Today in Wheeling History: August 3 — Daniel Francis Zane, Wheeling Island ferry operator, church builder, financial backer of the Bridgeport covered bridge, and son of pioneer Ebenezer Zane, is born in Wheeling (1792).
Daniel Francis Zane was born August 3, 1792, in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), the son of city founder Col. Ebenezer Zane and Elizabeth McColloch Zane. On March 2, 1812, he married his first cousin, Cynthia Zane, daughter of Jonathan Zane; the couple had ten children. Cynthia died in 1842, and in 1859 Daniel remarried Angeline P. Tomlinson in Marshall County, with whom he had one son, Edward. Along with his brother Noah, Daniel inherited the family's Ohio River ferry operations under his parents' wills. He lived on Wheeling Island, where his name became closely associated with local enterprise and community affairs; his brick home there famously withstood the 1832 flood, and he and his family escaped by horse-drawn ferry boat to a landing near Twelfth Street. After years of stalled funding for the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, Daniel and Noah personally supplied the private capital needed to build the National Road's covered bridge linking Wheeling Island to Bridgeport, Ohio, with construction beginning in 1833 and the span completing in 1837. He also served on the building committee for the Fourth Street Methodist Church. Contemporary accounts described him as "an old and highly respected citizen" whose reputation was "as familiar to our people as the name of the city." Daniel Francis Zane died in Wheeling on July 8, 1860, at age 67, and was interred at Mount Wood Cemetery, overlooking the city his family helped establish.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library - The Zanes - Founding Brothers (https://tinyurl.com/4d37tbav), Find a Grave - Daniel Francis Zane Sr. (https://tinyurl.com/53wks237), WikiTree - Daniel Francis Zane (https://tinyurl.com/4secnmsk), FamilySearch - Daniel Francis Zane (https://tinyurl.com/5cuayvyv), Wikipedia - Ebenezer Zane (https://tinyurl.com/92jyjent), Ohio County Public Library - Fourth Street Methodist Church History (https://tinyurl.com/4vsebf8e), Library of Congress - Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) - No. WV-2 (https://tinyurl.com/ms5nfr5m), Flickr - Ohio County Public Library - Brown Photograph 15 - Toll Keeper House (https://tinyurl.com/mrj4u6hz), West Virginia History OnView - Covered Bridge, Wheeling, W. Va. (https://tinyurl.com/3r2u4ad8), Ohio County Public Library - Bridges: Belmont (Zane) Covered Bridge (https://tinyurl.com/24bmr5dn), Wheeling News-Register/Intelligencer - "Descendants of Wheeling Settlers to Return for Family Reunion" (https://tinyurl.com/28mxezm9)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, West Virginia History OnView - Covered Bridge, Wheeling, W. Va., ???
Daniel Francis Zane was born August 3, 1792, in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), the son of city founder Col. Ebenezer Zane and Elizabeth McColloch Zane. On March 2, 1812, he married his first cousin, Cynthia Zane, daughter of Jonathan Zane; the couple had ten children. Cynthia died in 1842, and in 1859 Daniel remarried Angeline P. Tomlinson in Marshall County, with whom he had one son, Edward. Along with his brother Noah, Daniel inherited the family's Ohio River ferry operations under his parents' wills. He lived on Wheeling Island, where his name became closely associated with local enterprise and community affairs; his brick home there famously withstood the 1832 flood, and he and his family escaped by horse-drawn ferry boat to a landing near Twelfth Street. After years of stalled funding for the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, Daniel and Noah personally supplied the private capital needed to build the National Road's covered bridge linking Wheeling Island to Bridgeport, Ohio, with construction beginning in 1833 and the span completing in 1837. He also served on the building committee for the Fourth Street Methodist Church. Contemporary accounts described him as "an old and highly respected citizen" whose reputation was "as familiar to our people as the name of the city." Daniel Francis Zane died in Wheeling on July 8, 1860, at age 67, and was interred at Mount Wood Cemetery, overlooking the city his family helped establish.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library - The Zanes - Founding Brothers (https://tinyurl.com/4d37tbav), Find a Grave - Daniel Francis Zane Sr. (https://tinyurl.com/53wks237), WikiTree - Daniel Francis Zane (https://tinyurl.com/4secnmsk), FamilySearch - Daniel Francis Zane (https://tinyurl.com/5cuayvyv), Wikipedia - Ebenezer Zane (https://tinyurl.com/92jyjent), Ohio County Public Library - Fourth Street Methodist Church History (https://tinyurl.com/4vsebf8e), Library of Congress - Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) - No. WV-2 (https://tinyurl.com/ms5nfr5m), Flickr - Ohio County Public Library - Brown Photograph 15 - Toll Keeper House (https://tinyurl.com/mrj4u6hz), West Virginia History OnView - Covered Bridge, Wheeling, W. Va. (https://tinyurl.com/3r2u4ad8), Ohio County Public Library - Bridges: Belmont (Zane) Covered Bridge (https://tinyurl.com/24bmr5dn), Wheeling News-Register/Intelligencer - "Descendants of Wheeling Settlers to Return for Family Reunion" (https://tinyurl.com/28mxezm9)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, West Virginia History OnView - Covered Bridge, Wheeling, W. Va., ???
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