The Journal of the Senate shows that the bill was received and passed by that body on the same day. The Mr. William Davidson referred to in this extract was the representative from Rutherford county, and at that time resided on the south side of the Swannanoa river not far from the present site of the city of Asheville, that part of Buncombe then being, or supposed to be in Rutherford county.
At the organization of the county of Buncombe in April 1792, David Vance was chosen clerk of the County Court, which position he continuously occupied until his death. Some of the records of that court while he was its clerk are extant, and the beauty of his chirography, the order and neatness, as well as the accuracy of his entries, bear witness of his entire qualifications for the duties of his office.
A story is related of him in connection with his office of clerk, which shows something of the manners of the time and the character of the man. On one occasion two young men called at his house, one of whom desired to procure a marriage license. They were invited to enter, and the Captain soon produced from his side-board, a decanter, from which he invited them to refresh themselves. They did so, whereupon the Captain replaced his decanter and proceeded to dispatch the business for which they had come. When they were about to leave, one of the young men ventured to ask for another dram. The old gentleman indignantly refused, and proceeded to read the young man a lecture, which perhaps he never forgot, winding up with the declaration that “such a request had never before been heard of in the house of a gentleman.”
About the time he was elected clerk, he was appointed colonel of militia for Buncombe—a position then, and for many years after, regarded as the highest dignity and influence in the county organizations. Thereafter he was known as Colonel Vance.
He, with Gen. Joseph McDowell and Mussendine Matthews were appointed commissioners by act of the General Assembly at the session of 1796 to settle and mark the boundary line between the States of North Carolina and Tennessee. Although the act was passed in 1796 the commissioners did not run the line until the year 1799. They began at White Top Mountain, a point where the boundaries of North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee meet and ran westwardly, locating the boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina, to a point at the eastern end of the great Smoky Mountains in a gap near where the present Cattalooche turnpike leading from Waynesville to Tennessee, crosses Mt. Starling. This, at that time, was supposed to be the eastern boundary of the Indian Territory.
It was while running this line, the incident occurred which gave rise to the preparation of the accounts of the campaign and Battle of King’s Mountain by Colonel Vance and Robert Henry, Esquire, (the latter being one of the surveyors appointed by the commissioners) known as the “Vance-Henry Narrative.”
He survived until the early part of the year 1813, when, having faithfully and honorably accepted and discharged the duties which the conditions of his life demanded; having justly acquired the love and veneration of his fellow-citizens; having lived long enough to see the great principles for which he had fought securely established and his countrymen marching onward toward a glorious and happy future, he peacefully died, leaving behind him the record of a life worthy of the emulation of all men and one which his descendants may proudly contemplate and fondly cherish.
He was buried on a beautiful knoll a short distance north of his residence, a spot selected by himself as a last resting-place, and which, it is said, he often spoke of as “a beautiful place from which to arise on the Resurrection Morn.”
He left surviving him, his wife, three sons, Samuel, David and Robert Brank, and five daughters, Jean, who married Hugh Davidson; Elizabeth, who married Mitchell Davidson and after his death Samuel W. Davidson; Sarah, who married —— McLean; Priscilla who married —— Whitson, and Celia, who married Benjamin S. Brittain. Samuel and Jean, Sarah and Priscilla, with their husbands, about the beginning of this century, removed to and settled upon the lands in Tennessee on the Duck river, which their father had provided for them. They numerous children, some of whom, together with many of their children, still reside in the vicinity. The late Judge Hugh Law Davidson and his brother Robert B. Davidson, who is still living, a highly esteemed citizen and a member of the Bar at Shelbyville, Tennessee, were the sons of Jean.
David lived and died in the county of Buncombe. He was the father of Hon. Zebulon B. Vance and Gen. Robert B. Vance.