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- No sign of him at source unless he is the son of William Vance, boiler maker, #8996, and lied about his age! And got the name of his gfather wrong! So no!
From The Story of Geneva; compiled by E. Thayles Emmons; 1931;
James R. Vance, former proprietor of the James R. Vance Iron Works, was born in Scotland, April 4, 1849. His education was limited, and he was obliged to got to work at the early age of ten years when he found employment in the coal mines, until he was sixteen years of age. He then emigrated to America, going to Pennsylvania, where he learned the trade of boiler making. He came to Geneva in 1876 and obtained a position as superintendent of the New York Central Iron Works Co., which he held for twenty-seven years. In 1897 he established a plant of his own under the name of Vance Boiler Works, which later became The J. R. Vance Iron Works. Mr. Vance was a successful inventor and took out several patents. He was a trustee of the Town of Geneva for a number of years, was a city alderman, and was president of the Board of Health. Mr. Vance was serving in this capacity at the time of a threatened small-pox outbreak when he quarantined a traveling group of actors on a steamboat out in Seneca Lake and kept them there until danger was over. Mr. Vance died November 16, 1930. [3]
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1849 - 1930 (81 years)