North Asheville – This week, we continue with our state historic marker series with three historical markers within feet of each other at the corner of Merrimon Avenue and Beaverdam Road.
You’re told that you should never discuss religion and politics. Still, this week, that’s going to be unavoidable, as at the corner of these two roads, you’ll find three very interesting plaques marking an early missionary and two politicians. The missionary minister is Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury, while the politicians are David L. Swain and Joseph Lane. Let’s look at each.
Bishop Francis Asbury – The marker reads: “Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1784-1816, often visited and preached at the home of Daniel Killian, which was one mile east.”
Asbury was born in England in August of 1745. He was chosen by John Wesley to become a traveling lay preacher at the age of 22 and was sent to America. He was known as a circuit preacher, traveling a route to take the gospel to small communities without a permanent preacher.
Asbury came to be known as the father of American Methodism and traveled through western North Carolina. “His journal records the trials and tribulations the party faced passing over the treacherous, rock-strewn path, oftentimes indicating how close the members came to being killed or seriously injured. Along his journey, Asbury often stayed with frontier families, offering his preaching as services. Daniel Killian, a Buncombe County farmer, owned one of the houses Asbury stayed in. Killian’s residence was an obvious choice for the wary traveler as it sat just along the main road that passed through Buncombe County…For the next fifty years, Asbury traveled nearly 280,000 miles, preached 16,425 sermons, presided over 224 religious conferences, ordained 4,000 preachers, and helped Methodism outstrip the growth of population by nearly five to one.” states the sketch of his work found atnc.maps.arcgis.com.
David L. Swain – The next two in our trio this week were born near our roadside marker and were cousins born the same year, 1801. “Governor and political leader. President of the University of North Carolina, 1835-1868. Was born three miles E,” reads the sign for Swain, the older of the cousins. He was a lawyer, governor, and educator.
A 1994 article about Swain by Carolyn A. Wallace and found on NCpedia.org details that his “…father was George Swain, a Massachusetts native who settled in the Georgia frontier, married, and served in the legislature and the constitutional convention of 1795 before moving to the North Carolina mountains for his health. His mother, Caroline Swain, was the daughter of Jesse Lane, member of a well-known North Carolina family, who moved first to Georgia and then farther west. Her first husband, by whom she had four children, was David Lowry, who was killed during an Indian raid in Georgia. She and George Swain had seven children, of whom David Lowry Swain was the youngest.”
His one year as governor was a strange one, as reported by Wallace, who wrote, “In December 1832, the General Assembly tapped Swain to serve a one-year term as governor of North Carolina. His election was a surprise to most people, for he had not been mentioned in the preelection speculation. He was chosen by a coalition of Westerners, National Republicans, and advocates of states’ rights who were united only by their opposition to the leading candidate, a prominent eastern Democrat. Swain thus had no hope of effective party support during his term.” Swain would also become president of The University of North Carolina before dying in 1868.
Joseph Lane – Last is Swains’ cousin, Joseph Lane. The marker reads, “Territorial Governor of Oregon, 1848–50, Vice-Presidential candidate, 1860, U.S. Senator, major general in the Mexican War. Born 3 miles east.”
According to a 1991 article by James Meehan, also found on NCpedia.org, Lane was a “…soldier, U.S. senator, governor of Oregon, and vice-presidential candidate…” Meehan records that just three years later, Lanes family moved to “Henderson County, Ky., where he attended common schools. In 1816 he moved to Warrick County, Ind., and clerked in a store.
He married Mary (Polly) Pierre Hart in 1820 and settled on a riverbank farm in Vanderburgh County. Lane was a successful farmer and also bought produce and conducted a flatboat trade with New Orleans. He continued these operations for twenty-four years, becoming a prominent tradesman and community leader. In 1822 he held his first public office when he served in the Indiana legislature; he won reelection several times. During the Mexican War Lane received national attention after leading his brigade with distinction at Huamantla and in other battles. Entering as a private, he emerged as a hero with the rank of major general. At the close of the War in 1848, (fellow North Carolinian) President James K. Polk named him governor of the new and virtually unexplored Territory of Oregon.” Lane would die in 1881.