Asheville:
It took 111 years to get North Carolina's most beloved man buried as a Mason
Ten thousand people turned out in the center of Asheville to create a mile-long procession to Riverside Cemetery. Zebulon Baird Vance was dead. His life had given out April 14, 1894, while he was serving as US Senator in Washington.

His second wife Florence did not come from a Masonic family like his first wife Hattie. One hundred and twenty Masons had rehearsed the funeral procedure at Mount Hermon 118 in preparation for the proper burial due every Mason. Then they walked as a group in the rain along with rich and poor, black and white, parents and children. They all felt they had lost a personal friend.

Incredibly the Masonic burial service never happened.

Zeb's brother Bob, who became NC Grand Master of Masons, and four surviving sons were standing there, knowing in their hearts that Zeb expected full Masonic burial rites. But the grieving widow said no.

Things got worse. Zeb was buried three times, not once, and all without Masonic rites. After the widely-publicized funeral, Zeb's wife secretly had him exhumed and reburied so he would end up next to her instead of his first wife. When Zeb's brother and sons heard that, they got a court order to move him back where he started, a traveling man in death as in life.

More than a century later North Carolina Masons changed history at last. The ten thousand people who loved Zeb Vance, who had his picture in their homes, who loved to retell his jokes, were long dead. But more than 40 eminent Masons from all over North Carolina assembled at high noon April 18, 2005, to make things right with God and their fraternity.



In flawless sunshine Grand Master Graham Pervier spoke of Brother Vance's Masonic life. “We are not here today because Zeb Vance was a congressman, a colonel, a governor or a senator. We are here because he was a Mason. Freemasonry is not just about illustrious men. It is about men from all walks of life who share the same values of friendship, morality and brotherly love...That is who we are. That is what we do. That is what makes our fraternity strong and great....”

PGM Bunn Phillips Jr. conducted the memorial service as he had more than 200 Masonic burial rites.

Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com