Ohio History Journal

ANNE BAILEY.

 

 

VIRGIL A. LEWIS.

 

[Mr. Lewis is the State Historian of West Virginia, the author

of "The History of West Virginia" and many valuable publications con-

cerning the early historical events in the Ohio Valley.]

All that was earthly of Anne Bailey, the Pioneer Heroine of

the Great Kanawha Valley, that has not crumbled to dust, has

been removed to Point Pleasant and re-interred in Tu-Endie-

Wei Park. It is, therefore, now time to eliminate from the story

of her wonderful career and life of adventure, as scout and mes-

senger, everything of a mythical legendary, fabulous and fanci-

ful character, and to learn and to know the real narrative - the

truth - regarding that record female heroism which has no par-

allel in the annals of the Border Wars. The keeping of her

grave is now in care of the Colonel Charles Lewis Chapter

Daughters of the American Revolution and they must answer a

thousand questions regarding her, whose bones they keep. Anne

Bailey was herself a Daughter of the Revolution, a real one,

who served her country faithfully and well when that struggle

was in progress. Then this western border was the "Back Door

of the Revolution," and the men and women who kept back from

it the savage allies of Great Britain were the "Rear Guard of

the Revolution." Anne Bailey was one of these; and the school

children should be able to tell to the thousands who will hence-

forth visit her tomb, the real story of her life.

The following facts obtained from Border Annals, from offi-

cial records, and from persons who knew Anne Bailey, will help

them to do this:

1742. Anne Bailey, whose maiden name was Hennis, was

born in Liverpool, the western metropolis of England the home

of her father, who, in early life, had been wounded at the battle

of Blenheim, while serving under the Duke of Marlborough. She

was named for Queen Anne.

(44)

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Anne Bailey.                     45

1747. When five years of age her mother took her to Lon-

don to visit relatives, and for the first time and probably the last,

she saw the splendors of the British capital. While there she wit-

nessed the execution, April 9th, of Lord Lovet on a charge of

treason. (See any good history of England.)

1748 to 1760. She resided in Liverpool and attended school

in that city.

1761. Both parents were dead and she was alone in a great

city. This year she crossed the Atlantic to join her relatives, the

Bells who had emigrated to Virginia some years before. A jour-

ney over the Blue Ridge brought her to their home near Staun-

ton in the Shenandoah Valley.

1765. She wedded Richard Trotter, who had been at Brad-

dock's Defeat and was prominent in Border Wars. Representa-

tives of his family still reside in the Shenandoah Valley.

1774. On the loth day of October, her husband, Richard

Trotter, was killed in the battle of Point Pleasant.

1774 to 1785. Eleven years of widowhood. When she

heard of the death of her husband a strange wild dream seemed

to possess her and she vowed revenge on the Indian race. Hav-

ing matured her plans she submitted them to Mrs. Moses Mann

then residing in Augusta, but afterward in Bath county. She

approved them and gave a home to the orphan son. It was now

that Anne Bailey abandoned that home life that had once been so

dear to her and entered upon that military career which has made

her name famous for all time. Clad in the male costume of the

Border, with rifle in hand, she attended the militia musters and

urged men to go to war against the Indians in defense of hopeless

women and children; or to enlist in the continental army and fight

the Briton from the sea. Then she became messenger and scout

going from one frontier post to another, thus continuing that ca-

reer of female heroism which made her name a familiar one to the

pioneers.

1785. She was again united in marriage, this time to John

Bailey, a distinguished border leader of southwest Virginia. He

had assisted in carrying Col. Charles Lewis off the field when

fatally wounded at the battle of Point Pleasant. Rev. John Mc-

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46       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Cue was the officiating clergyman. (See Marriage Record, No.

I. p. 7, in the County Clerk's office at Lewisburg.)

1788. She went with her husband to Fort Lee which was

built by the Clendenins that year on the present site of the city

of Charleston, the capital of West Virginia. The husband was a

member of the Garrison and she served as messenger between

Fort Lee and Fort Randolph, at Point Pleasant.

1791. She made her famous ride from Fort Lee to Fort

Savannah at Lewisburg to secure a supply of powder for the Gar-

rison of the former place when it was besieged by the Indians.

Having obtained this she returned and thus saved the Garrison

and other inmates from death at savage hands. The distance be-

tween the two forts was more than a hundred miles, the whole of

it was a wilderness road.

1800. Her son William, grown to full manhood, took Mary

Cooper, whose home was on the farm now owned by George Pul-

lins, Esq., on the Kanawha river about nine miles above Point

Pleasant in a canoe, to Gallipolis where they were united in mar-

riage, the first Virginians married in the old French town. (See

Records of Gallia county, Ohio. )

1802. Her husband, John Bailey, died and was buried on the

Joseph Carroll farm, fifteen miles above Charleston, on an emi-

nence overlooking the beautiful Kanawha and there he now re-

poses. A second time Anne Bailey was a widow and she went to

live with her son William Trotter. She rode back and forth from

Point Pleasant to Lewisburg and Staunton, acting in the capacity

of letter carrier and express messenger, and thus she was em-

ployed for several years.

1817. She made her last visit to Charleston and there and in

that vicinity spent the summer of that year.

1818. She removed with her son to Harrison township, Gal-

lia county, Ohio, he having sold his farm on the Kanawha about

three miles above Point Pleasant, the preceding year to William

Sterrett, the consideration being fourteen hundred dollars, cur-

rent money of Virginia. (See Records, Mason County Clerk's

Office.)

1820. About this time she was a frequent visitor at Galli-

polis where she was ever a welcome visitor in the homes of the

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Anne Bailey.                    47   old French settlers of that place. Her home was nine miles away and she was in the habit of walking the whole distance. 1825. November 22nd, Anne Bailey died suddenly at night, while sleeping with her two little grandchildren, one of whom, the aged Mrs. Willey, still lives at Gallipolis. For seventy-six years her remains reposed in the Trotter graveyard in the vicin- ity in which she lived, her grave being kept green by her de- scendants. 1901. The members of the Point Pleasant Battle Monument Commission learned that the relatives of Anne Bailey were willing that her bones should be removed to Point Pleasant. On Satur- day, October 5th, Hon. John P. Austin, accompanied by Mr. Nor- man Gibson, of Henderson, West Virginia, was dispatched to the graveyard in Gallia county, Ohio, where, on that day the remains were exhumed and the next day conveyed to Point Pleasant, where on the 10th of October they were reinterred in the Monu- ment Park under the auspices of the Col. Charles Lewis Chapter, Daughters of the Revolution, and here they will repose while thousands who hereafter visit the spot will learn the story of her strange and eventful life.

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