Betty Zane - Biography

Biography

Three of the Zane brothers — Ebenezer, Silas and Jonathan — migrated from present-day Moorefield, Hardy County, Virginia in 1769 and founded the first settlement at present-day Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. The rest of the Zane family later joined them at the new settlement.

According to a historical marker in Wheeling, on September 11, 1782, the Zane family was under siege in Fort Henry by American Indian allies of the British. During the siege, while Betty was loading a Kentucky rifle, her father was wounded and fell from the top of the fort right in front of her. The captain of the fort said, "We have lost two men, one Mr. Zane and another gentlemen, and we need black gunpowder."

Betty Zane's father had buried a store box of black gunpowder in their cabin. Betty Zane volunteered to leave the fort to retrieve more supplies. Because she was a woman, the enemy would let her go; and she was the only one who knew where her father buried the gunpowder. The opposing forces, seeing a young woman emerge from the fort, let her pass. In her family's cabin, she filled a tablecloth with gunpowder and ammunition, and transported it back to the fort. The enemy again let her pass. When the enemy realized what she was doing, she was attacked by the Indians and shot at, but she made it safely back into the fort.

The Zane family later settled in what became Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio, across the Ohio River from Wheeling, and played an important role during Ohio's formative years.