Both Zebulon's grandfathers, David Vance I and Zebulon Baird, were prominent in the early history of Buncombe County. David Vance I married Priscilla Brank, of German descent, in 1775. They settled in Burke County. Soon thereafter he joined Washington's forces fighting the British. He fought at Kings Mountain and was lieutenant colonel by the war's end. In 1792, while a representative from Burke County in the state legislature, he was appointed to a commission to survey the boundary between North Carolina and the new state of Tennessee. He served as Buncombe County clerk of court from that year until his death in 1813. His 898 acres on Reems Creek were willed to his sons Robert and David II.
Vance Articles
