USA > Virginia > Men of mark in Virginia, ideals of American life; a collection of biographies of the leading men in the state, Volume V > Part 7
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Afterwards he was actively engaged with the Army of North- ern Virginia in its tremendous campaign from Hanover Junction to Cold Harbor. He went with General Early on his expedi- tion into Maryland; and in the fall of 1864 he was assigned to the command of the department of Southwestern Virginia. Un- daunted by the surrender at Appomattox, he led a considerable force into North Carolina; and escorted President Davis from
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Greensboro to Charlotte in that state. Thence he returned to Greensboro; and with his staff was paroled with the army of General Joseph E. Johnston.
In the closing days of the struggle he was commissioned a major-general; but the commission never reached him on account of the evacuation of Richmond, and the confusion incident to its fall. It was a well-earned honor for duty faithfully and stead- fastly performed, and for gallantry whose exhibition was only limited by the opportunity of its exercise.
After the war he returned to his old home in Monroe county ; but conditions there not satisfying him, and believing that a fairer field for the practice of his profession, which he purposed to renew, awaited him in Staunton, he settled in the last named town. Here he continued to practice law, serving meanwhile in the general assembly of Virginia as a delegate from Staunton and Augusta county, where he rendered valuable legislative service and exercised a potential influence.
Finally his duties as an officer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway company, and of its associated roads, with which he had become identified, compelled the removal of his place of residence to Louisville, Kentucky-to which state, however, he never trans- ferred his citizenship, but with unwavering fidelity to Virginia returned always to vote at her elections, and lost no opportunity of advancing her interests.
During his life in Staunton, General Echols played a promi- nent and leading part in the affairs of his community. As a member of the law firm of Echols, Bell and Catlett, he held high position as a lawyer, and was connected with much of the most important litigation in the courts, where his forensic talents no less than his legal ability made him a conspicuous figure. His business quali- fications were of the highest, and were early recognized in his election by the stockholders to the office of its president upon the organization of the National Valley bank of Staunton soon after the war. In 1872, when the National Valley bank and the First National bank of Staunton were consolidated under the former name, General Echols was again elected president, holding the position up to the time of his death, and bringing to the dis- charge of its duties the energy, ability, and administrative capa-
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city which illustrated all his undertakings, and which served notably in his connection with this institution to establish it as one of the soundest and most prosperous banking concerns, not only in Virginia but in the South. About the same time the then demoralized condition of the Virginia Central railroad, which later became the Chesapeake and Ohio, attracted his atten- tion; and, in conjunction with Colonel John B. Baldwin and others, he reorganized the road, secured its extension through Kentucky, and was for twenty years a director, leaving upon it the marked impress of his skill and ability and business exper- ience.
He was a member of the board of visitors of the Virginia Military institute by gubernatorial appointment-in which insti- tution he took an abiding interest; and he held a like position as trustee of Washington college, later Washington and Lee uni- versity, whose term extended from 1869 until his death, and where the services which he rendered were important and valu- able. To the discharge of these civic duties he brought all the activities of his well-trained mind, and an unusually wide ac- quaintance with men and with affairs, which combined to advance in no small measure the success and welfare of the institutions that he served. In a memorial minute commemorating his death, his colleagues of the board of trustees of the Washington and Lee university bore witness to their esteem for him in these words, among others of a no less significant import :
"In war and in peace he secured the confidence and esteem of that unrivaled judge of men, General Robert E. Lee. This confidence and esteem he fully appreciated and justified. His intellect was strong; his memory, tenacious; his energy, untiring; his judgment, excellent; his will, firm. He was watchful, care- ful, just and generous. His tact in dealing with men was unsur- passed. He rarely made an enemy, and never lost a friend."
General Echols was a man of handsome presence, and at- tracted attention in any assemblage. He stood six feet four inches in his shoes, and weighed about two hundred and sixty pounds. His face was massive and rugged in its cast, and strik- ing in its intellectual expression; and his whole appearance was in the highest degree commanding. No pen picture of him could
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begin to do him justice, which failed to indicate in some measure the suavity of his manner, the sonorous eloquence of his voice, the kindly charm of his personal presence. He possessed in a marked degree the faculty of inspiring confidence and the gift of winning esteem. He was endowed by nature to be such a leader of men as he approved himself; and it has been said of him by those capable of disinterested judgment, that had he sought the achievements of public life rather than those of business, he might have left behind him a name distinguished beyond most for political leadership and statecraft. He was an orator of unusual gifts; an administrator of affairs who was possessed of varied and large capacities; and a trained soldier of splendid gallantry and military skill. In the field of his busy life he filled an ex- tensive place; and in both his public and his domestic relations alike he illustrated the happy faculty of gaining the regard and affection of those with whom he came into personal contact.
General Echols was twice married. His first wife was Miss Mary Jane Caperton, a sister of Senator Allen T. Caperton, who had been General Echols' colleague in the Virginia conven- tion of 1861. His second wife, who survived him, was Mrs. Mary Cochran Reid of New York city. The children of his first mar- riage, who lived beyond childhood, were two sons, Hon. Edward Echols, of Staunton, Virginia; and Percy Echols, who died when a youth of fifteen; and a daughter, Mrs. M. Erskine Miller, now deceased. There were no children born of his second marriage.
General John Echols died in Staunton, May 24, 1896; and is buried in Thornrose cemetery, in that city, where a handsome marble shaft marks his last resting-place.
WILLIAM HOLDING ECHOLS
E CHOLS, WILLIAM HOLDING, educator, was born at San Antonio, Bexar county, Texas, December 2, 1859. His parents were William Holding Echols and Mary Beirne Patton. His father was appointed from Alabama to a cadetship at the United States Military academy at West Point in 1854, and was graduated third in his class in 1858. He was com- missioned a lieutenant in the corps of engineers, and was stationed at the army post at San Antonio at the time of the birth of his son, William Holding Echols. In 1861 he resigned from the United States army and entered the military service of the Con- federate States. He was commissioned as colonel of a Georgia regiment, but owing to the scarcity of military engineers, at the request of General P. T. Beauregard, he served as major of en- gineers in the defences of Charleston, South Carolina, during the War between the States.
Mr. Echols' mother was a daughter of Dr. Charles S. Patton, who was originally from Union county, in what is now West Virginia.
Mr. Echols is of Scotch antecedents on both sides of his house, the ancestors of both his father and mother having come to the mountain section of Virginia with the great immigration of Scotch-Irish Ulstermen, which settled the Shenandoah Valley and the western sections of Virginia in the early part of the eighteenth century. His great-grandfather, William Echols, located in Pittsylvania county, Virginia. His grandfather, also William Echols, together with two brothers, John and James Echols, emigrated from Pittsylvania county in 1816, and settled in Huntsville, Alabama, having first married in Virginia, Mary Hobbs, who was a native of Virginia, and resided near Lynch- burg, and who was Mr. Echols' paternal grandmother.
Mr. Echols' maternal grandfather, Dr. Charles S. Patton, prior to the war had built and operated one of the first cotton mills ever erected in the South, about 1845. During the recon-
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struction period following the fall of the Confederacy he again operated this mill, which was located near Huntsville, Alabama. He subsequently became the president of the First National bank of Huntsville.
Mr. Echols' early life was spent in the country near Hunts- ville, in the sports of hunting, fishing, riding, and roaming the woods when he was not at school. In 1871 he was sent to the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, then recently reorganized after the war. Here he spent four years, and thence was sent to the Episcopal High school at Alexandria, Virginia. It had been from his earliest boyhood the wish of both his pa- rents and himself that he should follow a military career, and his object in entering the Episcopal High school was that he might receive mathematical instruction there at the hands of Colonel Llewellyn Hoxton, then a professor in the school, who had been a cadet at West Point with his father. Here he spent three delightful and profitable years under able and enthusiastic instructors, who awakened in him a thirst for knowledge and kindled his interest in the intellectual pursuits which since that period have occupied his time and energies. To Colonel Hoxton he was especially indebted for the personal influence which aroused in him a love for the study of mathematics, and for his first appreciation of it as an art, a science and a branch of phil- osophy, which offered a field for the distinction which Mr. Echols has since achieved.
Though still cherishing the ambition to enter the army, he found it impossible for him to obtain a congressional appoint- ment to West Point from Alabama for political reasons; and so he made an attempt to secure one at the hands of the president. This, too, he finally discovered to be impossible; and his failure in this ambition, through no fault of his own or lack of endeavor on his part, proved his earliest and perhaps greatest disappoint- ment in life.
He took the mathematical medal at the Episcopal High school for distinction in that branch of his studies, and was also noted while there as an athlete and baseball player, being awarded the baseball medal. In the autumn of 1878 he entered the University of Virginia, and after studying all the mathematical courses
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offered there at that time, together with the chemical and physi- cal sciences, he was graduated from the University four years later, in June, 1882, with the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Civil Engineer.
The idea of his going to Germany to pursue his further studies was entertained by him and his elders, but was finally abandoned on the ground that he had attended expensive schools for eleven years, and that as he had the means at hand for being independ- ent, he should be allowed to enter upon the active work of life. In July, 1882, he obtained a position as rodman on the Vicks- burg, Shreveport and Pacific railroad, then under construction, with headquarters at Monroe, Louisiana, in which capacity he served for sixty days under an excellent engineer from the Troy Polytechnic institute, and at the end of that period was made resident engineer on a new road to be constructed from Memphis to New Orleans, a distance of four hundred miles along the Mis- sissippi river. He served in this capacity as locating engineer, aligning about one hundred and fifty miles of the route, and as resident engineer in the construction of the foundations of the Yazoo river bridge, and was in charge of the earthwork construc- tion through two counties. The second summer found him down with malarial fever, and, the opportunity occurring, he went to Colorado as superintendent and mining engineer for a mining company. Here he remained and worked for two years, and then returning East, became the first resident engineer on the location and construction of the Memphis and Birmingham rail- way in Alabama. He was engaged in this work until 1887, when he was elected to the professorship of applied mathematics in the School of Mines of the University of Missouri, at Rolla, Mis- souri. He filled this chair with success and distinction up to 1891, when he was called to the University of Virginia as adjunct professor of applied mathematics. Upon the resignation of Colonel Charles S. Venable he was elected as his successor to the full professorship of mathematics in the university, which posi- tion he has since held.
In addition to the duties of lecturing to the students of his school, Mr. Echols has done a large volume of valuable and distinctive work is the field of mathematics, much of which is
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represented by the following publications: "Treatise on the Dif- ferential and Integral Calculus," Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1902, 480 pages; "An Introduction to the Theory of Analytic Functions," Lithographed edition, 1902, for University students, 500 pages; "On the Expansion of Functions in In- finite Series," The American Journal of Mathematics, XV., 316; "A Deduction and Demonstration of Taylor's Formula," 2d. XV., 283; "On a General Formula for the Expansion of Functions in Series," Bulletin New York Mathematical seciety, II., 135; "Wronski's Expansion," 2d. II., 178; "A Cross Section Mnemonic," Engineering News, XX., 39; "The Cross Section Mnemonic," 2d. XX., 44; "Transition Curve," Engineering News; "The Transition Curve," Engineering Journal, LXVI., 465; "On Interpolation Formulae and Their Relation to In- finite Series," Contribution to the International Mathematical Congress, Chicago, 1893; "On an Extension of Holditch's Theorem," Annals of Mathematics, IV., 47; "Construction of Perspective Projections," Id. IV., 93; "The Problem of the Polar Planimeter," Id. V., 9; "Note on Perspective Projec- tions," 2d. V., 15; "On Certain Determinant Forms and Their Applications," Id. (three papers) VI., 105, 11, 109; "Forsythe's Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable," Id. VII., 143; "On the Composite," VII., 93; "Proof of a Formula Due to Cauchy," Id. VIII., 21; "On Some Forms of Lagrange's Inter- polation Formula," Id. VIII., 22; "On the Theory of Func- tions of a Complex Variable," Id. VIII., 45; "An Elementary Deduction of Taylor's Formula," Id. VIII., 62; "Note on the The- ory of Functions of a Real Variable," Id. VIII., 65; "Note on the Theory of Functions," Id. VIII., 137; "Note on the Expansion of a Function," Id. VIII., 176; "Note on the Mean Area of the Prismoid and Some Associated Theorems," Id. IX., 1; "On the Expansion of a Function Without Use of Derivatives," Id. X., 17; "On the Calculus of Functions Derived from Limit- ing Ratios," Id. X., 50; "On the Fundamental Problem of the Differential Calculus," Id. XI., 61; "On the Expansion of an Arbitrary Function on Terms of LaPlace's Functions," Id. XII., 163; "On Circuit Integration Over a Straight Line," Id. XII., 175; "The Volume of the Prismoid," Scientifia Bacca-
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laureus, I., 20; "Note on Stadia Measuring," Id. I., 187; "On the Expansion of Sine and Co-sine," Id. I., 187; "Note on the Transition Curve," Id. I., 261; "The Pneumatic Hydraulic Sand Lift," Id. I., 310.
Mr. Echols was editor of the Annals of Mathematics from 1891 to 1900, and was dean of the academic faculty of the Uni- versity of Virginia during 1903-1904. He has been twice mar- ried. His first wife was Miss Mary Elizabeth Blakey, of Char- lottesville, Virginia, who died in 1893, leaving four children. In June, 1896, he married Miss Elizabeth Mitchell Harrison, of New York city, and of this marriage there are five children liv- ing in 1908.
Mr. Echols is a Jeffersonian Republican Democrat, a mem- ber of the Episcopal church, a devotee of all outdoor sports, such as baseball, football, rowing, riding, and is deeply inter- ested in the athletic life of the University of Virginia.
His address is University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Vir- ginia.
DAVID QUIN EGGLESTON
E GGLESTON, DAVID QUIN, was born at Charlotte court-house, Virginia, June 10, 1857, being a son of John W. Eggleston, a well known Virginia merchant, and Lucy Nash (Morton) Eggleston his wife.
Mr. Eggleston's education was acquired at Hampden-Sidney college and at the University of Virginia.
In 1879 he began the active work of his life by entering upon the practice of the law at Charlotte court-house. In 1897 to 1901 he was a member of the Virginia senate, and in 1901 a member of the Virginia Constitutional convention. Since December, 1901, he has been secretary of the commonwealth of Virginia. In politics he is a Democrat.
On November 29, 1883, Mr. Eggleston was married to Miss Sue Daniel, daughter of S. P. Daniel and of this union there are six children, all of whom are now (1908) living.
By religious conviction Mr. Eggleston is identified with the Presbyterian Church, South. While in college he became a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He is a Mason.
His address is Richmond, Virginia.
yours truly An Elai
.
JAMES DAVID ELAM
E LAM, JAMES DAVID, farmer, merchant, bank director, from 1901 to 1904 member of the Virginia house of delegates from Brunswick county, and now (1908) a member of the state senate of Virginia, residing at Ebony, Bruns- wick county, was born in Charlotte county, Virginia, on the 24th of May, 1857. His father, William D. Elam, was a farmer, for many years a justice of the peace, who is remembered for his firmness and integrity. He was three times married, and James David Elam is the older of his two children by his second wife, Mrs. Elizabeth W. (McCargo) Elam, who died when James was but three years old. Samuel S. Elam, his grandfather, came from England about 1750, and settled in Charlotte county, Virginia.
A healthy and hearty boy, passing his early years in the country, he was required to work hard and regularly, and he had but limited educational advantages. But the strong love of truth and integrity of purpose which characterized his father, were impressed by the parent upon his son, who came early to the settled conviction that one's duty is to advocate strongly and heartily what he believes to be right, and to denounce and oppose what he believes to be wrong.
In 1863, his father removed from Charlotte county, Virginia, to Warren county, North Carolina, settling on a farm on the Roanoke river, near Robinson's ferry. Attending for some years a private school in his father's home, when he was thirteen he began to attend school some miles from home, crossing the Roa- noke river for the purpose; and later he had a few months of schooling at Warrenton, North Carolina.
When seventeen he had a very serious fall, which inflicted upon him several months of intense suffering, and left him lame for life. But his strength of will was not crushed, nor his ener- getic perseverance interferred with, by this accident. The eager desire for an education was still strong within him. But his father was now an old man, while all the other children, (save Vol. 5-Va .- 7
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a daughter who soon after married,) had left home. It became necessary for him to devote himself to the care and support of his father. Returning to the homestead, he devoted himself to the business of farming; and his fine crops of cotton and corn on the lowlands of the Roanoke proved profitable, and were an example and an incentive to other agriculturists in his part of the state.
In 1886 he established a store; and gradually he withdrew from farming, (chiefly because of the difficulty in securing reliable labor,) and devoted himself more exclusively from year to year to his interests in merchandising.
From his father, Mr. Elam inherited a love of books. In his early boyhood the best English literature was within his reach; and he early developed a love of reading, which has been a delight to him throughout his busy life. Mr. Elam was a mem- ber of the board of county commissioners of Warren county, North Carolina, for several years; and he served as justice of the peace in that county for many years. He was elected a member of the house of delegates from Brunswick county, Virginia, in 1901; and he remained a member of that house during the " long session," from 1901 to 1904, which put into effect the new state constitution. On July 6, 1907, at a primary held in Mecklenburg and Brunswick, and representing the twenty-fifth senatorial district, Mr. Elam was nominated, by a majority of more than eight hundred over the senator then holding office. After an active and vigorous campaign he was elected to the state senate on November 5, without opposition, for a four years' term be- ginning on the second Wednesday in January, 1908.
In politics he is a Democrat, and he has never changed his party relations. By religious conviction, he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He has for many years served as superintendent of the Sunday school of his church. He is a steward of the Methodist church of Ebony, Virginia.
On the 11th of April, 1893, he married Miss Sallie Elizabeth Tillman, daughter of Colonel Stephen Tillman of Brunswick county, Virginia.
Mr. Elam regards the influence of his early home, with the love of good literature and the habits of steady reading and ap- plication which he there acquired, as the strongest influence for
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good in his early life; and since his marriage he has found his pleasure and relaxation in " spending his leisure time in his home."
His address is Ebony, Virginia.
JOHN ALFRED ESSER
E SSER, JOHN ALFRED, coke-manufacturer, was born at Mauch Chunk, Carbon county, Pennsylvania, De- cember 15, 1848. His father was George P. Esser, a hotel-keeper and merchant; and his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Hunsberger. On both sides of his house Mr. Esser is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent.
His boyhood was spent in a country village. His father having died when he was seven years old, he found it necessary to go to work at a very early age, and without having had the opportunity of obtaining a school education after he was four- teen. When eleven years old he became a clerk in a grocery at Mauch Chunk; and since that time he has been continuously engaged in the active work of life. He served as a clerk for two years, and at the end of that period he obtained a position in a coal-shipping office, where he worked for a year. After that he was employed by one of the largest anthracite coal companies in Pennsylvania, first as assistant bookkeeper, then as paymaster, and then as general accountant. He remained with this company for eighteen years. Mr. Esser regards this as the formative period of his life, and believes that what- ever of success he has since achieved is attributable to the syste- matic business habits gained by this early experience.
Since 1881, Mr. Esser has been engaged in the business of manufacturing coke. Fifteen years of that time, from 1881 to 1896, were spent in Pennsylvania, where for eight years he was general accountant, and for seven years superintendent of opera- tions. In 1896 he came to Virginia, and became superintendent in charge of operations at Stonega, Virginia, where he remained until 1900. In that year he went to Dorchester, Wise county, Virginia, where he has since remained as general manager of the Colonial coal and coke company. In addition to this position, Mr. Esser is general manager of the Wise Coal & Coke company, president of the First National bank of Norton, Virginia, and general manager and treasurer of the Norton Water company, at Norton, Virginia.
Washington""
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Mr. Esser is a Republican in politics, but has held no office except that of postmaster at Stonega for four years, and at Dorchester for four years past, which last-named position he still (1908) occupies.
Mr. Esser is a member of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was elected a ruling elder at Mauch Chunk in 1875. In 1878, he was elected deacon in Philadelphia; and, in 1886, ruling elder at Leisenning, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Masonic order.
On December 23, 1869, Mr. Esser married Esther Hyndman; and of their marriage have been born six children, of whom two are living (1908). They reside at Dorchester, Wise County, Vir- ginia.
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WILLIAM HARRISON FAULKNER
F AULKNER, WILLIAM HARRISON, educator, was born at "The Wigwam," the home of his maternal grand- father, in Amelia county, Virginia, June 19, 1874. His father was Charles James Faulkner, a lawyer and banker; and his mother was Lucy Harrison.
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