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History in a Pecan
Shell
Vance
was originally called Bullhead, after nearby Bullhead Mountain, but was
renamed after a settler (Xavier Wanz) who was one of Henri
Castro's Alsatian colonists.
1874: Henry Wells became the first
settler
1875: Bullhead's first church was established
1878: the Bullhead
Post Office was granted
1883: the townsite was laid out and Edwards County
was also established. Bullhead served as county seat until
1884, when an
election relocated the Edwards County seat to Leakey.
1886: the town was renamed after an Anglo spelling of Wanz's name.
The population of Vance has stayed below 50 persons for the entire 20th century.
The post office closed in 1955.
Currently only a church,
cemetery and scattered dwellings make up
Vance, Texas. |
Vance Baptist Church
Photo
courtesy Mary M. Meszaros 2011 |
Historical
Marker Text ( On RR 335 8 Miles from Barksdale) Vance
CemeteryOne
of the earliest settlers of this area was Henry Wells (1850-1923), who first came
to the Nueces Canyon in 1866. He founded the town of Bullhead in 1873. The name
was changed to Vance in the mid-1880s. In 1875 a guest in the home of the Wells
Family, C. J. Fowler, died and was buried on the family's farm. The land surrounding
Fowler's grave became known as Vance Cemetery. Henry Wells often worked as a coffin
builder for members of the community. Rancher Z. H. Pannell (1862-1925) donated
additional land in 1909 for the cemetery and a church. The Vance Baptist Church
was built in 1917, the same year Henry Wells gave more land to enlarge the cemetery.
In addition to the graves of Fowler and Wells, the Vance Cemetery is the burial
site of many early pioneers of this area. Six Civil War veterans are interred
here, as well as Veterans of World
War I and World War II.
Epidemics of diphtheria and influenza in the early 20th century claimed the lives
of many area citizens who are buried here. The Vance Cemetery Association was
organized in 1952 and is responsible for maintenance of the graveyard, which is
still in use by descendants of pioneer settlers.
(1988) |
 |
Vance Cemetery & Historical
Marker
Photo courtesy Mary M. Meszaros 2011 |
Vance Texas
ForumSubject:
Photos of Vance TX
We
just got back from our second visit to Hill Country and I snapped these two pictures
of the Vance Baptist Church and the cemetery (show above). - Mary M. Meszaros,
Lititz, PA, September 06, 2011
A
historical tid-bit on Vance, Texas:
In February 1905, a bank was held-up
in Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Argentina, by two young men, both described as English-speaking.
Mr. Allsop, a patent-medicine salesman in Rio Gallegos, said his father-in-law
had a ranch near Vance, and that some years earlier he (Allsop) had known one
of the bandits, whom he called Brady, at the ranch. He said that Brady had a sister
in nearby Punta Arenas, Chile.
Other writers have identified the two
bandits as Henry Thompson and Lewis Nelson, or William Wilson and Robert Evans.
Wilson, we know from other sources, was born 17 August 1885 in Texas Wilson and
Evans, who were both bandits, were killed in 1911 in a gunfight with the Argentine
Frontier Police.
Source: "Wild Bunch Bank Holdup in Argentina," Daniel
Buck & Anne Meadows, National Outlaw-Lawman History Quarterly, vol. XII, no. 3,
Winter 1988.
I'm
passing along this information in the hopes that perhaps one of our readers might
know something additional about Allsop's father-in-law's Vance ranch, or about
Brady himself. - Daniel Buck, September 02, 2005
Vance,
Texas
I lived
in Vance for about 10 years. I heard all the stories about one of the men who
robbed that bank being buried with his treasure around where our house was. I
explored everyday for about 5 years looking for anything out of the ordinary.
My great-uncle claimed that he actually located a wealth of treasure but was forced
to leave it and never returned for some reason unknown to us. I did locate a fenced
off area that was about the size of a grave, metal detectors didn't indicate anything.
I did however find a ton of arrowheads.
The cemetery is pretty old and
very interesting to walk through. I am glad you are doing this. Keep Up the Good
Work - C Mitchel, December 01, 2005 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic,
endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local
history, stories, and vintage/historic photos of Vance, Texas or their town/subject,
please contact
us. | |
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