"Mad" Anne Bailey Heroine of the Kanawha Valley

by Jean M. Hoffman

The story of Anne Bailey's life is interwoven with local folklore, but her place as a pioneer heroine is unquestioned. In 1791 what is today West Virginia was largely unsettled wilderness in the middle of a frontier war between would-be settlers and local Indian tribes. When Fort Lee was threatened with attack and a low supply of ammunition, Anne Bailey, scout and messenger, rode alone through 100 miles of near wilderness to Fort Savannah at Lewisburg and returned with the needed powder to save the fort at Clendenin's Settlement which today is Charleston, West Virginia.

This feat was commemorated in a lengthy 1861 poem, "Anne Bailey's Ride" by Charles Robb. Named for Anne are an elementary school in St. Albans, WV, near Charleston, a chapter of the N.S.D.A.R. and a lookout tower in Watoga State Park. Her remains were moved from Ohio, where she died in 1825, to the Point Pleasant Battle Monument State Park where the museum contains memorabilia of Anne including a design made from her hair.

Born Anne Hennis in Liverpool, England, probably in 1742, she came to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia when she was about 19 and in 1765 married Richard Trotter, a local settler. When Lord Dunmore called for militia to fight the Indians of the western border in 1774, Richard Trotter enlisted, but was killed on Oct. 10, 1774 at the Battle of Point Pleasant against the forces of Shawnee leader, Cornstalk. This event changed Anne's life completely and she left her son, William Trotter, to the care of others and became a skilled frontier scout, horsewoman, hunter, messenger and storyteller, wearing buckskins, carrying hatchet, knife and long rifle. She married again in 1785 to John Bailey, another frontiersman and army ranger, those forerunners of today's special forces. They moved to Clendenin's Settlement in the Great Kanawha Valley where she would make her famous ride. Her career continued until 1795 and the signing of the Greenville Treaty to end the Indians Wars.

After John Bailey's death about 1802 she made her home with her son but also traveled among her friends and was a welcome storyteller and trader. In 1817 William moved his family across to Gallia County, Ohio, and Anne reluctantly left her beloved "Virginia" to make a home near him, though she traveled still. She died on November 22, 1825 of "old age."

Many fanciful stories have been told about Anne, perhaps of her own origin. Henry Howe missed Anne's story when he wrote his first history of Ohio in the 1840s, but soon learned it in West Virginia. He corrected his oversight in his 1888 revision and retold some of these wild stories. My favorite is one I find unlikely, but which my great grandmother was certain was true. But she learned it from her grandmother, Mary (Trotter) Irion, another noted storyteller, who had it from Anne herself, Mary's grandmother. Mr. Howe recounts it thus:

". . . On one occasion, when she was pursued by Indians, she came to an impenetrable thicket where she was obliged to dismount and leave him [her fine black horse, Liverpool] for their capture. She then crawled into a hollow sycamore log. The Indians came and rested on the log, but without suspecting her concealment within. After they had gone she followed their trail, and in the darkness of night recaptured the animal, and, mounting him, when at a safe distance from being shot or taken gave a shout of defiance and bounded away."

Even without the exaggerated stories, Anne Bailey was a unique and daring woman. She was certainly considered odd or outlandish, but she was also well-liked and respected on the frontier.

References:

• 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.

  (A reprint of this book is available in paperback. Published in 1998, it contains an unabridged version, including the poem by Charles Robb, plus the 1907 Anne Bailey: Thrilling Adventures of the Heroine of the Kanawha Valley, Virgil A. Lewis and Mrs. Lillian Rozell Messenger. An afterward, map, photos and an index were added.)

Anne's cabin in Ohio as envisioned by an artist for Henry Howe
The portrait above was given to Henry Howe by James L. Newsom of Gallipolis

Genealogy of Anne Bailey Anne Hennis1 was born about 1742 in Liverpool, England, and died November 22, 1825, in Gallia County, Ohio. She was buried in that county, but later relocated to "Tu-Endie-Wei", Point Pleasant Battle Monument State Park in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. She married Richard Trotter in Augusta County, Virginia, about 1765 and married John Bailey on November 3, 1785 in Lewisburg (since 1863 West) Virginia. Anne and Richard Trotter had one child, a son William Trotter.

photographed July 18, 1975 ANN HENNIS TROTTER BAILEY BORN IN LIVERPOOL, ENG. 1742 DIED 1825 REVOLUTIONARY SCOUT COL. CHAS. LEWIS CHAPTER, D.A.R. 1925

Generation No. 2.

William Trotter was born April 25, 1767 in Virginia and died March 20, 1831 in Gallia County, Ohio. He is reportedly buried in the Coffman Cemetery in Clipper Mill. He married Mary Ann (Polly) Cooper on December 16, 1800, in Gallipolis, Washington County, Northwest Territory² (though they lived across the Ohio River.) She was reportedly the daughter of Capt. Leonard Cooper of Mason Co., (since 1863 West) Virginia, another veteran of the battle of Point Pleasant. William moved his family to Harrison Township, Gallia County, Ohio, in 1817, and was the township's first Justice of the Peace. William and Mary's children were Philip, Elizabeth, John, William, Jr., Mary, Davis, Sarah, Phoebe, Jane Ann and Nancy.

Generation No. 3.

• Philip Trotter was born in 1801 in (since 1863 West) Virginia, and died by July of 1839, presumed buried in Harrison Township, Gallia County, Ohio. He was married to Hannah Coddington by 1830 and they were parents of three daughters and one son.³ Philip was appointed guardian for his minor sisters Nancy, Jane Ann and Phoebe after their father's death. Widow Hannah and the children moved to Illinois by 1840 and in 1844 she married Andrew Reed in Macon County, Illinois. The children of Philip and Hannah were John W., Mary Susan, Sarah Jane and Martha Ann Trotter.

• Elizabeth Trotter was born December 11, 1803, presumably in Greenbier County (as Mason County was formed in 1804), (since 1863 West) Virginia, and died March 23, 1888, in Gallia County, Ohio, and is buried in Macedonia Cemetery, Harrison Township. She married William Cramm Irion before 1830. Her husband became another Justice of the Peace in Harrison Township. Their children were Mary Jane, Davis J., Robert, Jemima, Elizabeth J. and John Warren Irion. Another son died in infancy.

• John Trotter was born in 1805, in Mason County, (since 1863 West) Virginia, and participated in the settlement of the estate after his father died in 1831. "In 1832 he rode to Gallipolis, left his horse hitched to a post and was never afterward heard of."³ His brother Davis, writing from Indiana in 1841 to their brother William in Ohio, said he still looked to hear from John and would let them know if he ever did. ⁴

• William Trotter, Jr. was born April 25, 1808, in Mason County, (since 1863 West) Virginia, and died October 18, 1895. He married Rosannah Houck. They are buried in Earwood Cemetery, Clay Township, Gallia County. The children of William and Rosannah were Frances, Elizabeth J., Mary A., Armena?, John, Marion, Nancy S., Sarah, Phoebe, William H. and Thomas M. Trotter.

• Mary Trotter was born February 4, 1811, in Mason County (since 1863 West) Virginia and died March 9, 1900, in Green Township, Gallia County, Ohio. She is buried in Clay Chapel Cemetery, Clay Township. She married James Irion in Gallia County on June 5, 1829. Their children were Jemima Ellen, William A., Henry B., John T., Mary Jane, Dorcas, Irene, Phoebe, Jerome, James Thomas and Sarah Irion and apparently Philip and Frank.

• Davis Trotter* was born in 1813, in Mason County, (since 1863 West) Virginia and died after 1844 in Rockport, Spencer County, Indiana. On Feb. 7, 1836, in Gallia, Ohio, he married Sarah Knight. She married Jonathan Boyce in 1849 and died before 1860 in Wapello, Iowa. Davis and Sarah's children were Almira, James H., Franklin and Davis [David?] Trotter.

• Sarah (Sallie) Trotter, born July 7, 1815, in (since 1863 West) Virginia, married John Gilmore on Jan. 15, 1835, in Gallia Co., Ohio. They resided in Ohio Township. She died March 25, 1900, and she, her husband and some of the children are buried at the Bethel Church Cemetery in Ohio Township, Gallia Co., Ohio. Their children were William, Morgan, John Franklin, Elvira, Miami, Lafayette, J. Hamilton, Phoebe, Charles and Thomas Willey Gilmore.

• Phoebe Trotter was born Jan. 16, 1818, in Ohio. She lived on her own in 1850, in Clay Township, then married widower Thomas Willey on Sept. 20, 1851, in Gallia Co., Ohio. He died in 1865 and is buried with his first wife in Clay Chapel Cemetery. Phoebe stayed on the farm in Clay Township with her step-sons and daughters. She died on Nov. 9, 1906, and is buried in Mound Hill Cemetery in Gallipolis. The daughters of Phoebe and Thomas Willey were Mariah, Ellen, Alice and Rocella (Rosa) Willey.

• Jane Ann Trotter was born about 1820, and married John Siler Northup of Green Township on July 26, 1846, in Gallia Co., Ohio. She died on Jan. 9, 1871, and is buried in the Pine Street Cemetery in Gallipolis. Their children appear to be Thomas, William and Mary Northup.

• Nancy Trotter, born about 1822, married Francis T. Strait on Oct. 1, 1846, in Gallia Co., Ohio and resided in Harrison Township. Nancy appears to have died between 1860 and 1870 and is buried in the Trotter Cemetery, Harrison Township, but the stone is broken and date illegible. The children appear to be John W., Henry, David, Franklin, Giles and Blake Strait.

Gallipolis Sesqui-Centennial, 1790-1940

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