Zebulon Baird was an American politician who served in the

North Carolina Senate The North Carolina Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, which along with the North Carolina House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the state legislature of North Carolina. The Senate ...

Biography

Baird was a wealthy slave owner and farmer in

Buncombe County, North Carolina Buncombe County ( )Talk Like a Tarheel
, from the North Carolina C ...

. He operated a

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

crossing service on the

French Broad River The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows from near the town of Rosman, North Carolina, Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston R ...

and owned a merchant store 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 ...

. He served as a member of the

, representing Buncombe County. Bair was married to Hannah Lay Erwin. Their daughter, Mira Margaret Baird, married the wealthy landowner David Vance Jr., who was the son of David Vance. He had another daughter, Anna Baird, who married the wealthy merchant Bacchus J. Smith from Burnsville. Bair was the grandfather of the politicians

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 ...

and Robert B. Vance.

References

American slave owners Businesspeople from North Carolina Farmers from North Carolina North Carolina state senators Politicians from Asheville, North Carolina Date of birth missing Year of birth missing 19th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly Year of death missing {{NorthCarolina-politician-stub