The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1860-08-14
GEN LANE
The following notice of Gem Lane is from the
pen Of. the President Of the University of North
Carolina: 81


pen of.the President Of the University of North
Carolina: 81
~ CHAPEL Hill, October %, 1859. 49,
DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 4th, owing to nv
absence in the discharge of official duties did not
reach me until day or two since, and avail my
self Of the earliest practical opportunity to reply:
There probability that no family whose au-
thentic history be more closely traced through
every period of the annals of North Carolina than
that of Gen Lanes. In proportion to numbers,
comparatively few of its members have aspired to
or obtained political distinction Of any kind. On
the other hand, there probably few that have
enjoyed greater average responsibility
Gen. Lanes great grandfather Joseph who sign
ed his name (Jeseph Lane, jr., in l727), died at
his residence near Halifax, on the Roanoke in
1776. His three sons Joel, Joseph, and Jesse,
were pioneer settlers in the neighborhood of Raj
eigh, in l74l. Ofthese, Col Joel was the wealth
lest and most conspicuous He conveyed to the
State the $40 of land the site of the
city of Raleigh. His dwelling house, at the peri
cd of its erection the best within hundred miles,
is the presnt residence of Andrew Bayler, ESQ.,.
and they were Wings during the Revolution, and
Col. Joel and Jesse did service in the army, the
latter as private.
Jesse was the grandfather of Gen. Joseph Lane
and myself. He was born in Halifax, July 4,
1922, and married Winifred Awek. They had
sixteen children eight sons and eight daughters,
all Of whom lived to bear families. In 1779 my
grandfather emigrated to Wilkes, near Oglethorpe
County, Ca, where he resided until 1900, when
he removed to St. Louis, where he died in 1904,
in the SD 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 remov-
al Of the family to Georgia Q779,) Wilkes was a
frontier county, and, during series of years SUBJ
ject to frequent invasions from the Greeks and
Cherokees. There were members of the fami-
ly able to bear arms, whose services were not put
into requsition, and no one male or female, who
was not familiar with the horrors of savage war
fare. My 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
I have no recollection of my grandfather or
uncle John. The former visited my father on
his way to Missouri, and the latter was an inmate
of my family for time previous to and subse-
quent to my birth. I heard much of him in my
boyhood, and suppose that in all respects the
counterpart of the father brave enterprising, and
generous, He was a universal favorite in the
midst of the men who fought at the Cowpens ard
Kings Mountain, and who considered ioray
among the indians as little less than pastime.
Gen.. Lanes mother Betsy, daughter of
James Street. the first Sheriff of my native County
(Buncombe The descendants of the sixteen chill
dren of Jesse are dispersed through all of the
Western and Southern States. Judge G. ".
Lane of Huntsville, Richard A. Lane Of Georgia,
are cousins to Gen. Lane; Judge Colquitt Senator
from Georgia in 1917, George, the former Mayor of
Atlanta, Ga, and DIR. Jones recently of the House
of Representatives, married his cousins. "a
enter into these particulars simply to satisfy
you that while the family of Gen Lane have no
just pretentions to the praise of heraldry there
is cause on the other hand, why they should
blush for his ancestry or his connections.
| write in considerable haste, but will be ready
at any time to communicate more special informa-
ton if it should be called for.
Yours very respectfully,
d. L. SWAIN