By Tom Perry
Many people called the land once owned by the Stuarts after they left Patrick County in 1859. Many of those who followed left their mark on the land that was once the Laurel Hill Farm. One of those was Dr. Eric Jarrell.
Wilburn Eric Jarrell was born to Benjamin Alec and Mary Alma Hancock Jarrell in Floyd, Virginia, on March 14, 1926. Benjamin met Mary while they were both students at Central Academy in Patrick County. W. Eric Jarrell had eight siblings: Merlin Thomas, Mary Claudine, John Arnold, Joseph William, Franklin Delano, Charles Burgess, Dallas Gray, and Lilly Aleene Jarrell.
Jarrell descended from Joseph William Jarrell and his father, Albert Jarrell, who was among four brothers who served the South in the War Between the States. Albert lived on land once owned by J. E. B. Stuart’s father, Archibald, and often visited William Mitchell at the 1905 Mitchell-Dellenback house.
Albert Harvey Jarrell (1835-1923) was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, and enlisted in Company A, 2nd North Carolina State Troops in Wake County on September 5, 1862. After being captured on May 3, 1863, he was exchanged ten days later, only to be captured again on November 7, 1863, near Kelly’s Ford, Virginia. He spent several months in prison at Point Lookout, Maryland, before exchanged in February 1865. He married Jane Tickle. Many of his descendants still live in the area, including world-famous Bluegrass musician Tommy Jarrell and his great-grandson, Dr. Eric Jarrell.
W. Eric Jarrell attended J. E. B. Stuart School in the Rabbit Ridge Section of Ararat and later Blue Ridge High School. Jarrell wanted to fly planes off aircraft carriers during World War Two, but entered the U. S. Navy on May 12, 1944, and traveled to Williamsburg’s Camp Perry. He joined the Medical Corps, attending three months of intense training at Bainbridge, Maryland, and then to Portsmouth Naval Hospital and to Hawaii. Jarrell served on the U. S. S. Cecil, an amphibious transport ship (APA) that carried 1500 men to Iwo Jima. They continued to the New Hebrides, Caroline, Cook, and Solomon Islands. For one week, Jarrell witnessed Kamikazes attack the navy at Okinawa and the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. He spent six months at Tientsin, China, taking care of the Marine Air Corps, and considered becoming a dentist, but since he had already covered everything eight years of college would teach in Dentistry, he turned to medicine instead. He left the Navy as Pharmacist Mate Third Class on June 11, 1946.
After Dr. Jarrell retired, I often accompanied my friend Theodore Guynn to visit his old friend. They graduated from Blue Ridge High School together, a class that included Emily Culler, daughter of Carrie Sue Bondurant Culler. Eric, Theodore, and I sat around the Jarrell kitchen table, and I just listened to the two of them talk. Both men served in the United States Navy during World War II. Theodore served on the USS Princeton, an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean, and Eric served as a Marine Medic listed above.
From September 1946 until 1950, Eric attended the University of Virginia and then spent four years in medical school in Charlottesville. After one year of internship, Dr. W. Eric Jarrell returned to Ararat, worked off his rural scholarship, and began a 43-year career in medicine. He worked to get a Medical Examiner system in Surry County. He took over Dr. Gates’ practice and later moved to Mount Airy, where his office was on North Main Street. He retired on November 9, 1998, and is the rare Ararat native to be named a Distinguished Patrick Countian. My cousin, Dr. Todd Perry, took over Dr. Jarrell’s practice.
W. E. Jarrell married Jewel Beatrice Davis, the daughter of Clyde Stephen and Edith Beatrice Earnhart Davis. The couple had four children. W. E. Jarrell, Jr., born in 1954, died tragically in a car accident. David Hancock was born in 1961, Beverly Jewel in 1956, and Susan Beatrice in 1963. Beverly married Roger S. William, and their oldest child, Leslie Erica, attended the University of Virginia and was a Presidential Scholar. They had two other children: Roger, Jr., and Logan Beatrice. Davis H. Jarrell married Teresa Ercoline and had two children, Davis, Jr., and Anne Abram Jarrell.
After Eric passed away, I found myself at Ridgecrest Retirement Center on North Main Street in Mount Airy. I often gave history talks to the residents. On this particular day, I found myself in the presence of the ladies I like to call the “Grand Dams,” including Betty Blackmon, of Siamese Twin fame; Betty Lynn, who was Thelma Lou on The Andy Griffith Show; and Jewel Jarrell, wife of Doctor Jarrell. Jewell approached me that day and told me how much she appreciated the times I came to visit the Doctor with Theodore Guynn and how much Eric appreciated someone interested in his history. They are all gone now, and I appreciate their willingness to share their history with me. Always find the oldest people you know and talk to them, you will never be sorry about what you learn about Laurel Hill’s Many Histories.
