Echoes From Catawba Volume 1: Growing Up In Catawba Valley, Appalachia is a historical memoir written by Ted Carroll. William and Luemma Garman married in 1870, and were the author Ted’s grandparents who formed the largest family in Catawba’s recorded history. Since Luemma birthed seventeen children, this was the beginning of an era that made a huge impact on a small town named after a Native American tribe. The facts of Catawba history, which include the Garman family history, the local families, their roots, and the businesses that they owned and ran, are given in great detail. With all of this amazing history and the lessons to be learned, I wondered will readers be able to comprehend the hard work and the time that the author put into this book.

I think the author did an outstanding job putting this detailed piece of history together. Even though this book was filled to the brim with informative facts, the author kept the story’s pace fast enough to keep the reader's interest, while not diminishing the important details. I really enjoyed this really fantastic story and, while reading this book, I learned that I might be related to some of the settlers that originally lived in that particular region. This book was very informative, and had very little to no cussing, and there was no sexual content. For fans of history, especially American history, and memoirs, this a very well written book through and through. After reading it, and thoroughly enjoying it, I am pleased to give it five stars.

Echoes From Catawba Volume 1: Growing Up In Catawba Valley, Appalachia by Ted Carroll is a non-fiction memoir that tells the story of rural life at the turn of the last century and focuses specifically on his own family who had been long-time settlers in the area. In this book, Ted Carroll, or Teddy as he was known, talks about his grandparents who were one of the prominent settlers in what is known as Catawba Valley in rural Virginia. They had 17 children, of which Ted’s mother was the youngest. Ted dives into detailed family and genealogical history in this book as he traces his ancestors and their origins, along with some of the other families they knew, and paints a picture of life as it was then in the days of no electricity, no running water, living off the land, raising large families, the importance of faith and community in their lives partly due to circumstances, and just reminiscences of school, childhood, marriages, and village life.

Echoes From Catawba is the first part of this series and mostly focuses on the previous few generations starting from his own grandparents and their lives and some of their children’s lives. It is refreshing to read a tale of simplicity and honesty which was how people lived under those circumstances with pure air, no artificial restraints, and a life built around the basic elements of life that include birth, marriage, and children. That is not to say that things like abuse or neglect did not happen in those days, but it definitely seems to have stayed away from this family for the most part. As Ted rightly says, their own family could constitute a small village in themselves and it is enjoyable to read about his anecdotes accompanied by lots of pictures which I appreciated. Ted writes in an easy, relatable style and I am looking forward to reading the next instalment in the series.