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One ol Ihe firxf houses in Ihe Buncombe Count) section, the old structure is
still standing. Three generations of N ances made their home there.
Home of the Vances
Tin* Vanee homo in IIiiiiooiiiIh*
Count. v. h.iill more Ilian a eenlury
anti a half ago hy tho grantlfal li«»r of
Governor /«‘Ini Ion B. \anoo.
By \\. IIIMIItK hS
ShVtN miles north of Asheville,
on US- 1 9.
и
marker indicates
that the Reems Creek Road,
running eastward from that point,
leads to the birthplace of Governor-
Senator Zebulon B. Vance. Ihe road
twists and winds up the Reems Creek
valley and a close
1«м»к
must be kept
or the little single-storied frame house,
built more than a century and a half
ago by the grandfather of North Caro¬
lina’s Civil War governor, will be
passed by.
Five and a hall miles down the
road, within a small yard slightly nar¬
rowed when the highway was laid, the
inconspicuous dwelling stands upon
ground hallowed by three generations
of a family that made a strong and
lasting impression upon this state.
One of Ihe Original Settlers
When Col. David Vance came into
the Reems Creek valley about the
year I7S5. this region was a part of
Burke County. Colonel Vance was born
in Virginia in 1745 and. when 20
years of age. settled in the Quaker
Meadows section of the Catawba
valley. From Quaker Meadows he
went as an ensign in the Revolution¬
ary Army to cover himself with glory
as a daring and intrepid officer and to
win promotion that raised him to the
rank of a regimental commander.
In the fertile Reems Creek valley,
near its head, he built his home, one
of the very first to be erected in present
Buncombe County. The structure of
logs was originally of two stories with
a lean-to on the eastern side. A crude
ladder stair in one corner led from the
first to the upper floor. In this house
Colonel Vance's sons. Dr. Robert
Brank Vance and Cap!. David Vance
were born in 1793 and 1799 respec¬
tively. and here also was bom in 1830.
Zebulon Baird Vance, the son of Capt.
David Vance.
After the house had stood for nearly
a century, the log walls were begin¬
ning to crumble with dry rot. The
upper story was removed, the exterior
was covered with clapboards, and a
porch was built across the front. So
the little house stands today. The lean-
to remains and the interior is as it was
during the lime of the three Vance
generations.
Thick 12-inch floorboards are deep¬
ly worn from 150 years of constant
use. Ihe great fireplace, fashioned of
handmade brick, with openings ten
feet wide, are still there, serving the
tenant family now occupying the house
with cooking and heating facilities. The
wooden mantels and the wooden walls
and ceilings are blackened by the
escaping smoke from fires that have
scarcely ceased to burn from the time
the pioneer Vance erected this crude
though stoutly built house in the midst
of the homestead granted him for his
Revolutionary War services.
Father of Buncombe County
Colonel Yancc is considered the
father of Buncombe County. While a
member of the General Assembly in
1791. he and William Davidson intro¬
duced the bill that created Buncombe
from Burke and Rutherford counties.
From this house Colonel Vance left
in 1799 to serve as a member of the
boundary commission that laid out
the North Carolina-Tcnncsscc line,
and from this house his two sons and
grandsons went forth to fame— though
one went to a tragic death.
Dr. Robert Brank Vance. Colonel
N ance's oldest son. was educated as
a physician and. though he practiced
this profession for a time, he soon
entered politics, was elected to Con¬
gress and. as a candidate for re-elec¬
tion, was defeated by Samuel P. Car-
son of Burke. This defeat embittered
l)r. Vance, who engaged in a denun¬
ciation of Carson and the latter's
father, resulting in a challenge to mor¬
tal combat. Dueling was then forbidden
in North Carolina, but the principals
employed the well-established ruse of
sending the challenge from another
state and fighting the duel outside the
state. Vance and Carson, with their
seconds anil surgeons, met on the
Greenville road just inside the South
Carolina line on a day in November.
1827. The duel was fought with pistols.
Vance was shot through the body and
died within a few hours. There is a
tradition that Davy Crockett was one
of Carson's seconds and that when
Carson insisted that he did not want
to kill \ ance. Crockett maintained that
he must do so to protect himself from
the possibility of a second exchange.
Captain David Vance was an es¬
teemed citizen of his day. serving as
clerk of the court and in other public
capacities. During the latter months of
the War of 1812 he was commissioned
a captain and. although he assumed
command of a company of troops, did
not reach the scene of action.
Across the road from the old Vance
( Continued on page 20)
THE STATE. FEBPUAPY 24.
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