Echols family papers, 1818-1999

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Echols family papers, 1818-1999. Accession 52127. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
2.86 cu. ft. and 7 boxes
Creator:
Echols family
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Echols family papers, 1818-1999. Accession 52127. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Porter and June Echols of Richmond, Virginia.
Arrangement:

This collection is arranged

  • Series I: Correspondence and papers, 1903-1999
  • Series II: Family genealogy
  • Series III: Land records
  • Series IV: Business records, 1818-1919
  • Series V: General subjectsSeries VI: Hortense Reynolds scrapbook and yearbooks.
  • Series VI: Hortense Reynolds scrapbook and yearbooks