Vance County, North Carolina

	Vance County
	Founded 1881
	Website http://www.vancecounty.org

Vance County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 42,954. Its county seat is Henderson Template:GR.

History

The county was formed in 1881 from parts of Franklin County, Granville County, and Warren County.Template:Citation needed According to the 1955 book, Zeb's Black Baby, by Samuel Thomas Peace Sr., "The formation of Vance County was accomplished largely as a political expediency. It was in 1881 when Blacks in large numbers were voting solidly Republican. Granville and Franklin Counties were nip and tuck, Democratic or Republican. From the Democratic standpoint, Warren County was hopelessly Republican. But by taking from Granville, Franklin and Warren, those sections that were heavily Republican and out of these sections forming the new county of Vance, the Democratic party could lose Vance to the Republicans and save Granville and Franklin for the Democrats (see gerrymandering). [U.S.] Senator [Zebulon Baird] Vance was a Democrat. He took kindly to this move and thanked the [North Carolina] Legislature for honoring him with naming the new county after him. At the same time...Vance showed his humor by always referring to Vance County as 'Zeb's Black Baby.'" In the 1890 Census, Vance County was more than 63 percent African American.[1]

Zebulon Baird Vance was a Governor of North Carolina (1862–1865, 1877–1879) and United States senator (1879–1894). In 1881, he was arguably the state's most popular politician.

Adjacent counties

Cities and towns

Map of Vance County, North Carolina With Municipal and Township Labels

Townships

The county is divided into eight townships: Dabney, Henderson, Kittrell, Middleburg, Sandy Creek, Townsville, Watkins, and Williamsboro.

References

External links

This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia adapted for use as a quick research reference on this wiki. The original content was here: Vance County, North Carolina. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the ENC Phillips Group Wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.