A Guide to the Echols family papers, 1818-1999, #52127

Biographical Information

Ernest Echols (1864-1926) was the son of Edward Echols (1817-1874) and his second wife Susan Hobson Burks Echols (1834-1870) of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Ernest Echols operated Big Bend Coal Company in Fayette County, West Virginia, while living in both Fayette County and Rockbridge County. He married Nannie Morton Carter (1864-1923) in Fayette County on 28 April 1890, and they had nine children, including Porter Burks Echols (1902-1990) who became a physician in Rockbridge County and Lynchburg, Virginia. He married Hortense Crum Reynolds (1904-1982) of Bedford, Iowa, on 10 January 1931. Their son, Porter Burks Echols, Jr., also became a physician. He married Nila June Welsh 14 July 1956.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1818-1999, of the Echols family of Rockbridge County and Lynchburg, Virginia, and Fayette County, West Virginia, consisting of accounts, advertisements, calling cards, catalogs, checks, correspondence, deeds, genealogical notes, photographs, receipts, tax records, and other papers detailing the family's personal and business interests, including their activities in the coal industry, retail, and medical profession. Also contains correspondence and papers relating to Ernest Echols' sons' education at the Virginia Military Institute. Also includes genealogical information on the Echols family and the Logue family, including photographs, and information on property owned by the Echols family. Papers also include clippings and articles on general subjects relating to the Echols family and to Rockbridge County.

Contents List

Series I: Correspondence and papers , 1903-1999 .

Boxes 1-2

Extent: 2 boxes.

Series I: Correspondence and papers, 1903-1999, consists of accounts, advertisements, calling cards, catalogs, clippings, correspondence, deeds, receipts, scrapbooks, tax records, yearbooks, and other papers of Ernest Echols (1864-1926) of Rockbridge County, Virginia, and Fayette County, West Virginia, highlighting his business interests in coal mines, including the Big Bend Coal Company, as well as in stores. Includes correspondence from family members discussing family and business matters. Papers also contains correspondence from Ernest Echols' sons while enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute, as well as grades, receipts, checks, and other papers. Also includes a copy of "Some Echols Family Letters" consisting of correspondence between Eliza F. Echols (1795-1875), her son Edward Echols (1817-1874), and his son John Jordan Echols (1846-1926) all of Rockbridge County and Greenbrier and Monroe Counties, West Virginia.

Box 1 Folder 1
Correspondence and papers, 1903
Box 1 Folder 2
Correspondence and papers, 1904
Box 1 Folder 3
Correspondence and papers, 1905
Box 1 Folder 4
Correspondence and papers, 1906
Box 1 Folder 5
Correspondence and papers, January-April 1907
Box 1 Folder 6
Correspondence and papers, September-December 1907
Box 1 Folder 7
Correspondence and papers, February-june 1908
Box 1 Folder 8
Correspondence and papers, August 1908
Box 1 Folder 9
Correspondence and papers, September-October 1908
Box 1 Folder 10
Correspondence and papers, November-December 1908
Box 1 Folder 11
Correspondence and papers, February-June 1909
Box 1 Folder 12
Correspondence and papers, July-December 1909
Box 1 Folder 13
Correspondence and papers, 1910
Box 1 Folder 14
Correspondence and papers, March-July 1911
Box 1 Folder 15
Correspondence and papers, August-December 1911
Box 1 Folder 16
Correspondence and papers, 1912
Box 1 Folder 17
Correspondence and papers, 1913
Box 1 Folder 18
Correspondence and papers, January-July 1914
Box 1 Folder 19
Correspondence and papers, August-December 1914
Box 1 Folder 20
Correspondence and papers, January-June 1915
Box 1 Folder 21
Correspondence and papers, January-November 1915
Box 2 Folder 1
Correspondence and papers, 1916
Box 2 Folder 2
Correspondence and papers, January-October 1917
Box 2 Folder 3
Correspondence and papers, November-December, no date 1917
Box 2 Folder 4
Correspondence and papers, 1918
Box 2 Folder 5
Correspondence and papers, 1919
Box 2 Folder 6
Correspondence and papers, 1927, 1930, 1931, 1935, 1947, 1999
Box 2 Folder 7
Correspondence and papers, undated
Box 2 Folder 8
Family correspondence, 1909-1915
Box 2 Folder 9
Family correspondence, 1916-1918
Box 2 Folder 10
Checks to Ernest C., Frank, Charles L., Joseph, and Ralph Echols, 1907, 1911-1918
Box 2 Folder 11
Checks to the Virginia Military Institute for Ernest C., Frank, Charles L., Joseph, and Ralph Echols, 1910-1918
Box 2 Folder 12
Virginia Military Institute receipts, 1912-1914
Box 2 Folder 13
J. Ed. Deavers receipts for VMI uniforms, etc., 1910-1918
Box 2 Folder 14
Checks to J. Ed. Deavers and others, 1910-1918
Box 2 Folder 15
"Some Echols Letters, 1858-1904, " pp. 1-50
Box 2 Folder 16
"Some Echols Letters, 1858-1904, " pp. 51-100
Box 2 Folder 17
"Some Echols Letters, 1858-1904, " pp. 101-150
Box 2 Folder 18
"Some Echols Letters, 1858-1904, " pp. 151-195

Series II: Family genealogy .

Box 3

Extent: 1 box.

Series II: Family genealogy contains notes, photographs, and records on the Echols family genealogy. Also contains genealogical information and photogoraphs of the Logue and Welsh families of Ohio, the family of Jane Welsh Echols, wife of Porter Echols, Jr. Includes biographical information on Confederate general John W. Echols (1823-1896).

Box 3 Folder 1
Echols family genealogical notes (pink notebook)
Box 3 Folder 2
Echols family genealogical notes (red notebook)
Box 3 Folder 3
Papers relating to Echols family genealogy (folder 1 of 3)
Box 3 Folder 4
Papers relating to Echols family genealogy (folder 2 of 3)
Box 3 Folder 5
Papers relating to Echols family genealogy (folder 3 of 3)
Box 3 Folder 6
Logue family genealogy (folder 1 of 2)
Box 3 Folder 7
Logue family genealogy (folder 2 of 2)
Box 3 Folder 8
Echols family photographs
Box 3 Folder 9
Echols family photographs
Box 3 Folder 10
Logue-Welsh family photographs
Box 3 Folder 11
John W. Echols article and related materials

Series III: Land records .

Box 4 (folders 1-7)

Extent: 1 box.

Series III: Land records includes deeds of sale for property owned by members of the Echols family. Contains deed, 12 May 1949, for Echols Farm and a nomination, 1998, for the Echols Farm to be included in the National Register of Historic Places, as well as other papers concerning the Echols Farm.

Box 4 Folder 1
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Project--Echols family deeds (folder 1 of 2)
Box 4 Folder 2
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Project--Echols family deeds (folder 2 of 2)
Box 4 Folder 3
Deed--Echols Farm, 12 May 1949
Box 4 Folder 4
"Echols Farm National Registration Nomination, " July 1998
Box 4 Folder 5
"Echols Farm National Registration Nomination, " (copy) July 1998
Box 4 Folder 6
Papers relating to Echols Farm
Box 4 Folder 7
Clippings on Echols family and Echols family houses

Series IV: Business records , 1818-1919 .

Box 4 (folders 8-16)

Extent: 1 box.

Series IV: Business records includes bills and correspondence, 1905-1919, of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad; correspondence and receipts, 1906-1917, from Modern Woodmen of America; checks, 1911-1917, drawn on the Bank of Glasgow and on the People's Bank in Buena Vista, Virginia. Also includes pages from an unidentified account book, 1818, from Richmond, Virginia, containing accounts for Moses Echols; and an unidentified account book, 1885-1894, from near Lynchburg, Virginia.

Box 4 Folder 8
Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad papers, 1905-1919, no date
Box 4 Folder 9
Modern Woodmen of America papers (Camp 7608, Fayette County, West Virginia), 1906-1909
Box 4 Folder 10
Modern Woodmen of America papers (Camp 7608, Camp 12460, Fayette County, West Virginia; Camp 15524, Buena Vista, Virginia), 1910-1912
Box 4 Folder 11
Modern Woodmen of America papers (Camp 15524, Buena Vista, Virginia; Camp 12832, Rockbridge County, Virginia), 1913-1917
Box 4 Folder 12
Bank of Glasgow (Rockbridge County, Virginia) checks, 1914
Box 4 Folder 13
Bank of Glasgow (Rockbridge County, Virginia) checks, 1914-1916
Box 4 Folder 14
Bank of Glasgow (Rockbridge County, Virginia) checks, 1917
Box 4 Folder 15
The People's Bank (Buena Vista, Virginia) checks, 1911-1912
Box 4 Folder 16
Account and account books 1818, 1885-1894

Series V: General subjects .

Box 4 (folders 17-23)

Extent: 1 box.

General subjects includes clippings, programs, and other papers relating to the Echols family and the history of Rockbridge County, including articles on a monument to Frank Padgett (d. 1854) an enslaved African American who led a rescue effort of people involved in a boat accident along the James and North (Maury) Rivers.

Box 4 Folder 17
Washington and Lee alumni
Box 4 Folder 18
University of Richmond inauguration of 7th president, 18 March 1989
Box 4 Folder 19
Pages from A History of Rockbridge County
Box 4 Folder 20
Clippings on the Civil War
Box 4 Folder 21
Clippings on history
Box 4 Folder 22
Clippings on the James River and the James River and Kanawha Canal
Box 4 Folder 23
Clippings on monument to Frank Padgett, 1968-1995

Series VI: Hortense Crum Reynolds scrapbook and yearbooks , 1920-1922 .

Boxes 5-6

Extent: 2 box.

Series VI: Hortense Reynolds scrapbook and yearbooks contains Hortense Crum Reynolds' (Echols) (1904-1982) yearbooks from Bedford High School (Bedford, Iowa) (1920) and Ward-Belmont School (Nashville, Tennessee) (1921-1922), and a scrapbook from Ward-Belmont.

Box 5
Purple and White , Bedford High School (Bedford, Iowa) yearbook, 1920
Box 5 Folder 1
English word definitions and photo album pages found in Purple and White , Bedford High School (Bedford, Iowa) yearbook, 1920
Box 5
Milestones , Ward-Belmont School (Nashville, Tennessee) yearbook, 1921
Box 5
Milestones , Ward-Belmont School (Nashville, Tennessee) yearbook, 1922
Box 6
Ward-Belmont School (Nashville, Tennessee) scrapbook, 1921-1922

Oversize materials .

Box 7

Extent: 1 box.

Contains oversize materials from Series I: Correspondence and papers and from Series IV: Business records.

Box 7 Folder 1
Record of loading for New River District, 10 April 1907 (from box 1, folder 5)
Box 7 Folder 2
Dixie Lumber Company letter and bills, 3 June 1915 (from box 1, folder 20)
Box 7 Folder 3
Dixie Lumber Company account, 26 September 1915 (from box 1, folder 21)
Box 7 Folder 4
Individual income tax return for calendar year, 1917 (from box 2, folder 3)
Box 7 Folder 5
Moses Echols accounts from Richmond merchant account book, February-December 1818 (from box 4, folder 16)
Box 7 Folder 6
Account book, unidentified merchant, probably Lynchburg, 1885-1894 (from box 4, folder 16)