Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-07-25
Gen. Joseph Lane. ,

As this distinguished soldier and citizen is now on
q visit to North Carolina, the following letter from
the Hon. D. 1. SWAIN written in 1859, in relation
to his family and nativity, will beread with pecu.
liar interest The Lane family has made its mark
not only in this community, where Gen. Lane has
numerous connexions by blood and affinity, but in
Buncombe, in the Western part of the State, the
County of his birth. There are localities in old
Buncombe known as "Lane's Pinnacle" "Lanes
Mine Hole Gap" and Lanes Iron Works." named
from the father Of Gen. 10 Lane, who resided for
time in that portion of the State. But it was re-
served for the son to make his impress upon the
whole country, and to carve out name Of which
his relatives his friends and the State of his birth
may well be proud.
-t From the Memphis Avslanche.l
LETTER FROM HON. D. l. SWAIN.
A friend has furnished us with the copy of let
ter from Hon. D. L. Swain, President Of the Uni
versty of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in reply
to q correspondent who had addressed him some
enquiries touching the family history of Gen. Jo
Lane, Of Oregon. The letter was private one, and
not intended for publication but as it contains some
facts, which, considering the position now occupied
by Gen. Lane before the country, are very interest
ing, We take the liberty of laying it before our
readers. The following is the letter.
CHAPEL HILL, Oct %, 1859.
DEAR SIR: Your letter Of the 14th, owing to my
absence in the discharge of official duties, did not
reach me until day two since and avail myself
Of the earliest practicable opportunity to reply.
tory can no more clearly traced through every
period of the annals Of NorthCarolina than that Of
Gen. Lanes. In proportion to numbers, compara-
lively few of its members have aspred to or obtain
ed political distinction indeed distinction of any
kind On the other hand there are probably few
that have enjoyed greater average respectability.
Gen. Lanes great grandfather, Joseph, (who sign
ed his name Joseph Lane, jr, in 1727,) died at his
residence near Halifax, on the Roanoke in l776-
His three sons, JOEL Joseph and Jesse, were pioneer
settlers IN the neighborhood of Raleigh in 1741.-
OF these, Col Joel was the wealthest and most con-
spicuous. He conveyed to the State the $40 acres
of land the site of the present city Of Raleigh. His
dwelling house. at the period of its erection the best
within hundred miles, is the present residence of
William Boylan, Esq. All three were Wings during
the revolution, and Col Joel and Jesse did service
in the army, the latter as private.
Jesse was the grandfather of General Joseph
Lane and of myself He was born in Halifax, July
4th, 1922, and married Winifred Acock. They had
sixteen children, eight and eight daughters all
of whom lived to rear families. In 1779 my grand
father emigrated to Wilkes. now Oglethorpe coun-
ty Ga where he resided until 1900 when he removed
to St. Louis where he died in 1904 in the 82d year
of his age. Gen. 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 family to
Georgia Q779) Wilkes was frontier county, and,
during series of years subject to frequent INCUR
sions from the Creeks and Cherokees. There were
no members of the family able to bear arms, whose
services were not put into requsition, and no one
male, or female, who was not familiar with the hor-
ror of savage warfare. Ny mother beguiled many
an hour during my infancy, in the recital of hair
breadth escapes, which, delicate woman as she was,
rendered her personal history one of remarkable
suffering and adventure.
have no recollection of my grandfather or uncle
John. The former visited my father on his way to
Missouri and the later was an inmate of our family
for some time previous to and subsequent to my
birth. l heard much of him in my boyhood, and
suppose that in all respects the son is counterpart
of the father brave, enterprising, and generous
He was universal favorte in the midst of the men
who fought at the Cowpens and Kings Mountain,
and who considered foray among the Indians as
little less than pastime.
Gen. Lanes mother was Betsy, daughter of Jas.
Street the first Sheriff of my native county Bun-
combe.) The descendants of the sixteen children
of Jesse are dispersed through all of the Western
and Southern States.
l enter into these particulars simply to satisfy
you that whilst the family of Gen. Lane have no
just preensons to the pride of heraldry there is
cause, on the other hand, why they should blush
for his ancestry or his connections.
/ write in unavoidable haste, but will be ready at
any time to communicate more special information
if it shall be called for.
Yours very respectfully,
D. L. SWAIN.