Abstract:
Dr. Robert Brank Vance, uncle of Governor Zebulon Vance, was killed in a duel by Samuel Carson at Saluda Gap (Buncombe County) in 1827. Upon his death, Dr. Vance willed his personal collection of approximately 500 books to his brother David, with the stipulation that the books would be used to establish a circulating library in Asheville. The Vance Circulating Library Society, as it came to be known, was formed and incorporated by the N.C. General Assembly in 1829, making it the first library in western North Carolina.