Anne Bailey was a British-born American story teller and frontier scout who served in the fights of the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. Her single-person ride in search of an urgently needed powder supply for the endangered Clendenin's Settlement was used as the template for Charles Robb's 1861 poem "Anne Bailey's Ride". She is known as the Heroine of the Kanawha Valley.
Trotter's death was a turning point in Anne's life. She left her son William with a close neighbor, then joined the militia. Bailey worked as a scout and courier during the Revolutionary War. Bailey was involved in the campaigns against Shawnee Native Americans, who gave her the nickname "Mad Anne.". She was also known as the "White Squaw of Kanawha. In 1788, Anne married John Bailey, a frontiersman and ranger. The couple was posted to Fort Lee. Bailey continued her service for the U.S. military by patrolling the frontier against Native Americans and acting as a messenger between Fort Lee and frontier posts. It was here in 1791 that the local fort, Fort Lee, was under heavy threat, when Anne made her legendary 100 mile ride to Fort Savannah at Lewisburg for much needed ammunition. Her path was through wilderness, and she rode both directions successfully and is credited with saving Fort Lee. She remained on duty until 1795 where the Treaty of Greenville ended the Northwest Indian War. In 1794, John Bailey was murdered near Point Pleasant, Virginia, and his will was filed in the county court that same year. After that, she lived with her son but still traveled and visited friends. A few years after John Bailey's death, she traveled to Alabama, apparently to visit her stepson, Abram Bailey. When her son and his family left Virginia for Gallia County, Ohio, she left with them. Until her death, she continued to travel. Her remains were later moved to Tu-Endie-Wei State Park. The museum there shows several of her memorabilia with special mention of a design made from her hair.
Later life
Bailey was widowed again, encouraging her to move further into the frontier to Gallia, Ohio, in 1818. On the frontier, Bailey continued to act as an express rider despite being over seventy years old. She died in Ohio in 1825 at eighty-three years old. Her remains were reinterred in 1901 in the Point Pleasant, West Virginia, State Park.
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.
