|
Philip Eckardt, one of the original Berczy settlers, lived in a hewn log house on the hill overlooking Unionville. His farm is now part of the Upper Unionville community. He was a prosperous farmer who owned a large amount of property in Markham Township. In 1827, he purchased Lot 10, Concession 6, a township lot that was granted to William Berczy himself. The west 100 acres were deeded to Philip Eckardt Jr., one of Philip Eckardt’s sons. Philip Eckardt Jr. and his wife Susannah Hegler established a farm here and by the mid-1840s constructed a one and a half storey brick house which still stands on its original site at the end of Meadowbrook Lane. One of their children, Thomas Philip Eckardt, became a medical doctor and was a prominent resident of Unionville.
The farm later passed to Edward Eckardt who sold to John Davison, a local merchant, in 1883. An archival photograph shows the house with four gable-end chimneys. In the 1950s the Greenhough family stuccoed the old brick house, which they owned until the 1980s.
|