Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/90

Rh 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