William Holding Echols (b1834)


Photo from Ancestry.com

From Alabama Mosaic, Huntsville Madison County Public Library
 Engineer, Major CSA, Bank President, Bell Factory Bookkeeper

Born:March 11, 1834, Huntsville, AL
Died:November 13, 1909, Huntsville, AL
Buried:Maple Hill Cemetery, Huntsville, AL
Residence:403 Echols Avenue SE
Father of:Charles Patton Echols
Husband of:Mary Beirne Patton Echols
Father of:Susan Patton Echols Spragins
Son of:William Echols (b1800)
Father of:William Holding Echols (b1859)

Notes:

•  President of First National Bank of Huntsville, Al.
     Bookkeeper for the Bell Factory Cotton Mill.
     Civil Engineer on Memphis and Charleston Railroad, 1866.
     He was an engineer in the U.S. Army. In 1861 he entered the Engineering Corps of the Confederate States Army.
     Graduated from West Point in 1854. - Alabama Biography

•  Echols Hill is named after him. - Editor's Note

•  "Son of William and Mary (Hobbs) Echols, natives, respectively, of Pittsylvania County, and near Lynchburg, Va., the former of whom went to Huntsville at the age of sixteen, served several terms as mayor of that town, and was for some years probate judge of the county; grandson of William and Mary (Farmer) Echols, who emigrated from Pittsylvania County, Va., to Madison County, in 1816, and settled at New Market; and of John Hobbs, who emigrated from Virginia to Huntsville." - Alabama Biography

•  Children:
     1. William Holding Echols 1859, (Dec. 2, 1859 San Antonio, TX - Sept. 28, 1934
     2. Susan Patton Echols Spragins, "Sussie" (Feb. 17, 1864, Huntsville, AL - March 25, 1918, Huntsville, AL)
     3. Charles Patton Echols, 1867 - 1940 - Spragins

•  William Echols (b. 1834) had a father (b. 1800) and grandfather (b. 1771), great grandfather (b. 1729), and great great grandfather (b. 1700) named William Echols. He had a son (b. 1859) and a grandson (b. 1888) named William Echols. - Editor's Note

•  Brother of :
     1. John H. Echols, Secretary of State of Mississippi during the War of Secession
     2. Lark in W. Echols, who served in an Alabama Regiment of the C. S. Army, and was a planter and merchant at Senatobia, MS.
     3. David H. Echols, a railroad man who was drowned in the Yazoo River, Mississippi, while on a hunting tour.
     4. James H. Echols, a lieutenant in Russell's regiment, Wheeler's command. He was killed at Atlanta.
     5. Charles P. Echols, a farmer in Mississippi. - Alabama Biography

•  "He was prepared in Green Academy, Huntsville; then entered business in Huntsville, and in Mississippi; was appointed a cadet, and entered the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, N. Y., 1854; was graduated fourth in his class at West Point, and commissioned second lieutenant of topographical engineers, July 1, 1858." - Alabama Biography

•  "He was retained as an instructor at West Point after his graduation for two months, then ordered on engineering duty at the army post, San Antonio, Tex. During his service in the U. S. Army in Texas, he was assigned to duty as chief engineer of a party to make preliminary surveys for an available route across the Great American Desert, through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, to California. The party making this survey made use of camels imported by the government to facilitate the crossing of the unknown and arid country. Lieut. Echols resigned from the U. S. Army, March 21, 1861, and joined the C. S. Army. He was first posted at Fort St. Phillip and Jackson, below New Orleans; then was ordered to Savannah, Ga., where he helped build fortifications, and was employed in organizing and drilling troops. He was elected colonel of the Twenty-ninth Georgia regiment, but could not accept because of the special request of President Davis, under the advice of Gen. Beauregard, that he be retained for service as engineer officer owing to the scarcity of engineers in the army. He was commissioned major of engineers in the C. S. Army and was ordered to Charleston, S. C. After the war, he was for a time civil engineer on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad; then became bookkeeper in the Bell Factory Cotton Mills, near Huntsville, rehabilitated the mills, serving as secretary, treasurer and superintendent from 1874, until they closed down in 1884. He became president of the First National Bank of Huntsville, and held that position until a few months before his death. His reports of the assault of the enemy's fleet, on Fort Sumter, are published in the record of the 'War of the Rebellion,' published by the U. S. government, series 1, vol. 14." - Alabama Biography

•  He was a Democrat; an Episcopalian; a Mason; and a Knight of Pythias. - Alabama Biography

•  Married: "January 19, 1859, Mary Beirne Patton, daughter of Dr. Charles Hays and Susan Plunkett (Beirne) Patton, of Huntsville. the former of whom was graduated, A. B., from Yale University, and M. D., from University of Pennsylvania; granddaughter of William and Martha (Hays) Patton, natives respectively of Londonderry, Ireland, and Louisa County Va., who settled in Huntsville; great granddaughter of Robert and Jane (Ramsey) Patton, natives of Londonderry, Ireland, who came to Monroe County, VA." - Alabama Biography

•  "Major Echols was modest, unassuming, and tender-hearted, with high spirit and courage, undying sense of truth, honor, and high ideals that go to make for manhood in all things." - Thayer


Related Links:

•  Alabama Biography - History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Volume 3 by Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen pp. 527-8.

•  Alabama Mosaic, Huntsville-Madison County Public Library - Photo with biographical caption (Originally found at http://digitalarchives.hmcpl.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p15431coll1&CISOPTR=176&CISOBOX=1&REC=20.)

•  Ancestry.com - Comprehensive collection of genealogical and biographical information collected and provided by Angus Simpson (behind Ancestry.com's membership fee wall) (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/9571659/person/-778697981.)

•  Spragins - A Brief History and Brief Genealogy of The Andrew Beirne, William Patton, William Echols, V, and Robert E. Spragins Lines, by William Echols Spragins, Et Al, 1956, p. 52.

•  Thayer - Bill Thayer's Web Site with biographical information.

•  Thayer's Note - Biographic data


The Following Pages Link to this Page:
•  403 Echols Avenue SE
•  Alabama Biography
•  Charles Patton Echols
•  Mary Beirne Patton Echols
•  Susan Patton Echols Spragins
•  William Echols (b1800)
•  William Holding Echols (b1859)