Anne Bailey

Ann Trotter Hennis Bailey
Nickname(s)	"Mad Ann" Bailey, White Squaw of the Kanawha
Service / branch	Army
Years of service	Continental Army: 1774-1783
Battles / wars	American Revolutionary War

"Mad" Anne Bailey (*probably 1742 in Liverpool, England as Anne Hennis - November 22, 1825 in Ohio) was a famous story teller, frontier scout and served as a woman in the fights against the Indian tribes. She was portrayed by Charles Robb in 1861 with the lengthy poem Anne Bailey's Ride where her single person ride for urgent powder supply of the endangered Clendenin's Settlement - the present Charleston, West Virginia - got used as the template. Some call her the Heroine of the Kanawha Valley.

Bailey arrived first arrived in Shenandoah Valley of Virginia at about the age of 19. In 1765 she married with the settler Richard Trotter. In 1774 her husband followed the call of Lord Dunmore for fighting on the western border. Unfortunately he was killed by October 10, 1774 in the encounter with the Shawnee forces led by Cornstalk at the Battle of Point Pleasant. For Bailey this was a real turn point because she put her son William into caring hands whilst herselves tunred into a Calamity Jane alike person wearing rifles, bushskins and similar equipment for doing scout services, hunting, messengering and story telling.

In 1785 the widow married for a second time with John Bailey, a frontiersman and ranger (predecessor of nowadays special forces), as her husband. The couple moved to Clendenin's Settlement in the Great Kanawha Valley. In 1791 at this location when local Fort Lee was under heavy treat and ammunition got really short it came to the legendarily long ride to the 100 miles away Fort Savannah at Lewisburg. The path was merely pure wilderness and she did both directions successfully so that in the end the fort got saved. After that she remained in duty until 1795 where the Greenville Treaty ended the Indians Wars.

In 1802 her husband died she joint with her son in living but was still riding around and visiting friends. When her son left with his family for Gallia County, Ohio she decided to leave Virgina with him and with sorrow. Until her natural death she continued with her travels. Her remains were later on move to Point Pleasant Battle Monument State Park. The musem there shows several of her memorabilia with special mention of a design made from her hair.

When the history of Ohio was first written by Henry Howe in 1840 Bailey was just overseen due to the partially limited knowledge of the author. In his 1888 he corrected this by retelling several of her stories.

An elementary school in St. Albans, WV, near Charleston was named after her. A chapter of the N.S.D.A.R. and a lookout tower in Watoga State Park also resemble her name.

Literature

• Crook, Valerie F. Historic Ride of "Mad" Anne Bailey, extracted from The History of West Virginia, Old and New, Vol. I, pg. 99-100, by James Morton Callahan, 1923.
• Hill, Frank. The True Life of Anne Bailey. 1979. Reprinted by The Gallia County Historical Society, Gallipolis, OH.
• Hollis, Suzanne. "Anne Bailey" in Women Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War (http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets.html). 1996. ed. by Captain Barbara A. Wilson, USAF (Ret.).
• Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of Ohio. Norwalk, O.: State of Ohio, Laning Printing Co., 1888.
• Laidley, W. S. History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia. Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., 1911. pg. 81-85.
• Lautenschlager, Hedda. In American National Biography, Vol. 1, pg. 874-5. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. [bibliography]
• Lewis, Virgil A. Life and Times of Anne Bailey, the Pioneer Heroine of the Great Kanawha Valley. Charleston, WV: The Butler Printing Company, 1891.

References

• Jean M. Hoffman on Anne Bailey including her Genealogy