This Month in W.Va. History: A tribute to Anne Bailey, the ‘Heroine of the Kanawha Valley’
Many of us grew up hearing of American frontiersmen like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett who roamed and rambled through Appalachia and beyond, but not present-day West Virginia frontier folklore hero -- Anne Bailey.
Bailey was not born in West Virginia, or America for that matter, but came to embody what we think of when names like Boone and Crockett are mentioned. Bailey spent most of her adult life as a courier, messenger and scout in present-day West Virginia, helping settlers defend themselves against Native Americans and later the British. In other words, she was a badass.
Born Anne Hennis in 1742, Anne was raised and formally educated in Liverpool, England, until about the age of 19 when she became orphaned. Struggling to survive, she decided to hop a ship for America where some family had emigrated years earlier.
In 1765, Anne married Richard Trotter, a frontiersman and soldier in the area. When Trotter was killed in the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant, Anne’s life changed forever. She vowed to avenge his death. She left her 7-year-old son with a neighbor, began dressing like a man, armed herself with a rifle and a hatchet and set out for the frontier to recruit for the local militias. Her efforts earned her the role of a scout for the Continental Army.
For 11 years, Anne rode solo through the wilderness, keeping an eye on the natives’ activity and sometimes even fighting them. In 1785, she married again, this time to John Bailey, another frontiersman who was also a member of the Army’s Rangers -- the precursor to today’s special forces unit. The couple moved to Fort Lee and the Clendenin Settlement in present-day Charleston where Anne became the primary messenger between Fort Lee and Fort Randolph in present-day Point Pleasant.
Fort Lee
In 1791, Anne entered local folklore fame. With Fort Lee supposedly under siege by the Shawnee, Anne reportedly made a solo, 200-mile roundtrip trek to Fort Savannah in Lewisburg to pick up needed gunpowder to defend Fort Lee and the Clendenin Settlement.
As with many other things that happened 200-plus years ago, some parts of Bailey’s mythology may be just that -- myth. But we do know she was a real person who did spend a lot of time in the frontier wilderness and became well-known among settlers in western Virginia. Her exploits, whether over-exaggerated or not, earned her the title of “Heroine of the Kanawha Valley.”
With the 1795 Greenville Treaty between the United States and Native Americans, her work for the Army and local militias had come to an end. After her second husband, John Bailey, died, Anne began to settle down. Older now, she lived a simpler life in the wilderness, occasionally serving as courier and messenger between Point Pleasant and Lewisburg well into her 70s.
Around 1818, Bailey moved to present day Gallia County, Ohio, to live with her son -- the now-grown 7-year-old William she left with her neighbor many years earlier. She lived in a small cabin on his property and continued to travel the region until she died in her sleep on Nov. 22, 1825.
In 1901, her remains were reinterred at Tu-Endie-Wei State Park in Point Pleasant, coincidentally or not, near the spot where her first husband, Richard Trotter, was killed.
Many things have been named after Bailey over the years, including an elementary school in St. Albans, a lookout tower at Watoga State Park and a chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution.
While her impact may not have been on the same scale as Crockett and Boone, Bailey’s life, wild spirit and bravery is just as inspiring for those of us who live in West Virginia.
