St. Louis, Missouri he was founder and editor of St. Louis Zeitung in 1848 and 1849. In Dubuque, Iowa he edited Der Nordwestliche Demokrat, later named Iowa Staatszeitung, from 1849 to 1850. In Louisville, Kentucky it was Der Beobachter am Ohio, edited 1850–1852. Finally he settled in New York City: he edited Die Abendpost in 1852 and New Yorker Staats-Zeitung from 1854 to 1856. He became naturalized in 1855 and practiced law.

During the civil war he served as Commissary General of Subsistence for the State of New York troops, appointed in 1863. In 1864 he was elected to the New York State Legislature. In 1876 he was elected as Democrat to the 45th Congress as a representative of the 7th district of New York (March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1879), but was an unsuccessful candidate in re-election to the 46th Congress in 1878. Later he was Fifth Auditor in the United States Treasury Department from August 1, 1885 to May 17, 1889.

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