ECHOLS, CAPT. EDWARD
Captain Edward Echols, who lived at the mouth of North River, was a brother to General John Echols, of the Confederate army, and consequently an uncle to the late Edward Echols, of Staunton. He was a citizen of considerable local prominence, and died in 1874 at the age of fifty-seven. An incident in his career illustrates his unselfishness and his generous impulse. It also brought suddenly to the front an unexpected power of vivid narration. The account of the incident which has been furnished to us we quote entire. 
In January, 1854, a large covered freight boat with a cargo of nearly 100 negro men who had been hired in the vicinity of Richmond to work in the furnaces above Buchanan was swept over the dam on James River at Balcony Falls, in consequence of the breaking of the tow-line, as the boat was struggling across the mouth of North River then swollen by a heavy freshet. Most of the Negroes as soon as the boat began to drift down the stream plunged into the river and swam to the bank. About a dozen of them who probably could not swim stuck to the boat and were dashed over the dam into the boiling and foaming whirlpool below. The boat was broken into fragments, and half the men drowned. The others clung to a fragment of the wreck and were drifted down the surging and roaring torrent about a mile and a half, until they struck a large rock called the "Velvet Rock," from the carpet of soft green moss which covered it, when they jumped off and after much scrambling secured a precarious foothold on the narrow surface of the wet and slippery stone. One of these men was William G. Mathews, uncle to William G. Mathews of the Virginia Western Power Company. The river was rising, the spray dashed over the rock. The weather was freezing, a dark night was closing in, and it was impossible to send a boat through that surging torrent to bring off the shipwrecked sufferers, whose doom seemed to be sealed. To encourage them to hold on to their perilous position and to cheer their desponding spirits, a large fire was kindled on the opposite bank of the canal, about 100 yards off, by a body of rough, but kind-hearted men, who sang and danced and shouted around it all that dark and gloomy night. Above the loud roar of the turbid waters as they rushed through the narrow gorge of the Blue Ridge, their trumpet voice could be heard ringing on the midnight air, "Hold on, hold on; dance and sing; we'll save you; we'll save you; day is almost here; hold on; hold on; the river is falling; you're safe; you're safe." Thus animated and encouraged, the imprisoned men did hold on through that awful night until the first faint streak of day, when the river having fallen during the night, a canoe danced over the foaming tide and brought the half-frozen men to the bank. And there was such a scene, such hugging, and dancing and laughing, and crying and shouting and rejoicing. A few days later Captain Edward Echols, who resided in the immediate vicinity and was an eye-witness of most of these thrilling scenes wrote a most vivid and graphic account of them, which was published in the Lexington Gazette and copied by many papers in and out of the state. Captain Echols almost literally photographed the whole catastrophe, from the breaking of the rope to the rescue of the men in a series of living pictures taken fresh from nature. You almost saw the boat as it plunged over the dam, and heard the shrieks of the drowning and drifting men. The style was perfectly simple and unpretending— like naive Isaac Walton in his "Compliant Angler"—a style which every school boy thinks he can write until he tries, but which the critics say has never been successfully imitated,— fresh, racy, nervous, pictorial, and yet familiar, colloquial, easy and natural. Captain Echols's success in that happy effort is easily explained. He felt warmly, the scenes were distinctly pictured on his heart, and his pen naturally copied them. Feeling is the source of eloquence, and simplicity is the source of refinement. It is but simple justice to a man to say that Captain Echols was untiring in his efforts to save these unfortunate men and those them probably owes him their lives.
—The same praise is due to another worthy man, Peter A. Salling. A Negro named Frank Padgett, who belonged to a gentleman of that name in Amherst, was drowned in a voluntary and heroic effort to save some of these imperiled men. The humane and martyr-like conduct of this poor slave, who simply yielded to his natural sympathies for his suffering fellows made a deep impression on Captain Echols's susceptible heart, and most justly incited his warm admiration. To commemorate this noble deed he erected at his own cost an enduring monument to Frank's memory at the lock opposite the "Velvet Rock" about a mile and a half below the dam, in the midst of the wildest and grandest scenery in Virginia, where the gurgling and foaming river dashes in tiny cascades through the overhanging mountains, and sweeps off in a glittering stream of silver. The traveler may observe a stout obelisk of dark marble bearing the following inscription:
"IN MEMORY OF FRANK PADGET" "a colored slave who during a freshet in James River in January, 1854, ventured and lost his life by drowning in a noble effort to save some of his fellow creatures who were in the midst of the flood from death."  
If the hearty admiration and commendation of noble and generous action is the next thing to performing them, then when Captain Echols so generously erected this monument to this poor, humble negro, who deserved it far better than many an over praised and vulgar hero who dies on the field of battle, he illustrated the nobleness of his own heart and built for himself, let us hope, an enduring monument in the hearts of his countrymen.  When the canal was sold to the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad Company, it was stipulated that the monument should not be disturbed, and a railing was placed around it.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)

Hon. Andrew Edmiston, LL.B.
Mr. Edmiston son of Judge Mathew Edmiston, is a native of Weston, Lewis County, Virginia, where he was born in September, 1849. He had three brothers, all of whom were successful physicians, and three sisters, all of whom remained citizens of Lewis County. The subject of this sketch received his primary education in the Weston schools. Later he was a student at Marietta (Ohio) College in 1867 and '68; he was one year at the University of Virginia, and took the law course at Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in the class of 1872; he returned to Weston and was admitted to the Lewis County Bar in the summer of that year, and has since been admitted as a practitioner in all the courts of West Virginia, both State and Federal, his office, all the while, being at Weston, although his practice extended into the surrounding counties, and became large and profitable. He possessed a thorough knowledge of the law, and became a noted attorney in the central portion of the State. He is energetic, studious and fearless, arid has been unusually successful in the trial of important causes. He maintains a high rank as an advocate, a gift possessed, in a high degree, by his distinguished father. His clientele has always been large and profitable, notwithstanding the fact, that for several years past, he has been trying to restrict his clientage, rather than increase it. He is a man of upright character, and has always been trustworthy in every respect.
He was born a Democrat and has never wavered in his allegiance to that faith; still, he cannot be classed, in any respect, as an office-seeker or a politician, per se. Nevertheless, he was, for many years, active in politics, simply to see his party succeed. He was elected a member of the West Virginia Legislature in 1881, and served ably for two years; he was again elected to the same honorable position in 1894. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Lewis County in 1872, and rendered such efficient service in enforcing the law, that he was re-elected in 1876, serving eight years in that office. He was nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for Circuit Judge in 1904, and although not elected, he ran ahead of his ticket in the counties composing the circuit, nearly 1,800 votes. President Roosevelt carried the two counties by nearly 2,700 of a majority, while Mr. Edmiston lost them by less than 900 votes. Mr. Roosevelt carried Lewis (Mr. Edmiston's native county) by 525 majority, while Mr. Edmiston carried it the same day by 327 of a majority. This shows his standing and popularity at home, the best of all places to test one's real merits and standing. Hon.
Mr. Edmiston has never married, and is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the order of Knights of Pythias. He was Chairman of the Democratic State Executive Committee for four years, and was a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, in 1912, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for President of the United States.
[Bench and Bar of West Virginia by George Wesley Atkinson, 1919 - Transcribed by AFOFG]

EDMONDSON, JAMES K.
Edmondson: During a long while the Edmondson’s were numerously represented in this county. The name is now extinct, although it maintained itself more than a century and a half. James K., a son of James and Margaret, was a lawyer by occupation and was county judge from 1870 until 1881. In the Secession war he was colonel of the 22nd Virginia Infantry and lost an arm at Chancellorsville. He was married to Emily J. Taylor. No children were born to the union. Colonel Edmondson died in 1898 at the age of sixty-six.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)