I have been a Barber County resident since my marriage to Seigfred C. 
  Eckert in 1914. I was born at Pratt, Kansas, in 1892, the sixth of eight
  children. My parents, Nathan and Margaret Smith, came to Pratt from
  Indiana and lived there until the Cherokee Strip was opened; and we then 
  homesteaded just southwest of Kiowa. I and my brothers and sister, Frank,
  Fred, Cleve, Daisy, Emma, Ralph, Jerry, and Tempest, all grew up there.
     My husband, Seigfred, was born in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1883, and
  moved to northwest of Hardtner with his parents, Geroge and Sophia Eckert,
  and one sister and brother, Hilda and Walter, when he was three years old.
  Three other children, Alexander, Julius and Frieda were born in Barber County.
     My husband told the story of his father bringing the first kaffir corn
  to this country. After settling his family here, he took his fiddle and was
  gone for some time. When he returned he brought a small sack of kaffiercorn
  from Egypt and planted it, giving it to settlers as they passed through.
     After our marriage, we lived in Barber County, southwest of Kiowa, then
  east of Kiowa. Mr. Eckert was a rural mail carrier for some time, carrying
  the mail first with a horse and buggy, then a motorcycle, and finaly a car.
  Due to a back injury he was forced to quit the mail route. We lived south-
  west of Hardtner on a farm a while and then moved into Hardtner in 1920.
  While in Hardtner we started a wallpaper and painting business which Mr.
  Eckert and his sons continued through the years. In 1924 we moved to Kiowa
  to the house where I still reside. Mr. Eckert passed away in 1963.
     We have eight children. Our twin sons, Albert and Alvin, were followed 
  by Maxcine, Loyal, Elizabeth, Edith, Carl, and Leon. All attended Kiowa 
  schools. We were proud four of our sons, Albert, Alvin, Loyal, and Carl,
  served during World War II, and thankful they all returned home safely.
     Albert and his wife, Emma, now reside at San Antonio, Texas, and Alvin 
  is at Wilmore, Kansas. Maxcine and her husband, Ray Lindstrom, live at
  Tinley Park, Illinois. They have two children, Bernadette and Richard, and
  four grandchildren. Loyal and his wife, Ruth, live at Leoti, Kansas, and
  have four children, George, Cinda, Jana and Lana, and one grandson. Elizabeth
  and her husband, Elmer Kennedy, live at Keystone, Nebraska. Edith and her
  husband, Ed Boyle, live at Tracy, California. They have three sons, Lloyd,
  Harold, and David and six grandchildren.
     Our two youngest sons are Barber County residents. Carl and his wife,
  Juanita, live in Kiowa with their youngest son, Max. They have two other
  sons; David and wife Brenda have two children, Marc and Angela, and live
  at Sedgwick; Lex and his wife Leesa live in Kiowa with a son, Nathan. Our
  youngest son, Leon, and his wife, Wanda, live in Kiowa; they have two 
  children, Linda who lives in WIchita, and Larry at Pittsburg.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 167 
     Submitted by: Mrs. Seigfred (Hattie) Eckert