Focus on Vance Monument and analyze the Dedication.
In February 1898, the Vance Monument Association appointed a dedication committee. Committee members included J. P. Kerr, J. A. Nichols, and J. P. Sawyer. In addition to planning the dedication ceremonies, the committee was asked to collect public suggestions. Items to be addressed included selecting the speakers and deciding whether to invite out-of-state guests. On March 11, 1898, the committee set the dedication for Memorial Day, May 10, 1898, and decided to invite Senator John W. Daniel from Virginia and Judge Robert F. Armfield from Statesville, North Carolina, to speak at the dedication. The group established a committee of related camps and organizations to collaborate for the dedication. Invitees included Judge Theodore F. Davidson, Joseph Dupuy Eggleston, Solomon Lipinsky, Colonel Virgil Stuart Lusk, Theo S. Morrison, Lieutenant J. A. Perry, Colonel James M. Ray, Major White G. Smith, R. P. Walker, and Dr. John Hey Williams. In addition, the Statesville Cornet Concert band volunteered to perform at the dedication.On March 26, 1898, the Zebulon Vance chapter of the United Confederate Veterans voted to attend the May dedication. However, Judge Armfeld declined the invitation to give the address because of his poor health. Former congressman and mayor of Wilmington, North Carolina, Alfred Moore Waddell accepted the committee's invitation to speak, saying, "Although I have already declined several invitations for the 10th May...I accept this from your association as a duty which I have neither the right nor the inclination to refuse." However, on April 25, Waddell had to cancel because he had a conflicting date in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Nationally known orator and Governor of Tennessee, Robert Love Taylor agreed to deliver an address. Taylor wrote, "I...will be with you on that date to honor one of the greatest and best men the South as ever produced."The committee hired Leroy Mitteldorfer of M. Mittledorfer & Son of Richmond, Virginia to decorate the Court Square buildings for the dedication. Buncombe County agreed to decorate the courthouse. A resolution was also passed, asking the citizens of Asheville to decorate their houses for dedication day. A platform was built near the monument for the dedication, and chairs were set up between the monument and the courthouse. The day before the dedication, school children were asked to bring wildflowers and evergreens to the monument to cover the unfinished ground around it. The committee also requested dogwood and evergreen boughs to cover the front of the platform. These offerings provided beautification and connected to nature which Vance loved.As the dedication date approached, the newspaper announced the expected dignitaries and their arrival in Asheville. Included were Mrs. Zebulon Baird Vance from Washington, D. C. and Charles N. Vance, the widow and son of Vance. Guests from Marion, North Carolina included Sheriff Gardin, John McDonald, Mary E. McDonald, E. G. Neal, and Dr. James A. Sinclair. Hickory, North Carolina was represented by C. H. Cline and E. B. Menzies, and Statesville, North Carolina by T. J. Allison. Major Robert Bingham announced that he entire study body of the Bingham Military Academy would attend. Also scheduled to attend was the president of the Asheville chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, along with as many members as possible. The dedication committee encouraged all teachers in the area to bring their classes, saying they would be provided seating.To enable people from across the region to attend the dedication, the Associated Railways of Virginia and the Carolinas announced that they would offer half-rate round trips to Asheville for civilians and one cent per mile traveled for military companies. This meant the round trip from Raleigh to Asheville would only cost $8.80 (equivalent to $310 in 2023).The unveiling and dedication of the Vance Monument were on May 10, 1898. Although scheduled to start at 10 a.m., the day before the event, the association announced a delay until 3 p.m. because the guest speaker, Governor Taylor, could not catch a train to make the earlier time. As requested, many businesses were decorated for the event, and flags were everywhere. Across from the monument, W. F. Snyder's Grocery featured a large picture of Vance, surrounded by evergreens intertwined with red, white, and blue fabric. There was also a large oil portrait of Vance, painted by John A. Williams of Asheville, at the Asheville Street Railway Company's office.
The event also had media coverage. In addition to local newspapers, S. A. Cunningham and Mrs. L. B. Eperson came from Nashville, Tennessee, for Confederate Veteran magazine. Photographer C. F. Ray took pictures of the decorated storefronts and also of the monument itself. The Asheville Daily Citizen noted, "Never in Asheville has there been compressed into the square so large a number of people as gathered before 3 o'clock. Hundreds of handsomely dressed ladies, many of them students of the schools of the vicinity, added to the beauty of the assemblage." Crowds filled not only the square but the adjacent streets and sidewalks. People also watched from the windows of nearby buildings. Before the ceremony began, members of the United Confederate Veterans marched to the square from their hall on Main Street. Speakers and association representatives were seated on the platform, along with Mrs. Zebulon Vance and the mother-in-law and sister-in-law of Governor Taylor.The celebration began with music by the Asheville Concert Band, followed by a performance of the "Watch Hill" by Two-Step Kenneth. Then, the assembled crowd sang "America". Next, Rev. R. F. Campbell D.D. of First Presbyterian Church of Asheville gave the invocation, followed by the band performing "Grand America Fantasia" by Theodore Bendix, with tone pictures of the North and South. The band then played "Yankee Doodle", "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground", and "Dixie". There was a huge cheer from the crowd at the end of "Dixie". Finally, there was an address given by Governor Taylor. In his address, Taylor praised Vance's contributions to both state and nation, saying, "Through his long and brilliant career, his love of humanity never waned and his devotion for this country never cooled." He continued, "Senator Vance was a splendid thinker and statesman of rare ability, but he always looked on the bright side of things..." Taylor focused his speech on Vance's service to the United States, making only two brief references to Vance's service to the Confederacy. When Taylor stopped at 3:35 p.m., it was generally agreed that he had given "a brilliant and beautiful speech".At some point in the ceremony, the United Daughters of the Confederacy laid a wreath of galax leaves at the base of the monument. During the dedication, the police kept carriages out of Court Plaza. In the evening after the dedication, YMCA members had a bicycle parade with decorative Japanese lanterns.George Pack was "thoroughly satisfied" with the monument, saying, "It is simple and ragged like the man whose memory it perpetuates and the people from whom he came." The Baltimore Sun wrote, "In honoring the memory of Zebulon B. Vance the people of North Carolina have honored themselves. He was one of the greatest and most popular citizens of the old North State, and she never had a more loyal or devoted son."
Bingham Military Academy Raleigh galax Virginia Robert Love Taylor Baltimore United Daughters of the Confederacy First Presbyterian Church of Asheville United Confederate Veterans Robert F. Armfield Statesville Marion, North Carolina Confederacy Theodore F. Davidson The Baltimore Sun Confederate Veteran South Solomon Lipinsky Asheville Zebulon Vance Tenting on the Old Camp Ground Joseph Dupuy Eggleston John W. Daniel Richmond, Virginia Daughters of the Confederacy Dixie Alfred Moore Waddell U.S. Court of Appeals Hickory, North Carolina Buncombe County Yankee Doodle Statesville, North Carolina Wilmington, North Carolina YMCA Governor of Tennessee Washington, D. C Theodore Bendix