I2258: Mary Ida CONERLY (16 Feb 1882

Notes

Vance Zebulon B. 26 North Carolina Infantry. Colonel Colonel Confederate
Vance Zebulon B. F 14 North Carolina Infantry. Captain Captain 26 N.C. T. Confederate

Civil War Pension Index: Zebulon B. Vance #: 1274 State Filed: North Carolina, Widow: Mary H. Vance.

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 16, Ed. 1, Tree #0097, He became Governor of N.C. during the civil war. After the war he became a Senator from N. C. for several terms. He died while serving in the Senate.

After obtaining an education at Washington College, Tenn., and the University of North Carolina, studying law, and being admitted to the bar in 1853, he established himself in practice in Asheville, N.C. The next year (1854) he was sent to the State legislature and in 1858 was elected to Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative Clingman. He was opposed to secession, but at the opening of the Civil War adopted the Confederate cause and became a colonel of the 26th North Carolina regiment. He was elected governor in 1862 and re-elected in 1864, and in 1870 was elected to the United States Senate, but not being allowed to take his seat there on account of his un removed political disabilities, he resigned in 1872. In 1876 he again became governor, and being elected to the United States senate in 1879 retained his seat until his death.

State Library of North Carolina North Carolina Encyclopedia

Zebulon Baird Vance [1830-1894]

He was the Mount Mitchell of all our great men, and in the affections and love of the people, he towered above them all. As ages to come will not be able to mar the grandeur and greatness of Mount Mitchell, so they will not be able to efface from the hearts and minds of the people the name of their beloved Vance. -- Governor Thomas J. Jarvis

Zebulon Baird Vance, best known as North Carolina's Civil War Governor, was born in Buncombe County in the North Carolina mountains on May 13, 1830. His family was Scotch-Irish on both sides and he was the third of eight children of David and Mira Baird Vance.

Zeb Vance was born into a family with a history of military and public service. During the American Revolution his grandfather, Colonel David Vance, had suffered through a bitter winter with Washington's Army at Valley Forge and had fought at Germantown, Brandywine, and the Battle of Monmouth. His uncle, Dr. Robert Brank Vance, was a congressman from 1824 to 1826 and Vance's father was a captain during the War of 1812.

The family lived in the house Colonel David Vance had built in the 1790s and while the family was long on tradition, they were often short of ready cash. Young Zeb was sent to Washington College in East Tennessee when he was about twelve, but at fourteen he had to leave school and come home when his father died.

When he turned twenty-one he wrote to former Governor Swain, who was at that time president of the University at Chapel Hill, and asked for a loan so he could enter Law School. Governor Swain arranged for a $300 loan from the University and after a reportedly brilliant academic year, Vance was granted his County Court license in Raleigh in late 1851. The next year he went to Asheville and began to practice law.

Public Career
The young lawyer first ventured into electoral politics when he was only twenty-four years old as the Whig candidate for a seat in the State House of Commons. He won that election against an opponent twice his age. Like many North Carolinians in public life, Vance spoke well on his feet. His gift of ready humor and oratorical skills on the stump resulted in a remarkable success rate in elections. In his whole career he was only defeated once at the polls, in 1856, when David Coleman and not Vance became the State Senator from Buncombe.

He bounced back in 1858 and won his first congressional seat, to which he was re-elected in 1860. When Vance first came to Washington he was, at age 28, the youngest member of Congress and one of the strongest Southern supporters of the Union. In March of 1861 however, when indications were that the North Carolina legislature was going to vote for secession, Vance resigned his seat and came home.

When the ordinance of secession was passed that May, Vance was already a captain in Raleigh commanding the company he had raised. The company was known as the "Rough and Ready Guards" and Vance and his men soon became part of the Fourteenth Regiment. Subsequently in August he was elected colonel of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina. Colonel Vance led his men in the field for thirteen months and the Regiment distinguished themselves at New Bern in March of 1862 and at Richmond in July of that same year.

Governor of North Carolina
Vance became the "soldier's candidate" for North Carolina governor and he easily won the post with a majority which included the vote of every man in his regiment. He took office in September 1862 and was re-elected in 1864. While the new governor was a Southerner, he was a North Carolinian first. During the War years, that priority put him in conflict several times with the confederate government in Richmond.

Governor Vance was a States' Righter and some of his independent actions did not find favor in Richmond. In particular, there was disagreement over his policy of exporting North Carolina cotton abroad by way of blockade runner ships and using the material received in exchange for the benefit of North Carolinians, both civilian and military. Because of this policy, North Carolina was the only Confederate state to equip and clothe its own regiments, but much of the blockade runner supplies were shared with the rest of the Confederacy. General Longstreet's Army for example received 12,000 uniforms from North Carolina after the Battle of Chickamauga.

Of all of Governor Vance's policies, the most remarkable was his insistence, in the midst of the devastation and confusion of war, upon the maintenance of the rule of law. North Carolina courts continued to function during the war, and North Carolina stands alone as the only state which never suspended the writ of habeas corpus.

With the fall of Fort Fisher in January of 1865, the last port open to the Confederacy was closed. In May General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered his Confederate troops to General William Tecumsah Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham. Later that month Governor Vance was arrested and taken into custody by federal troops. He spent time as a prisoner in the Old Capital Prison in the District of Columbia.

After the War
At the end of 1865 Vance was paroled and sent home. He went to Charlotte and resumed practicing law. He also began a new career on the lecture circuit and used the monies earned to maintain his family and satisfy old debts.

In 1870 the governor won one of the North Carolina seats in the U.S. Senate, but still being under parole, was not allowed to serve. But six years later, by a majority of 13,000 votes, he defeated Thomas Settle and was voted into his third term as North Carolina's governor. During this third term the remaining federal troops left North Carolina. Also during this term, Governor Vance proposed plans to the legislature for increased educational facilities and teacher training throughout the state.

This third term was a short one, for in 1878 Governor Vance became U.S. Senator Vance, an office he held until his death on April 14, 1894.

Zebulon Vance was married twice. He was first married in 1853 to Miss Harriet Espy. Two years after his first wife's death in 1878, the Governor was married in 1880 to Mrs. Florence Steele Martin of the State of Kentucky. Governor Vance was the father of four sons by his first marriage.

FURTHER READING
Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. Samuel A. Ashe et al, editors. Greensboro, NC : Charles L. Van Noppen, 1907.

The Confederacy and Jeb Vance. Richard Edwin Yates. Tuscaloosa, AL : Confederate Publishing Company, 1958.

My Beloved Zebulon; the Correspondence of Zebulon Baird Vance and Harriet Newell Espy. Elizabeth Roberts Cannon, editor. Chapel Hill, NC : University of North Carolina Press, 1971.

The Papers of Zebulon Baird Vance. Vol. 1 edited by Frontis W. Johnston; Vol. 2 edited by Joe A. Mobley. Raleigh, NC : State Department of Archives and History. 1963 and 1995.

Zebulon B. Vance as War Governor of North Carolina, 1862-1865. Richard Edwin Yates. Nashville, TN : Vanderbilt University Thesis, 1937.

SPECIALLY SUITED FOR YOUNGER READERS
Governor Vance : A Life for Young People. Cordelia Camp. Raleigh, NC : Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1980.

North Carolina Governors, 1585-1975. Brief Sketches. Beth G. Crabtree. Raleigh, NC : Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, Third Edition, 1974

Children: by Harriette ESPEY b: WFT Est. 1815-1839 d: WFT Est. 1857-1910
Children by Florence Steele MARTIN b: WFT Est. 1826-1845 d: WFT Est. 1851-1920

Pioneer Days
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2003

The Zebulon Vance birthplace in Weaverville NC presents its annual fall pioneer day and militia encampment.

Zebulon Vance was the Confederate Governor of North Carolina and was also a Colonel in command of the 26th North Carolina Regiment during the War for Southern Independence.

The Vance birthplace is located at 911 Reems Creek Road in Weaverville. For further directions or details, please call (828) 645-6706 or send e-mail to [email protected]
http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/bio/public/vance.htm

"I own a fiddle that supposedly belonged to Zeb Vance, the great North Carolina mountaineer who was elected that state's governor in 1862. He opposed much of what Confederate President Jefferson Davis was doing in Richmond. He was too young to be involved in the Whig Party at the height of its popularity, but he had been "born a Whig" and many thought this moderate, independent-minded, vigorous young leader might be the one to keep the party alive in the South.

When he was approached to do so in 1865, Vance was typically direct: "The party is dead and buried and the tombstone placed over it and I don't care to spend the rest of my days mourning at its grave."

Like that Whig Party of the late 1850s, the Democratic Party of today has become dangerously fragmented, and considering the present leadership it can only get worse. Compromise will become increasingly difficult and no leader's goal will be to reach consensus or common ground. Instead, they will more than ever blindly champion this group and that group". From: U.S. Sen. Zell Miller is a Democrat from Georgia and a former governor of the state. By ZELL MILLER

KIMBERLY SMITH / Staff
In his new book, Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) has harsh words for his party. "If Southern voters think you don't understand them -- or even worse, much worse, if they think you look down on them -- they will never vote for you," he writes. BOOK EXCERPT This is the first of two excerpts from "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat" by Zell Miller. Stroud & Hall Publishers, Atlanta. Copyright 2003,
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/1103/02miller.html

"He was a Representative and a Senator from North Carolina;

Attended the common schools of Buncombe County, and Washington (Tenn.) College; studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; was admitted to the bar in 1852 and commenced practice in Asheville, N.C.; elected prosecuting attorney of Buncombe County in 1852; member, State house of commons 1854; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas L. Clingman; reelected to the Thirty-sixth Congress and served from December 7, 1858, to March 3, 1861; during the Civil War entered the Confederate Army as a captain and was promoted to the rank of colonel; Governor of North Carolina 1862-1866; arrested and imprisoned in Washington, D.C., in 1865 for Confederate activities; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in November 1870, but did not present his credentials; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1872; Governor of North Carolina 1876-1878; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1879; re-elected in 1884 and 1890, and served from March 4, 1879, until his death. Chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Forty-sixth Congress), Committee on Privileges and Elections (Fifty-third Congress); funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate."

" VANCE Zebulon Baird, senator, was born in Buncombe county, N.C., May
13, 1830; son of David Vance. He was named for Zebulon Baird, a Scotchman, who immigrated to New Jersey, removing thence to North Carolinaprevious to 1790, and taking with him the first wagon seen in Buncombe county. Zebulon B. Vance attended Washington college, Tenn., and theUniversity of North Carolina, 1851-52; was admitted to the bar in 1852, and began practice in Asheville. He served as solicitor for Buncombe county, 1852; was a member of the state legislature, 1854; was a representative from North Carolina in the 35th congress, having been elected to complete the unexpired term of Thomas L. Clingman, elected U.S.senator; and was re-elected to the 36th congress, serving from Dec. 7, 1858, to March 3, 1861 He raised a company in the 14th North Carolina regiment in May, 1861; was appointed captain; was promoted colonel of the 26th North Carolina regiment in August, and served throughout the Peninsular campaign. He was governor of North Carolina, 1862-66, and during his administration, through the purchase of a foreign steamship fitted out as a blockade runner, he provided both the state troops and the Confederate government with clothing, arms and general supplies. In consequence of his position as governor after the occupation of the state by the U.S. troops, he was arrested in May, 1865, taken to Washington, D.C., and was soon after released on parole. He was pardoned by President Johnson in April, 1867. He was a member of the Democratic national convention of 1868; re-elected to the U.S. senate in November, 1870, but was refused admission, resigning in January, 1872, and in the same year was the defeated Democratic nominee for senator, although congress had removed his political disabilities. He practised his profession in Charlotte, N.C., until his re-election as governor of the state in 1876, and was elected U.S. senator without opposition in 1878, and again in 1884 and 1890, serving from March 18, 1879, until his death. He introduced the sub-treasury bill in the 51st congress, and at the time of his death was a member of the committees on privileges and elections, finance, national banks, the University of the United States, and woman suffrage. [p.235] He was succeeded by Thomas Jordan Jarvis. He has been classed with Murphy and Macon as one of the three great statesmen produced by the state of North Carolina.

He was married, first, to Harriet Newell, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Empsy [sic], who died, Nov. 3, 1878; and secondly, in June, 1880, to Mrs. Florence (Steele) Marten, daughter of Samuel Steele of Kentucky, who survived him.

The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Davidson college, in 1867. Senator Vance died in Asheville, N.C., April 14, 1894."
(Johnson, Rossiter, ed. The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionaryof Notable Americans, Boston, 1904, The Biographical Society, Volume X, pages 234-235)."

J.-Ph. Ch., January 15, 2003.

My Southern Family

Mary Ida CONERLY

16 Feb 1882 - ____

ID Number: I2258

Sources

Anne DUDLEY

ABT 1730 - ____

ID Number: I71023

Sources

WALTER HASTINGS

____ - ____

ID Number: I88931

Notes

Sources

Alice HIGGINBOTHAM

ABT 1890 - ____

ID Number: I15807

Sources

Charles Henry LEE

ABT 1850 - ____

ID Number: I32327

Notes

Sources

Frances "Frankey" MCMILLIAN

1733 - 1795

ID Number: I73393

Sources

Daughter of Jacob MILES

ABT 1740 - ____

ID Number: I55102

Notes

Sources

Tony Eugene MOWDY

Charles McCants ROBINSON

Mary TENNENT

ABT 1800 - ____

ID Number: I23044

Sources

Hon. and Col. Zebulon Baird VANCE C.S.A. GOV of NC

13 May 1830 - 14 Apr 1894

ID Number: I80306

Notes

Sources

Richard WOOLFOLK

24 Mar 1763 - 30 May 1820

ID Number: I69477

Notes

Sources

-