F 258 ; copy 1 JOEL LANE, PIONEER AND PATRIOT. A BIOGRAPHICAL. SKETCH. INCLUDING NOTES ABOUT THE LANE FAMILY AND THE COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. MARSHALL DELANCEY HAYWOOD. REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD RALRHiH, N. C. : Alpohi), Hyni'm iSc CiiRiSTOi'UKRs. B()ol< :iml .I<>li rrintcrs. 190U. TWO COPIES RKCElVeiD, L iurary cf CSRgr08% Offleo of tlii APR \ 1900 Kegitt«r of Copyrlghfft 61035 Copyrighted, March, 1900, by Marshall Del^neey Haywood. SECOND COPY. TO ''MY NATIVE HEATH '' THE (lOOI) OLD COUNTY OF WAKE THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. JOEL LANE, A PIONEER AND PATRIOT OF WAKE COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA. ^^^ HOUGH comparatively few of tlie name now re- ^^main in the State, tlie family of Lane was one of the most numerous, as well as influential, in the province of North Carolina. It is said to be collater- ally descended from Sir Ralph Lane, who, with Sir Richard Grenville and other bold adventurers, sailed from Plymouth, England, in 1585, and founded (in what is now North Carolina), the Colony of Roanoke, of which Lane became Governor — the first English Governor in America. This Colony, as is well known, had no permanent existence, and Governor Lane re- turned to Great Britain where he died — in Ireland — in 1G04, three years prior to the first permanent Amer- ican settlement, at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The father of this Sir Ralph was Sir Ralph Lane, of Or- lingbury, whose wife, nee Parr, was a first cousin of Katherine Parr, the sixth Queen of that exemi^lary old Mormon, King Henry VIII. Not many years after Jamestown was founded, sev- eral other members of the Lane family came to Vir- ginia, and their descendants aided in the permanent settlement of North Carolina. This alleged connection between Sir Ralph and the Lanes of Colonial Virginia, from whom spring the Lanes of North Carolina, is vouched foi* only by tra- 6 clition, but this tradition exists in many separate and divergent branches of the family. Whether it should be taken cum grano sails, let the reader judge. " I cannot tell how the truth may be ; I say the tale as 'twas said to me." After removing to North Carolina, the Lanes lived j)rincipally in the eastern section of the State. They were useful members of society and adherents of the Church of England. In Halifax County quite a num- ber of the family settled, and there was born Joel Lane, the subject of this sketch. His father, Joseph Lane, of Halifax, married Patience McKinne, a daugh- ter of Colonel Barnabas McKinne, Jr. Of this Colonel McKinne the writer is unable to speak further than to observe that he was a resident of North Carolina and died in the year 1736, leaving quite a number of descendants, several of whom bore his full name. Through him the name of Barnabas was also introduced into the Lane family. The above mentioned Joseph Lane, of Halifax (who died about 1774), had five sons, all of whom left issue. They were : Joel, of whom this sketch will treat at length; Joseph,* who married Ferebee Hunter, and died in Wake County in 1798 ; James, f who married Lydia Speight, and died in Wake County on January 6, 1805; Jesse, t who married Winifred Aycock, and *Joseph left a son and a grandson, both named Joseph. They should not be con- fused with General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, who, as hereinafter mentioned, was a grandson of Jesse Lane. +There seems to have been a superfluity of James Lanes: (1) James Sr., above mentioned — Col. Joel's brother; (2) James, son of Col. Joel; (3) James, son of an- other Joel, and grandson of James, Sr, I think there were some Lanes in other parts of the State, who also bore this given name. tin the State Records, Vol. XVI., p. 1101, it appears that a Jesse Lane enlisted for a three j'ears term of service on March 1, 1777, in Cai)tain Jacob Turner's Company, died in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1804; and Barnabas,'^ who died about 1775. Barnabas had three children : Martin, Barnabas, Jr., and a daughter, Jean. His son Martin — born 1755, died 1825 — served in the Rev- olutionary war, was one of the earliest landowners in Raleigh, and died in Giles County, Tennessee, leav- ing descendants. General Joseph Lane, the "Marion of the Mexican War," who was Governor of Oregon and United States Senator, as well as a distinguished soldier, was the son of John Lane and his wife Betsey Street. This John was a son of Jesse and a nephew of Joel. When General Lane was a candidate for Vice Pres- ident of the United States in 1860, he visited Raleigh in July of that year and was entertained at the coun- try-seat of his kinsman, the late Henry Mordecai, just north of the city. To this entertainment every mem- ber of the Lane connection, who could be found, was invited. Mr. Mordecai' s residence was originally built by his grandfather, Henry Lane, eldest son of Joel ; but afterwards, in 1824, was added to and remodeled under the supervision of AVilliam Nichols, who also altered the architecture of the old Capitol, which was destroyed by fire on the 21st of June, 1831. It has sometimes been stated that the late Governor Third North Carolina Continontals. Captain Turner was kilh'd at tlu* Battlo of (ier mantown in the following October. After Jesse's enlistment had expired, he af?ain entered the service; for I)}- n-ference to the manuscript books, entitled " Army Ac- counts," in the office of the State Auditor, at Ralei/^h, Vol. lU, Section A. A., p. 50. will be found the entrj^: "Allowed Jesse Lane for pay to tlie first of January, 17b2, including interest, the first day of Auf?ust, 1783 175. 11. "K" (iovernor Swain, in the letter presently given, says that Jesse moved to Georgia before this (in 1779). Qufere : Were there two Jesse's, or did Jes.se of Wake send his family to Georgia, and follow them later? *See abstract of the will of his grandfather, Co'. Barnabas McKinne, Jr., in tlie North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, Vni. l.,ii, 61, (January, lUdo). 8 Henry Smith Lane, of Indiana, was descended from the Lanes of Wake County. This, as the writer learns from a member of the family in Indiana, is a mistake; though the Governor was probably of the same stock, for his ancestors were of Virginia origin, as were also the Lanes of North Carolina. After General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, had won a great reputation in the war with Mexico and was gain- ing distinction in national politics, a gentleman in Tennessee, desiring to know something of the history of the Lane family, wrote in 1859 to ex-Governor Swain (then President of the University of North Car- olina, and a first cousin of the General), for the infor- mation desired. Governor Swain's reply was pub- lished in the Memphis Avalanche^ and was afterwards copied in the North Carolina Semi- Weekly Standard, a paper x^nblished at Raleigh, in its issue of July 21, 1860, when Lane was a candidate for Vice President. Commenting upon it, the editor of the Standard ob- served that in old Buncombe where General Lane was born, there was a " Lane's Pinnacle," a " Lane's Mine Hole Gap," and "Lane's Iron Works," named for his family. The letter of Governor Swain is so rej>lete with in- formation concerning the whole connection that we give it in full : OiTAPEL Hill, October 23rd, 1859. Dear Sir: — Your letter of the 14th, owing to my absence in the dis- charge of official duties, did not reach me' until a day or two since, and I avail myself of the earliest practicable opportunity to reply. There is probably no family whose authentic history can be more clearly traced through every period of the annals of North Carolina than that of General Lane's. In proportion to numbers, compara- tively few of its members have aspired to or obtained political dis- 9 tinction, or indeed distinction of any kind. On the other hand there are probably few tliat have enjtiyed greater averaj^e res])ectability. CJeneral Lane's great-grandfather, Joseph (who signed his name Jo- seph T.ane, Jr., in 1727), died at his residence near Halifax, on the lio- anoke, in 1776.* His three sons — Joel, Joseph, and Jesse — were pi- oneer settlers in the neighborhood of Raleigh, in 1741. Of these. Col- onel Joel was the wealthiest and most conspicuous. He conveyed to the State 640t acres of land, the site of the present City of Raleigh. His dwelling-house, at the period of its erection the best within a hundred miles, is the present residence of William Boylan, Esq. All three were Whigs during the Revolution, and Colonel Joel and Jesse did service in the army, the latter as a private*. Jesse was the grandfather of General Joseph Lane and of myself. He was born in Halifax, July 4th, 1733, and married Winifred Acock. They had sixteen children — eight sons and eight daughters — all of whom lived to rear families. In 1779 my grandfather emigrated to Wilkes, now Oglethorpe County, Gai, where he resided until 1800; then he removed to St. Louis, where he died in 1804. General Lane is the son of John Lane, the eighth child and fourth son of our grandfather Jesse. At the time of the removal of the fam- ily to Georgia (1779), Wilkes was a frontier County, and, during a series of years subject to frequent incursions from the Creeks and Cherokees. There were no members of the family able to bear arms, whose services were not put into requisition, and no one male, or female, who were not familiar with the horror of savage warfare. My mother beguiled many an hour during my infancy, in the recital of hair-breadth escapes, which, delicate woman as she w^as, rendered her personal history one of remarkable suffering and adventure. I have no recollection of my grandfather or uncle John. The former visited my father on his way to Missouri, and thelatter was an inmate of our family for some time previous to and subse(]uent to my birth. I heard much of him in my boyhood, and sui)pose that in all respects the son is a counterpart of the father, brave, enterprising, and gen- erous. He was a universal favorite in the midst of the men who fought at the Cowpens and King's ]\Iountain, and who considered a foray among the Indians as little less than a pastime. ♦Error— he died in the winter of 177:}-"7l.— M. DkL. H. +At a hiter (lute, MM, (governor Swain makes n more accurate .statement (in liis Tucker Hall Address) of the amount of land sold by Lane, to-wit : l.(JO<» acres, 4tH) icres of which were laid off into lots and the remainder held, for the time Ijeing, i.y the State.— M. DkL. U. JSee last note on p. 0, ante. — M. DkL. II. 10 General Lane's mother was Betsy, daughter of James Street, the first Sheriff of my native County (Buncombe). The descendants of the sixteen children of Jesse are dispersed through all of the Western and Southern States. I enter into these particulars simply to satisfy you that whilst the family of General Lane have no just pretensions to the pride of her- aldry, there is no cause, on the other hand, why they should blush for his ancestry or his connections. I write in unavoidable haste, but will be ready at any time to com- municate more special information if it shall be called for. Yours very respectfully, D. L. SWAIN. Many years before Wake County was formed, Joel Lane liad settled at the point wliicli afterwards became its county-seat, and was later tlie capital of tlie State. His place of residence was called Bloomsbury, and was then within the territory of Johnston Connty. Land was taken from Orange and Cumberland, as well as Johnston, for the formation of Wake, and Mr. Lane was one of the commissioners who laid out its boun- daries. The new county was established by the colo- nial assembly in December, 1770, with a proviso that the act of creation should not take effect until March 12, 1771. Governor Tryon, for whose wife, neeWsike — and not " Esther Wake " — it was named, formally signed the charter on May 22, in the latter year. * The first court was held on the 4th of June, 1771. Theophilus Hunter was chairman, and Joel Lane and his brother Joseph were among the members of this tribunal. t The other justices were : Benjamin Hardy, James Martin, Hardy Sanders, Abraham Hill, Thomas Wooten, James Jones, Tingnall Jones and Thomas Crawford. *Colonial Records, Vol. VIII., pp. 299, 333, 334. Copy of charter in court-house of Wake County. Chapter 22, Laws of 1770. +Court Records of Wake County. 11 In the early si>ring of 1771, when Governor Try on raised an army to snppress the insnrrection of the Reguhitors, the principal place of rendezvons for his forces was AYake Cross Roads, Avhere Raleigh now stands. Colonel John Hinton, Lane's father-in-law, then commanded the connty militia and marched nn- der Tryon to the scene of action, in wiiicli he bore a conspicuous part.* Of Colonel Hinton' s conduct on this occasion, and afterwards at the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, during the Revolution, Governor Cas- well says: ''In both instances I was an eye-wit- ness and can venture to assert he behaved with be- coming bravery and resolution."! At Alamance the Regulators were routed in the battle fought on May 16, 1771. AVhile waiting for reinforcements during that campaign, Governor Tryon located his headquarters near the present Fayetteville road at Hunter's Lodge, the residence of Theo^^hilus Hunter. This was some distance southeast of Spring Hill, later the home of Tlieophilus Hunter, Jr. For three days, from the 5th to the 8th of May, the army remained there. As the old road was too rough to carry artillery over, Tryon had a new one cut in the direction of the Regulators' country. After a town in Kent, Eng- hmd, he called it '' Ramsgate Road." That classic h>cality near Raleigh, now known as Raincat, derives its name from this circumstance. When the army marched l)ack from Alamance, Colonel Hinton' s de- tachment was disbanded at Wake Court-IIouse on the 22nd of June. On the day before this, Governor Tryon l)ade his army farewell, and Id't for New York, liav- *Colonial Records, Vol. VIII., pp. fiTrt, 7» Co., »>f Rah-iKli. i?* "<'nv propariiiK. mid will soon have for Bale, an etching of this Imilding. 22 by Peter Browne, a native of Scotland, who was an able lawyer, but withal a miser and utilitarian, re- specting nothing above its value in dollars and cents. Finding that the burying ground (where, also, many other early citizens, besides the Lanes, were interred) was an unprofitable x)iece of property, he had it plowed up and planted in cabbages! If one leaves this spot, and walks about a mile and a half eastward along Morgan Street to what Raleigh people now call the Old Grave- yard, there he will find the slab which marks the grave of Browne himself. It states that he died Octo- ber 26, 1833, "aged 6711 years." Verily, one may think, Methuselah would turn green with envy, and feel youthful, could he read this. What means it ? may be asked by another, less credulous. The solu- tion is this : Originally the inscription read, "67" years ; and some vandal, with a good knowledge of stone-cutting, did the rest by adding the two other figures. Thus the grave of this desecrator has not itself escaped desecration. Before concluding our sketch, further mention should be made of the house in which Colonel Lane lived, and which was built by him. It still stands, and is the oldest house in Raleigh — much older than the city itself. William Boylan, editor of the Minerva^ bought it from the aforementioned Peter Browne, in 1818, and it has been in possession of the Boylans ever since. It faces east on the avenue named for that family. To one of the present generation, it is an un- imposing structure ; but, when built, was considered quite palatial. Two stories, low in pitch, with a steep double-slanting roof and a small wing on the south side, is the house as it stands. But it seldom 28 fails to attract attention. Its quaintness of architec- ture speaks of a generation now passed into history — of Tryon, marching witli liis army against the Regu- lators ; of Burke, Spaight, Lenoir, and their compa- triots in the Revolutionary assembly which met be- neath its roof; of the Hintons, Hunters, and Jones's, of early Wake. " A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall, Now somewhat fallen to decay, With weather-stains upon the wall. And stairways worn and crazy doors. And creaking and uneven floors. And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall — A region of repose it seems, A place of slumber and of dreams !" LE N '10 LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 014 419 502 4