02 Thumbnail Biography of Louisa Green Furches Etchison
Davie County Public Library
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Louisa Green Furches Etchison (1830-1911)
Louisa Green Furches was born July 14, 1830 in Cana, North Carolina to Thomas Furches and Elizabeth
Ferebee. She married Orrell Etchison (born April 14, 1826 in Farmington, North Carolina, son of Shadrack
and Lydia Orrell Etchison) on December 23, 1852.1
Her father offered her slaves or land for her wedding present. She chose land and was given a farm that
stretched from Pudding Ridge Road to Angell Road in Davie County.2
Orrell and Louisa Etchison had six children: Elizabeth Jane (1853-1941, also known as Betty), Lydia Ann
(1856-1857), Thomas Shadrack (1858-1889, died of pneumonia as a young man), Susan Furches (1860-
1957), John Wesley (1862-1936), and Lewis Alexander (1865-1940).3
Orrell Etchison owned and operated a cotton gin, grist mills, lumber mills, and distilleries at a time when
those were major industries in North Carolina.4 He also farmed and was described as a good neighbor,
respected business man, and as a family man interested in his children. Records show that he gave land
for the Etchison Naylor School so that his children and his neighbors’ children could attend school.5
According to the letters donated by Mr. Bradford L. Rauschenberg, PhD, Louisa Etchison grew flowers
and shipped them to many locations in the United States in the late 1800’s. She often traded them for
material scraps for making rugs. “Louisa had a definite personality and strong religious beliefs. A good
homemaker, she loved flowers, and was an expert needle woman.”6
Mrs. Etchison pieced a quilt called Tennessee Beauty in 1852, the year she was married. That quilt is in
the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.7 The following information is found in Cana
Connections and is a quote from the book North Carolina Quilts: “The cloth for Mrs. Etchison’s (1830-
1911) quilt was brought to Cana along the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road. The 129-mile toll road
was built in the early 1850’s and ran from Fayetteville through Cameron, Carthage, Asheboro, and High
Point, to Salem.”8
Orrell Etchison died on February 26, 1882 and Louisa Green Furches Etchison died on May 3, 1911. Both
are buried at Eaton’s Church Yard in Cana.9
Bibliography
Cana Connections, Betty Etchison West, Betty Etchison West, 2011.
History of Edmund Etchison, June B. Barekman and Maxine Brown, Chicago, Illinois: June B. Barekman,
1980.
1 History of Edmund Etchison, June B. Barkeman and Maxine Brown, (Chicago, Illinois: June B. Barekman, 1980),
67-68.
2 Cana Connections, Betty Etchison West, (Betty Etchison West, 2011), 192.
3 Etchison, Cana Connections, 193.
4 Etchison, Cana Connections, 193.
5 Barkeman and Brown, History of Edmund Etchison, 67-68.
6 Etchison, Cana Connections, 80.
7 Etchison, Cana Connections, 33.
8 Etchison, Cana Connections, 192.
9 Barkeman and Brown, History of Edmund Etchison, 67-68