The year 2000 is a milestone of sorts for the family of Charles Richard “Dick” Lane and Mannie Lee Vance. Their first born child Ira Madison “Jack” Lane was born August 28, 1900. This makes their union and the generations resulting from it a century old. As I set here and put these few words on paper I think back to the days when grandpa and grandma were with us. In my case I can remember only a few years because I was 16 years old when Grandmother Mannie died and Grandfather died when I was 19. Thinking about this made me realize just how little I did know about these wonderful people. It also made me realize how many of us who attend the Reunion, held each year for 42 years in their memory, never had a chance to meet and know them. As the years pass it is inevitable that this would happen. It is the responsibility of us older generations, the ones with the memories and stories remembered to pass this along to the younger ones and they to the generations to come.

Mannie Lee Vance and first child Ira Madison 'Jack' Lane.

Mannie Lee Vance Lane
When I think of Grandmother Lane the thing that stand out in my memory was her long hair she kept in a neat bun. I know childhood memories are prone to exaggeration but I remember her hair falling well past her waist when she brushed it. Getting a big hug and a kiss from grandma also meant getting a little snuff along with it. The thing I remember most was the strength of character that both grandma and grandpa seemed to have. . This strength is not learned but acquired through many years and in their case generations of pioneer stock. It is some of this ‘Pioneer Vance Stock” I want to introduce you to.

North Carolina to Tennessee and Alabama
The south and westward movement seems to have been slow. It appears Jacob and Sarah had a family in North Carolina before moving to the Middle Tennessee County of Giles. It was in Giles County, just north of the Alabama State line that our first William reached maturity and met and courted Sarah Hudson. William and Sarah Hudson raised 14 children to maturity the first 8 children born in Giles County, Tennessee and the next 6 born in Alabama before moving to Sharp County, Arkansas about 1848. Their son William II , our direct ancestor was about 21 years
old when the move to Arkansas was made.

Alabama to Arkansas
William II was about 24 years old and living on the family farm about 5 miles south of Evening Shade in Sharp County, Arkansas when he met and courted Nancy Norman. Nancy, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Norman was about 22 and lived just a few housed from him. In their marriage 8 children including our direct ancestor James Madison Vance, the father of Mannie Lee Vance were born.
It was also this generation of Vance’s that the Civil War that so devastated our country bore it total weight. The guns of Fort Sumter off the coast of South Carolina had been sounded just five short month before the call went out for volunteers in Sharp County, Arkansas. In one fateful day, September 23, 1861, a day that would forever change the Vance family, 5 of William and Sarah’s sons, Gainsboro, George, John Lee, Martin, Samuel, and son-in-law James A. Shirley, joined the Confederate Army. They were followed shortly by son William (our direct grandfather) in
November 1861, son Anderson Huston in July 1862 and son-in-law Isaac Norman in August 1862.Of these 7 sons who so gallantly rushed off to the defense of their state 4 paid the ultimate price, their lives. According to the pension record of his widow, Nancy Vance , William Vance was "killed while on the rade near Big Blue River Mo. on or about the first day of November, 1864." The Big Blue River is south and just east of the Kansas, Missouri border, south of Kansas City, Missouri. William was a member of Capt. Hudleston's, Company D, Freestone's Regiment of Partisans, Confederate States of America, whose job was to guard the river crossings for the retreat of about 600 wagons and several thousand Confederate troops.
It may have been a blessing that Sarah, the mother of these young men did not live to see this, she died in Oct. 1858 a few years before the war. Their father, William lived to see this carnage that so devastated his family but died in 1866, just one short year after the end of the war.

James Madison and Mariah Catherin 'Kitty' Vance at their home near Grubbs, Jackson County, Arkansas. Around the turn of last century.

James Madison was about 15 year old when his father was killed in the war. I am sure it fell on his young shoulders as the eldest child to fulfill the duties of “man of the house”. He was about 27 when he courted 20 year old Miriah Catherin ‘Kitty” Gay. Kitty, the daughter of Alfred and Elizabeth Gay, probably had known James for a long time and lived close by. In their union 11 children were born, the fourth child (our grandmother) Mannie Lee Vance was born September 4, 1882 at Maxwell, Sharp County, Arkansas. Now I don’t know just how far Maxville is from Evening Shade or where Richard ‘Dick’ Lane was living when he met Mannie Vance but he was smitten and ask for her hand in marriage.
The very large number of people visiting each other at the 42 annual Lane-Layne Reunion are a direct consequence of this union.

“Dick Lane started working around mills while still a young boy. Soon he could handle any job at a mill, and he traveled over the area to help different owners. He worked at the famed Thompson Mill at Evening Shade, 'later identified with the Sharp, Medley, Metcalf, Smith, Edwards, Wolf, Hanford and perhaps other families.
Dick and Mannie at one time made their home on the Medley Place, where Deer Run Park is located today, south of Evening Shade, Arkansas. Later they moved to Poughkeepsie, Arkansas, where they lived on the Joe Doss Place. While living there, Dick worked at the George Jones Mill at Push. The Jones Mill was powered by a steam boiler and engine, and included a sawmill, grist mill and cotton gin. Dick remained at the Jones Mill until the coming of the depression in 1930 made work scarce. He then moved his family to Grubbs, Arkansas to pick cotton.”

It will be the 42nd year we have gathered the family in what has become known as the Lane-Layne Reunion. 1959 was by no means the first gathering of our family. Richard and Mannie’s children were always close and visiting each other was just a way of life. It was this bond our mothers and fathers feared loseing. The desire to keep this family together led them to the decision to designate one day a year and set it aside as visiting day or as we call it Reunion.
That happy reunion time is just around the corner . We all meet at the American Legion Hut in Newport, Arkansas. This year it will be the 10th day of September and as it has been for the last several years the Sunday after the Labor Day Week-End. Mark your calendar.

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