Zane, Betty

▪ American frontier heroine

born c. 1766, probably Hardy county or Berkeley county, Va. [now in W.Va., U.S.]

died c. 1831, Martins Ferry, Ohio, U.S.

      American frontier heroine whose legend of valour in the face of attack by American Indians provided the subject of literary chronicle and fiction.

      Zane lived in her native Virginia (now part of West Virginia) in the town of Wheeling, which was founded in 1769 by her older brothers Ebenezer, Jonathan, and Silas. In September 1782, according to legend, Zane had just returned from Philadelphia, where she had been attending school, when Wheeling was attacked by Indians. All the inhabitants crowded into Fort Henry without securing an adequate supply of powder. Zane allegedly volunteered to fetch more powder from her brother's fortified house some 40 to 50 yards (36.5 to 46 metres) from the fort. To objections that a man could run faster, she is supposed to have replied, “You have not one man to spare; a woman will not be missed in the defense of the fort” and “ 'Tis better a maid than a man should die.” The gates were unbarred and, as Zane dashed for the house, the attackers, amazed and perhaps amused, did not fire. When Zane reappeared from the house with a supply of powder, however, they realized her purpose and opened fire. Although her clothes were pierced, no bullet struck her, and she regained the fort safely. The powder she delivered enabled the fort to hold out until relief arrived.

      The tale of Zane's heroism is not well attested and is the subject of conflicting testimony, but it is nonetheless fixed in legend. It was first published in Chronicles of Border Warfare (1831) by Alexander S. Withers, and it was later the central incident in the novel Betty Zane (1903) by Zane Grey (Grey, Zane), her descendant. Little is known of Betty Zane's later life except that she married and moved to Martins Ferry, Ohio.

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