Florence Steele Martin Vance (September 24, 1840 – April 22, 1924) was an American heiress, diarist, and letter writer. A wealthy Catholic widow, she later became the second wife of U.S. Senator

Zebulon Vance Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13, 1830 – April 14, 1894) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 37th and 43rd governor of North Carolina, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina, and a Confederate officer during the American Civil ...

Biography

Vance was born Florence Steele on September 24, 1840, in

Oldham County, Kentucky Oldham County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state and commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,607. Its county seat is La Grange. The county is named for Colonel William Oldham. Old ...

to Samuel Bledsoe Steele and Ann Alexis Brown Steele. She married the first time, in 1866, to John Henry Martin. They had one son and lived in

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

.Adler, Selig.
Zebulon B. Vance and the 'Scattered Nation
" ''Journal of Southern History'' (1941) 7#3 pp. 357–377. . Accessed April 9, 2022. She was widowed in 1871, leaving her with a fortune. On January 21, 1880, while attending a ball at the Riggs House Hotel in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, she met the widowed Senator

Zebulon Baird Vance Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13, 1830 – April 14, 1894) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 37th and 43rd governor of North Carolina, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina, and a Confederate officer during the American Civil ...

of North Carolina.Johnston, Frontis W. “The Courtship of Zeb Vance.” ''The North Carolina Historical Review'' 31, no. 2 (1954): 222–239. April 12, 2022. . Three weeks later, they were engaged to be married. The two exchanged many lover letters throughout their engagement. As she was Catholic, and her fiancé was Presbyterian, religion was a concern for the couple. Senator Vance wrote to a friend saying, "Think of it! What will my Presbyterian friends say to me?" He was also embarrassed that she was wealthier than he, writing to her weeks before their wedding saying, "Tell them er familythe simple truth about me Darling, as I told it to you—that I am a poor man & ever likely to be. You may boast of nothing for me except my love for you. …I do hope they will all learn to love me." They were married by a Catholic priest on June 17, 1880, at the home of her mother in Oldham County. She and Vance did not have any children together. They lived at 1627 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C. and began building a mansion, called Gombroom, in

Black Mountain, North Carolina Black Mountain is a town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,426 at the 2020 United States census. It is part of the Asheville metropolitan area. The town is named for the old train stop at the Black Mountai ...

. To fund the construction of their new home, her husband used part of her fortune and money made from selling land he had inherited from his mother in

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populous city in Western North Carolina a ...

. The house was completed in 1887 and became their main residence. The Gombroom estate included orchards, vineyards, gardens, a dairy, and a springhouse. Vance kept a diary and wrote about her home, which she named after a city in Iran. After her husband died in 1894, he was buried in the Vane family plot in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, next to his first wife. She later had his grave moved into her family's plot in the same cemetery. She died on April 22, 1924, in Black Mountain and was buried in Riverside Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vance, Florence Steele Martin 1840 births 1924 deaths American women diarists Burials at Riverside Cemetery (Asheville, North Carolina) Catholics from Kentucky Writers from Louisville, Kentucky People from Oldham County, Kentucky Spouses of North Carolina politicians

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

American women letter writers