 |
|
|
|
Greensboro: |
|
|
Among 5,000 items in museum-library, Zeb Vance’s apron is the crown jewel
|
Zebulon Baird Vance was buried three times in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville. That gave rise to the remark that this most famous Mason in North Carolina history was a traveling man in death as in life.
His elusive Masonic apron (he rose to the rank of Junior Deacon of Mount Hermon 118 in 1858 in Asheville) has also done some traveling. Governor, Colonel and US Senator Vance wore it off and on for thirty-six years as he traveled North Carolina from Asheville to Charlotte to Washington to Statesville to Black Mountain to Raleigh to Brecksville to Greensboro. That doesn’t include his visits to countless lodges and nationwide speaking engagements during his career.
If you look closely at his apron, you will behold a precious hand-painted textile artifact. You will note restrained pastel colors, painstakingly applied to this one-of-kind garment. In design and technique, it bears artistic resemblance to other aprons in the Masonic Museum and Library of Greensboro, NC, where it was recently rediscovered.
It is possible the Vance apron was part of Zeb’s estate, sold after his 1894 death along with his mule ($5), desk ($2) and rocking chair (35 cents). There is no indication his brother Bob, a North Carolina Grand Master, made any offer to buy Zeb’s apron and sash. So the following account is the likelier story of Zeb Vance’s apron.
James E. Marquette was a corporal in the Federal Army during the Civil War. He was one of 300 Union soldiers sent to conduct Zebulon Vance from his Statesville home to Old Capital Prison in the District of Columbia as a prize prisoner. Vance had been a Confederate officer who saw action against the Union, and more importantly, he had been wartime governor of North Carolina. He and other Confederate governors were captured and imprisoned after the war.
The story goes that in spite of representing different sides of the dispute, Vance and Marquette became close. On his arrival at the prison, Zeb told the yankee corporal that the only earthly possessions which he had left were his Masonic apron and sash—and a silk parasol. Vance, like most Tar Heels, was indeed penniless at war’s end. So why did he take his Masonic apron and sash—and parasol—to prison when he could have left them home with his family?
In token of appreciation for kindnesses shown him by Marquette, Vance gave these things to his new friend. When doing so, he is said to have instructed Marquette to give the parasol to his wife. Even without hard proof of Marquette being a brother Mason, it seems evident that Zeb made a gift of his last and dearest Masonic possessions to a brother.
Leon Godown, editor of The Orphan Friend & Masonic Journal of North Carolina, wrote what happened next in an article in the June 1, 1962, issue of that publication. The Vance apron and sash remained safely in Corporal Marquette’s family for almost a century. His daughter Jessie had married Frederick W. Green, an eminent Cleveland, Ohio, attorney. They placed the apron and sash on loan to the Brecksville Historical Museum in Brecksville, Ohio, where they lived.
When the Greens died, responsibility for the Vance items went to Ms. Ernest C. Kegley, Jessie Green’s daughter. Then a call went out from Brother Earley W. Bridges, 33rd degree, who had established the Masonic Museum and Library in Greensboro, NC, in 1932, under authority of Greensboro 76. He asked Ms. Kegley for the indefinite loan of the apron and sash for display in the new Greensboro facility. Her husband, a Mason, wrote Bridges that his wife was agreeable to the transfer and “in no immediate hurry for its return. Whenever we feel we would like it back, you’ll hear from us.” That was many years ago, and the Kegleys apparently died in Brecksville in 1989.
The Vance apron and sash are today housed in the Greensboro Museum and Library, which was Earley Bridges’ passion. He traveled the nation and world assembling 5,000 artifacts including jewelry, documents, clothing, awards—even wooden nickels.
Today it is a noble representation of the worldwide Masonic experience, and Zeb’s apron is one of its crown jewels.
Nothing on the garment identifies it as belonging to Governor Zebulon Baird Vance or as having been worn at meetings of Mount Hermon 118, still a thriving lodge whose records are replete with the names of many Vances and Bairds and eight Grand Masters. However, no one doubts that the apron and sash are genuinely Vance’s. Tradition keeps the story of this priceless apron strong and powerful in NC Masonic history.
When visitors to the Masonic Museum and Library come to see the apron in the Greensboro Scottish Rite Temple, respectful silence settles in. It is a rare moment.
|
 |
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
