John P. Vance was one of the first merchants in the Taney County seat of Forsyth. He was present in 1850, only a few years after construction of the village's three story brick court house which fronted White River and the Forsyth Landing. It was here that steam boats plied the waterway, disgorging goods and people in the fledgling town in the wilderness and returned downstream laden with farm stuffs.
John was the son of John and Mary (King) Vance originally of Washington County, VA. The couple later settled in Sullivan County, TN. They had the following children: Johnathan Edward Vance, Margaret L. (Vance) Meredith, James Harvey Vance, Isaac Vance, Calvin Sharp Vance and Elizabeth S. (Vance) Morrell.
Throughout the manuscripts of the 19TH and 20TH Century writer Silas Turnbo, Vance's merchandise store, most likely located on the villages main thoroughfare of Jefferson Street, was referenced.
John apparently got his skills in mercantile employed by early Forsyth founder John Woods Danforth. Turnbo relates a story of how the merchant and Jesse Jennings hauled salt from St. Louis to Taney County in the decades prior to the Civil War. The trip took months and the men camped along the primitive roadway, hunting game for food.
Turnbo goes on to tell us: "The writer never knew where he (Vance) died until the 5th of August 1907 when he was talking with Ben Fee a prominent lawyer of Yellville Ark. who informed him that Mr. Vance taken sick at Yellville in the fall of 1862 and after he had suffered several weeks with a lingering disease he died. Mr. Fee said that the sick man called for the meat of rabbits throughout his sickness. Mr. Fee said that Vances dead body was the first one he ever saw placed in a coffin with a glass in the lid. Mr. Vances body received interment in the graveyard one half mile west of town."
Local historians indicate this aptly describes Vance's burial in the Fee Cemetery. Today, the grave is unmarked. A brother, Calvin S. Vance who served in the Civil War, was laid to rest in the Milum Cemetery in Boone County, Arkansas in 1906.
John was the son of John and Mary (King) Vance originally of Washington County, VA. The couple later settled in Sullivan County, TN. They had the following children: Johnathan Edward Vance, Margaret L. (Vance) Meredith, James Harvey Vance, Isaac Vance, Calvin Sharp Vance and Elizabeth S. (Vance) Morrell.
Throughout the manuscripts of the 19TH and 20TH Century writer Silas Turnbo, Vance's merchandise store, most likely located on the villages main thoroughfare of Jefferson Street, was referenced.
John apparently got his skills in mercantile employed by early Forsyth founder John Woods Danforth. Turnbo relates a story of how the merchant and Jesse Jennings hauled salt from St. Louis to Taney County in the decades prior to the Civil War. The trip took months and the men camped along the primitive roadway, hunting game for food.
Turnbo goes on to tell us: "The writer never knew where he (Vance) died until the 5th of August 1907 when he was talking with Ben Fee a prominent lawyer of Yellville Ark. who informed him that Mr. Vance taken sick at Yellville in the fall of 1862 and after he had suffered several weeks with a lingering disease he died. Mr. Fee said that the sick man called for the meat of rabbits throughout his sickness. Mr. Fee said that Vances dead body was the first one he ever saw placed in a coffin with a glass in the lid. Mr. Vances body received interment in the graveyard one half mile west of town."
Local historians indicate this aptly describes Vance's burial in the Fee Cemetery. Today, the grave is unmarked. A brother, Calvin S. Vance who served in the Civil War, was laid to rest in the Milum Cemetery in Boone County, Arkansas in 1906.
John P. Vance was one of the first merchants in the Taney County seat of Forsyth. He was present in 1850, only a few years after construction of the village's three story brick court house which fronted White River and the Forsyth Landing. It was here that steam boats plied the waterway, disgorging goods and people in the fledgling town in the wilderness and returned downstream laden with farm stuffs.
John was the son of John and Mary (King) Vance originally of Washington County, VA. The couple later settled in Sullivan County, TN. They had the following children: Johnathan Edward Vance, Margaret L. (Vance) Meredith, James Harvey Vance, Isaac Vance, Calvin Sharp Vance and Elizabeth S. (Vance) Morrell.
Throughout the manuscripts of the 19TH and 20TH Century writer Silas Turnbo, Vance's merchandise store, most likely located on the villages main thoroughfare of Jefferson Street, was referenced.
John apparently got his skills in mercantile employed by early Forsyth founder John Woods Danforth. Turnbo relates a story of how the merchant and Jesse Jennings hauled salt from St. Louis to Taney County in the decades prior to the Civil War. The trip took months and the men camped along the primitive roadway, hunting game for food.
Turnbo goes on to tell us: "The writer never knew where he (Vance) died until the 5th of August 1907 when he was talking with Ben Fee a prominent lawyer of Yellville Ark. who informed him that Mr. Vance taken sick at Yellville in the fall of 1862 and after he had suffered several weeks with a lingering disease he died. Mr. Fee said that the sick man called for the meat of rabbits throughout his sickness. Mr. Fee said that Vances dead body was the first one he ever saw placed in a coffin with a glass in the lid. Mr. Vances body received interment in the graveyard one half mile west of town."
Local historians indicate this aptly describes Vance's burial in the Fee Cemetery. Today, the grave is unmarked. A brother, Calvin S. Vance who served in the Civil War, was laid to rest in the Milum Cemetery in Boone County, Arkansas in 1906.
John was the son of John and Mary (King) Vance originally of Washington County, VA. The couple later settled in Sullivan County, TN. They had the following children: Johnathan Edward Vance, Margaret L. (Vance) Meredith, James Harvey Vance, Isaac Vance, Calvin Sharp Vance and Elizabeth S. (Vance) Morrell.
Throughout the manuscripts of the 19TH and 20TH Century writer Silas Turnbo, Vance's merchandise store, most likely located on the villages main thoroughfare of Jefferson Street, was referenced.
John apparently got his skills in mercantile employed by early Forsyth founder John Woods Danforth. Turnbo relates a story of how the merchant and Jesse Jennings hauled salt from St. Louis to Taney County in the decades prior to the Civil War. The trip took months and the men camped along the primitive roadway, hunting game for food.
Turnbo goes on to tell us: "The writer never knew where he (Vance) died until the 5th of August 1907 when he was talking with Ben Fee a prominent lawyer of Yellville Ark. who informed him that Mr. Vance taken sick at Yellville in the fall of 1862 and after he had suffered several weeks with a lingering disease he died. Mr. Fee said that the sick man called for the meat of rabbits throughout his sickness. Mr. Fee said that Vances dead body was the first one he ever saw placed in a coffin with a glass in the lid. Mr. Vances body received interment in the graveyard one half mile west of town."
Local historians indicate this aptly describes Vance's burial in the Fee Cemetery. Today, the grave is unmarked. A brother, Calvin S. Vance who served in the Civil War, was laid to rest in the Milum Cemetery in Boone County, Arkansas in 1906.
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