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Caswell County Genealogy
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 1764 - 1824 (60 years)
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| Name |
Baird, Zebulon [1, 2] |
| Birth |
1764 |
| Gender |
Male |
| Reference Number |
24167 |
| Death |
1824 |
| Burial |
Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina  |
| Person ID |
I23705 |
Caswell County |
| Last Modified |
16 Apr 2024 |
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| Notes |
- The first merchants in Buncombe County, North Carolina, were Zebulon and Bedent Baird who came, first through Saluda Gap from South Carolina, in the summer of 1793, bringing with them the first wagon load of merchandise imported into the country. Source: A History of Buncombe County North Carolina, F. A. Sondley, LL.D. (1930) at 723.
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Zebulon and Bedent Baird were brothers who came from New Jersey to North Carolina in the latter part of the eighteenth century. They were Scotchmen by birth. After their removal to North Carolina they were the first merchants in Buncombe County. Both settled on farms between Asheville and Reems Creek. Here they died, and numerous descendants of both yet live in this county. Zebulon Baird represented Buncombe County in the House of Commons in 1800, 1801, 1802 and 1803, and in the Senate of the State in 1806, 1809, 1818, 1821 and 1822. He was efficient in procuring the enactment of the law under which the Buncombe Turnpike was constructed, and is said to have found difficulty in reconciling his friends to his action in this matter; but declared that he hoped to live long enough to see the day when a stage coach and four horses would gallop through the country driven by a man armed with· a whip and a tin bugle. This vision was destined to a gorgeous realization but he never lived to see it.
Nor was such an argument to be despised. Such a sight would indicate a highway of commerce while it gratified the highest local pride then conceivable. No more exhilarating scene was ever witnessed than a handsome newly-painted stage coach drawn by four fine horses as it bursts upon us around some bend in the mountain dashing at full gallop along a road winding its way through the mountain defiles. No more inspiring sound ever greeted human ears than that of the horn of the stage coach rushing up to some mountain station while its reverberations penetrate the deep recesses and are tossed from hill to hill in wild and wierd musical cadentes.
The late Zebulon Baird Vance was Zebulon Baird's namesake and one of his grandsons. In 1793 Zebulon and Bedent Baird carried up the first four-wheel wagon ever seen in Buncombe County, all transportation theretofore having been by horseback or on sleds or trucks. This wagon they brought across the South Carolina or Saluda Gap. Zebulon Baird died in March, 1827. Before his death the Town and Gillihan tracts above mentioned, together with the Baird 400 acres, a tract adjoining these on the west and granted by the State to both in 1799, were sold under execution issued from Morganton on a judgment obtained against them by a third brother, Andrew Baird, and were bought at this sale by Zachariah Candler, who undoubtedly purchased in behalf of Zebulon Baird, to whom he conveyed the land by deed made eight days later than that to him from the sheriff.
After the death of Zebulon Baird, his brother Bedent, or Beadon, or Beden, as it is sometimes spelled, conceived that in this transaction there had been something unfair to himself, and sued the widow and children and administrator of his deceased brother for an equal share in the land. This famous suit, at first decided in favor of Bedent, was carried by his opponents to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, where at June term, 1837, nearly 10 years after its beginning, it was decided in favor of the heirs of Zebulon. A possession at the northwest comer of the Town Tract in a field on the premises of the late M. J. Fagg was an important element in turning the decision for Zebulon's children. The late Governor D. L. Swain was the administrator of Zebulon Baird and took great interest in this case. He is said to have openly announced to the judge who tried the case below that he would procure a reversal in the court above and to have added, "I will make Mr. Badger tear your opinion to pieces."
Zebulon Baird was attacked by his fatal sickness while riding along the road between Reems Creek. and his home and fell from his horse. His residence was the old house (now gone) on the eastern side of the old Buncombe Turnpike road, about two and one-half miles north of Asheville and one-fourth of a mile south of the entrance of 'the Burnsville Road and later owned by Capt. J. E. Ray, and near the Casket Plant. This house was partly a log structure and is said to have been constructed with loop holes in order to be used as a blockhouse in case of need against Indians.
Source: Asheville and Buncombe County, F. A. Sondley; Genesis of Buncombe County, Theodore F. Davidson (1922) at 83-85.
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Born Morristown, NJ of Scotch parentage ... soldier of the Revolution ... member US Senate and House of Commons ... buried beneath 1st Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC. Source: Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society.
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1800 United States Federal Census
Name: Zebulon Baird
Township: Morgan
County: Buncombe
State: North Carolina
Free White Males 26 to 44: 2
Free White Females Under 10 : 2
Number of Household Members Under 16 : 2
Number of Household Members Over 25 : 2
Number of Household Members: 4
1810 United States Federal Census
Name: Zebulon Baird
County: Buncombe
State: North Carolina
Free White Males Under 10: 1
Free White Males 10 to 15: 1
Free White Males 26 to 44: 1
Free White Females Under 10: 1
Free White Females 10 to 15: 2
Free White Females 26 to 44: 1
Numbers of Slaves: 3
Number of Household Members Under 16: 5
Number of Household Members Over 25: 2
Number of Household Members: 10
1820 United States Federal Census
Name: Zebulon Baird
County: Buncombe
State: North Carolina
Enumeration Date: August 7, 1820
Free White Males - Under 10: 2
Free White Males - 10 thru 15: 2
Free White Males - 16 thru 18: 1
Free White Males - 16 thru 25: 1
Free White Males - 26 thru 44: 1
Free White Males - 45 and over: 1
Free White Females - Under 10: 1
Free White Females - 16 thru 25: 1
Free White Females - 26 thru 44: 1
Number of Persons - Engaged in Agriculture: 5
Slaves - Males - 26 thru 44: 1
Slaves - Males - 45 and over: 1
Slaves - Females - 14 thru 25: 1
Slaves - Females - 26 thru 44: 2
Slaves - Females - 45 and over: 1
Free White Persons - Under 16: 5
Free White Persons - Over 25: 3
Total Free White Persons: 10
Total Slaves: 6
Total All Persons - White, Slaves, Colored, Other: 16
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| Sources |
- Details: Asheville and Buncombe County, F. A. Sondley; Genesis of Buncombe County, Theodore F. Davidson (1922) at 83-85.
- Details: Sketches of Prominent Living North Carolinians, Jerome Dowd (1888) at 15.
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