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Ann Hennis Bailey
The Scioto Company early in 1786 sent
out a prospectus of their lands in the Northwest Territory. A
glowing account was given of the opportunities for settlers, and
an office for the sale of these lands was opened in Paris,
France. Many of the French families had been driven out of their
native country by the Revolution and this seemed to offer them
an opportunity of regaining their fortune. Some five or six
hundred emigrants including men of all professions who had
purchased lands through the agent in Paris, sailed in February,
1790, from Havre de Grace for Alexandria, Virginia. Here they
were received with a warm welcome, but soon discovered that the
company had failed in their requirements by the United States
Government, and that the lands had reverted to the Treasury
Board and had been sold in 1787 pursuant to an act of Congress
passed the July preceding. Realizing their situation, a meeting
was called and a committee appointed to go to New York and
demand indemnification from the acting agents of the Scioto
Company, and another committee was appointed to appeal
personally to General Washington to right their wrongs. Finally
an agreement was reached that other lands should be secured to
them and that the site of Gallipolis should be surveyed and
parceled out in lots, houses erected, and wagons and supplies
furnished to convey the colonists to Ohio. But many had lost
their faith in the company, and they removed to New York,
Philadelphia, and elsewhere.
The few who still held on to the hope
of obtaining some foothold in the new country set out as soon as
the wagons and necessary supplies could be secured, reaching
their destination in October, 1790. Here they found cabins
erected, block houses for the protection against an attack, and
many other things for their comfort. They set to work at once
clearing the land, and in 1791 a party started out to explore
the country adjoining and they hoped that on their return the
Scioto Company would put them in possession of the lands which
they had purchased, but being convinced of the hopelessness of
this, they petitioned Congress for an appropriation of land,
which resulted in twenty thousand acres being turned over to be
equally divided among the French emigrants living at Gallipolis
at a certain time under condition of their remaining there a
certain number of years. Other grants were afterwards given to
these colonists in Kentucky.
In the history of this settlement we
find the account of a most remarkable woman who received from
the settlers the name of "Mad Ann." Her maiden name was Hennis.
She was born at Liverpool, and married a man by the name of
Richard Trotter. Richard Trotter volunteered as one of the men
under General Lewis, who went out at the order of Lord Dunmore,
the Governor of Virginia, in 1774, against the Indian towns on
the Scioto, and while waiting for news from the
commander-in-chief at Point Pleasant an engagement between the
Indians and these troops took place in which the Virginians
suffered great loss. Among those engaged in this battle were the
well-known names of Shelby, Sevier, and James Robertson, spoken
of in former accounts. Trotter was killed in this battle.
From the time of the news of her
husband's death, Ann Bailey seemed possessed of a wild spirit of
revenge. She abandoned all female employment and even gave up
female attire, clad herself in hunting shirt, moccasins, wore a
knife and tomahawk, and carried a gun. Notwithstanding her
strange conduct and the assumption of manly habits, she made a
second alliance. She went with a body of soldiers which were to
form a garrison at a fort on the great Kanawha where Charlestown
is now located, and we find in many of the historical sketches
she is spoken of as handling firearms with such expertness that
she frequently carried off the prize. She became a trusted
messenger, taking long journeys on horseback entirely alone. One
incident is told of how, when information of a supposed attack
on a fort at Charlestown was threatened, and the commandant
found it necessary to send to Camp Union near Lewisburg for
supplies, as they were without ammunition, Ann Bailey offered to
make this journey of one hundred miles through a trackless
forest alone. Her offer was accepted and she reached Camp Union
in safety, delivered her orders and returned as she had come,
alone, laden with the ammunition. It is said that the commandant
stated that the fort would not have been saved except for this
act of heroism on the part of Mrs. Bailey, which hardly has a
parallel.
The services she rendered during the war
endeared her to the people who overlooked her eccentricities and
were ever ready to extend to her every kindness which their
gratitude suggested. When her son settled in Gallipolis, she
came with him and spent the remainder of her life wandering
about the country, fishing and hunting. Her death took place in
1825.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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