Isaac Watson Vance
Isaac Watson Vance. Few in Holmes County can trace their ancestry to such noted families as can Mr. Vance. His father, Samuel Vance, was born in Washington County, Penn., in 1793, and remained in his native county, where he was engaged in farming and teaching school, until twenty-four years of age. He was married there to Esther Watson, and in 1817, with his wife and two children, came to Holmes County, Ohio, where he bought 200 acres of land on Section 16, Knox Township, which at that time was heavily timbered. There he remained until his death, and there the children were reared. He was a man of great physical strength, having a good constitution, and was successful in his career, which closed in 1877, when he was eighty-four years of age. His family consisted of twelve children: Sarah (afterward Mrs. Young), John, Mary (Mrs. Riggs), Hannah, Eliza (Mrs. Boling), Rebecca (Mrs. Jeffries), David, Isaac W., Maria ( Mrs. Parsons), Esther (Mrs. Harris), Ann and William, of whom Sarah, John, Hannah, David and William are deceased. Esther, wife of Samuel Vance, was born in Fayette County, Penn., in 1803, and died in Holmes County, Ohio, in August, 1854, aged fifty-one years.
Isaac Watson Vance, whose name heads this sketch, was born in Knox Township, Holmes County, March 30, 1833, and is now the only member of his father's family, bearing the name, living in the county. He was reared a farmer, and when twenty-three years of age learned the carpenter's and millwright's trades, which he followed until the beginning of the Civil War. In 1862 Mr. Vance enlisted in Company G, One Hundred and Second Ohio Infantry, and served two years and five months, participating in many hard-fought battles, among others, Harrodsburg, Ky., Perryville and Athens, Ala. He then clerked in a mercantile house four years, and in 1868 bought 100 acres of land, to which he has added, until he now owns 124 acres of finely improved land, and is one of the prosperous farmers of the township. Mr. Vance married, April 30, 1867, to Catherine Haley, and to them were born two children: Howard Watson and Ola Logan. Mrs. Vance died August 30, 1886, aged thirty-nine years. In December, 1888, Mr. Vance married Mary, daughter of James T. Elder. In politics he is a Democrat, and has held various offices of trust in the township, as school director, treasurer and trustee. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church.
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Wayne and Holmes, Ohio, J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1889