The Vance House in Buncombe County, built more than a century and
a half ago by the grandfather of Governor Zebulon B. Vance.
Home of the Vances
One of I lie first houses in the
Kiincomhe County seel ion. the
old structure is still standing.
Three generations of Vances
made their home there.
By W. C.
11ЕМЖ1С
KS
SKVKX miles north of Asheville
on U. S. 19, a marker indicates
(hut the Keems Creek Road, run¬
ning eastward from that point, loads
to the birthplace of Gov. Zebulon
Bain! Vance. The road, recently
paved, twists and winds up the Rooms
Creek valley and a close look must be
kepi or the little single-storied frame
house, built more than a century and
a half ago by the grandfather of North
Carolina’s Civil War governor will bo
passed by.
Five and a half miles down the
road, within a small yard slightly nar¬
rowed when the new highway was laid,
the inconspicuous dwelling stands
upon ground hallowed by three gen¬
erations of a family that made a
strong and lasting impression upon
this state.
One of the Original Settlers
When Col. David Vance came into
the Rooms Creek valley about the
year 1785, 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 val¬
ley. From Quaker Meadows he went
as an ensign in the Revolutionary
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 pres¬
ent Buncombe County. The struc¬
ture 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. Fu this house Colonel Vance’s
sons, Dr. Robert Brank Vance and
Capt. David Vance were born in 179.1
and 1799 respectively, and here also
was born, in 1830, Zebulon Baird
Vance, the son of Capt. David Vance.
After the house had stood for near¬
ly a century the log walls were la-gin¬
ning to crumble with dry rot. The
upper story was removed, the exterior
was covered with clapboards, and n
porch was built across the front. So
the little house stands today. The
lean-to remain* and the interior is as
it was during the time of the three
Vance generations.
Thick, 12-ineh-widc floorboards are
deeply worn from 150 years of con¬
stant use. The great fireplaces, fash¬
ioned of handmade bricks, with open¬
ings ten feet wide, are still there, serv¬
ing the tenant family now occupying
the house with heating and cooking
facilities. The wooden mantels and the
wooden walls and ceiling are black¬
ened by the escaping smoke from fires
(hat 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 services.
Father of Buncombe County
Colonel Vance 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 servo as a member of the
boundary commission that laid out
the North Carolina-Tennessce line,
and from the house his two sons and
grandsons went forth to fame— though
one went to a tragic death.
Dr. Robert Brank Vance, Colonel
Vance's eldest son, was educated as a
physician, and though he practiced
this profession for a time he soon en¬
tered politics, was elected to Congress,
and as a candidate for reflection was
defeated by Samuel P. Carson of
Burke. This defeat embittered Dr.
Vance, who engaged in a denunciation
of Carson and the latter's father, re¬
sulting in a challenge to mortal com¬
bat. Dueling was then forbidden in
North Carolina but the principals em¬
ployed the well-established ruse of
sending the challenge from another
state and fighting the duel outside
the state. Vance and Carson, with
their seconds and surgeons met on
the Greenville road, just inside the
South Carolina line on a day in No¬
vember, 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 Crock¬
ett was one of Carson’s seconds and
that when Carson insisted that he did
not want to kill Vance, Carson main¬
tained that he must do so to protect
himself from the possibility of a sec¬
ond exchange.
Captain David Vance was an es¬
teemed-citizen of his day, serving as
clerk of court and in other public ca¬
pacities. During the latter months of
{Continued on page sixteen)
