Janice Echols Gorman

Source: ancestry.com

This letter written by Janice Echols Gorman. It consists of pages 131-133 in a larger document titled "Alabama, U.S., Surname Files Expanded, 1702-1981".

YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT"ROOTS?" HAVE WE GOT ROOTS!

TO: ALL DESCENDANTS OF JOSEPH BRYAN ECHOLS AND MARTHA ELLA WILSON (and related lines.)

FROM: Janice Echols Gorman

To those of you who are aware that I have been doing family research, this letter is to fill you in on the progress being made on locating our "roots". To those of you who may have forgotten me or may never have heard of me, let me introduce myself. I am Janice Echols, daughter of Edgar (Doc) Echols and Lillian Sorrels. My husband is William D. Gorman. We are both artists and live in Bayonne, N.J. which is located between Jersey City and Staten Island, N.Y. From our second floor window we can see the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center. We have a cat named Shadow, but no children. So much for the introduction.

Even as a child I was interested in family history and asked questions of each family member at every opportunity, but it wasn't until 1973 that I began to do serious research on the family, some twenty years after my last visit with Aunt Ida at which time I had made notes on as much as I could learn from her - sketchy notes that had cooled in 20 years so that I no longer knew exactly what they meant. I began writing letters and was to contact a few cousins, but not nearly as many as I would have liked.

I knew nothing about the Echols branch except a vague memory of mention of some Echols relatives in Arkansas. A letter to the editor of a newspaper in Glenwood, Arkansas, near where my father was born, brought results. The Ark. Echols are descendants of Electius T. Echols, brother to our Joseph Bryan Echols. His only living son Obie has the bible of Electius and sent me the information it contained which gave the father of Electius and Joseph as John. I've corresponded with several of Electius's grandchildren and a daughter-in-law who was generous with information and the lending of old photographs. Through these relatives I was able to contact my own first cousin, whom I have never met, Grace Ward who married Pell Coker and now lives in Ohio.

The only thing I could remember about the Wilsons was that one of them had at one time owned and operated the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Nashville, Ark. A few letters and I learned that one of them still does. He is Ramon Forrest Wilson whose wife, Nelda, has sent me copies of the A. F. Wilson family bible record and other things which have been invaluable help, as her herself has continued to be.

Aunt Lucy had once told me that she was named for her grandmother, Lucy Sallywhite. It took some time to figure out - but finally someone sent me the name and address of a SATTERWHITE descendant in Dadeville, Alabaama, who just happened to have copied the will of Obe Satterwhite (though no ancestor of hers) which named his wife Mary or Polly, children Nancy Daniel, wife of John Daniel, Martha Echols, wife of Samuel Echols, Lucy Echols, wife of John Echols and son John Satterhwite. Her comment to me was, "How lucky can some people get?" And I agree.

I have a copy of the marriage record of John W. Echols and Lucy Satterwhite and Samuel M. Echols and Martha Satterwhite. Both couples were married on 4 October 1838 in Chambers County, Alabama. In the 1840 census of Chambers Co. John W . Echols had one son under 5. Then in 1850, the first year in which all the family members were listed by name, Samuel M. Echols and John Satterwhite were living next door to Obe Sattwhite in Chambers Co. - but no John Echols. I have yet to find John W. Echols and wife Lucy in 1850, but believe they were in either Chambers or Tallapoosa County and were simply left our of the census. In 1860 Obe had passed on, and Mary was living in Chambers Co. still, and a young man, James Daniel, was a member of her household, probably a grandson. John Satterwhite and Samuel M. Echols were living side by side in Tallapoosa Co. and there in Tallapoosa Co. also was John W. Echols in 1860.

The sonf who was b. ca. 1839 is not listed with the family in 1860, and I have no way of tracing him without the 1850 census for John W. Echols, or possibly a will, if one ever shows up. The 1860 census of Tallapoosa County, Ala.: J. W. Echols, age 49, born Ala.; Lucy A., 39, Ga.; Nancy A., 18, Ga.; Electius, 17, Ala.; Amy, 15, Ala.; Martha, 13, Ala,; JOSEPHUS, 12, Ala.; Mary J., 7, Ala.; John, 5, Ala.; Franklin, 7 mos., Ala.

Electius was in Co. B., Ala. Reg. C.S.A. He was taken prisoner after an engagement in Tennessee and was sent to Union Prison near Chicago. When he returned home he found his father had passed on just as he had dreamed while away. (This story related by letter from Clora Hunter, widow of Electius's son Edward.)

In 1870 we find Lucy and family in Tallapoosa Co.. ELectius has left home, Nancy married Dr. Phillip M. Shephard, Jr. in 1861. Amy has probably married also. There is one child, Anna, who was born in 1862 so was not in the 1860 census. Joe is 21, Martha has decided 23 is too old to be unmarried, so she gives her age as 19. And why not? Lucy declares she is only 47!

The following year Joe joined a group of people moving to Arkansas, among them the A. F. Wilson family. To go back a bit, Abel Fletcher Wilson married Mary Franklin Phillips in Dudleyville, Ala. in 1853. Mary was the daughter of Jesse Bush Phillips and Martha Talbot, daughter of William Talbot. I have the Talbots back to Mathew Talbot who seems to have arrived in Maryland about 1720 from England, married Mary Williston in 1722, later moved to Virginia, was involved in the French and Indian War. His son Matthew II by the time of the Revolutionary War was in the Watauga Area of what is in the American Revolution except for the youngest. After the death of his wife, Mary Hale or Haile, daughter of Nicholas Hale, he moved to Georgia to join a brother who had already moved there. William, son of Matthew II, married Mary Bailey.

The father of A. F. Wilson was Joseph Armstrong Wilson. I've been able to find very little about him. His father was Joseph Wilson who married Sarah Pennington in 1798, Wilkes Co. Ga. She was the daughter of Abel Pennington. I believe the early Wilsons and Penningtons were Quakers, but Joseph Wilson and his wife were Baptists around 1802.

The children of A.F. Wilson and Mary Phillips: Martha Ella (who was called Ella) b. 1855; William Walker Wilson b. 1858; Joseph Bush Wilson b. 1860; Edwin Fletcher Wilson b. 1863; James Phillips Wilson b. 1869; Jesse Alonzo Wilson b. 1871; Mary Lena Wilson b. 1875.

One thing that has been great fun for me is trying to reconstruct the wagon train of folks who moved from Tallapoosa an Talladega Counties, Ala. in 1871to southern Ark. Aunt Ida described what she had heard of the trip saying that Ella Wilson and Joe Echols courted along the way, Ella riding in a wagon and Joe riding alongside on horseback. They were married the following year in Clark Co. Ark. by Rev. Hughes. He and his family were also in the wagon train. Our Joseph seems to have been the only Echols that moved at that time, unless perhaps Amy and her husband were included, or perhaps the eldest brother whose name we do not know,

Martha Phillips(sister to Mary Phillips, wife of A. F. Wilson) married August H. Palmer, Jr. They had moved to Arkansas earlier, came back to Alabama for a year's visit in 1870. They were probably instrumental in the Wilsons' move. Certainly the Wilsons moved at the time the Palmers returned to Arkansas.

I believe that Green B. Talbot, the elderly uncle of Mary and Martha Phillips, might also have been in the caravan with grandchildren G.T. (Green Talbot?) and John Sikes whose parents had died during the Civil War. His son, Green B. Talbot, Jr. had moved to Ark. (Calhoun Co.) about 1846, became a Baptist minister and at one time later on served a term in the Ark. Legislature. Possibly Green Sr. and family stopped off in Calhoun Co. while the others proceeded to Clark County and Pike County. There were no doubt other families in the wagon train.

J. B. Echols bought property from August H. Palmer May 1, 1879, Salem community, Pike County, Arkansas (listed as Clark township in 1880 census.) He sold the property to W. E. Dean in 1896, at which time the family moved to Texas. All the children were born in ARk. except from Occo who was b. in Texas according to the 1900 census.

The children of Joseph B. Echols and Ella Wilson:

Joe's mother remained in Alabama. By 1880 she had moved to Butler Co. Ala. where Electius lived, and John had married Ruth Whittle in 1877. Lucy has dropped a few more years from her age, she is now only 54, and Martha, now calling herself, Mattie is still unmarried and is now 27. There is a male age 20 who is listed as Thomas. Can this be Franklin Thomas Echols? Or Thomas Franklin Echols?

Electius married in 1868 Cordelia Palmer (there was a Cordelia Palmer in the hone of Augustus H. Palmer, Sr. but she would have been too old. I have not yet figured out the connection between Electius's wife and the A.H.Palmer family.) Cordelia passed away in the fall of 1879 leaving John T. age 7 and Jesse age 5 in the 1880 census. According to the bible John was born 1871, William 1874 (he was not in 1880 census), Jesse Palmer born 1876. Electius married as his second wife Annie Davies in 1880. Their children were: Mary Lucy b. 1881; Estella b. 1883, died 1885; Edward Handrick b. 1886; Ellen b. 1889; Laura b. 1890; Obiediah Hollinway Echols b. 1896. Electius and Annie moved to Arkansas about 1887 after spending a year in Kansas where they lost Jesse. The three youngest children were born in Alabama.

It has been nearly four years now that I have been searching for the father of John W.. and Samuel M. Echols. Quite a bit has been written about the Echols family, including a history by Milner Echols written in 1850, but I cannot find any definite proof to tie in with any one person. A great many Echols researchers have been contacted. The only real thing I know, from census, is that John W. Echols was born in Ala. in 1811, and Samuel M. Echols was born in Ala. 1816. During those years Alabama was part of the Mississippi Territory. I think the parents of John W. Echols and Samuel M. Echols were Samuel M. (Moore) Echols and his wife Jane Holloway who were in Ala. (Madison, then Morgan Counties) early. There was an Electius Thompson in Morgan County who had some connection with the Holloways. Electius T. Echols named on son Obiediah Hollinway Echols. If he did not know how to spell Obadiah, chances are he misspelled Holloway as well. Obie was named for his grandfather Obe Satterwhite. But this is mere conjecture. There is no will or death record for Samuel Moore Echols in Morgan Co. (he was age 69 in 1850 census). If we can find out where he died we might find a will naming his children.

I have not yet done much on the lines of Satterwhite, Wilson, Pennington, Bailey, Hale, etc. As to Phillips, which seems to tie in with the names of Bush, Bryan, Hardy, I have been working with Nell Norris of Phoenix, Arizona. Her husband, D. Palmer Norris, is descended from A. H. Palmer Jr. who married Martha Phillips, mentioned earlier.