Raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Eckhart learned the miller's trade there as a representative for the Eagle Milling Company.

Eckhart was elected to two two-year terms in the Illinois Senate in the 1880s and was director of the Chicago Board of Trade for three years.

[1] In 1886, Eckhart was elected to the Illinois Senate as a Republican, where he served two consecutive two-year terms.

He created this district as a senator and was instrumental in overseeing the completion of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Eckhart successfully petitioned United States Secretary of War Russell A. Alger to allow the project to draw waters from Lake Michigan.

[3] William Carbys Zimmerman designed Eckhart's estate, "Pinewold", in Lake Forest, Illinois in 1908.