Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Zane, Ebenezer

ZANE, Ebenezer, pioneer, b. in Berkeley county, Va., 7 Oct., 1747; d. in Wheeling, Va., in 1811. He was of Danish descent. Zane made the first permanent establishment on Ohio river in 1770, on the present site of Wheeling, and built there a block-house called Fort Henry, from where he repelled several attacks that were made by the Indians during the Revolution, the last assault being in 1781. He was a disbursing officer under Lord Dunmore, held several other civil and military posts, and attained the rank of colonel. He owned the land where the city of Zanesville now stands, on Muskingum river. - His sister Elizabeth, b. in Berkeley county, Va., about 1759; d. in St. Clairsville, Ohio, about 1847, had returned from Philadelphia, where she had completed her education, to Fort Henry a short time before its siege by the Indians in September, 1777. Among its defenders were her brothers, Ebenezer and Silas. The ammunition in the fort having been exhausted, Ebenezer Zane remembered that there was a keg of powder in his house, sixty yards distant, but the person that should endeavor to secure it would be exposed to the fire of the Indians. Every man in the fort offered to perform the perilous service but at this juncture Elizabeth Zane came forward and asked permission to go for the powder, giving as a reason that her life was of less value to the garrison than that of a man. She was so importunate that a reluctant consent was finally given. She went out of the gate of the fort, fearlessly passed the open space to her brother's house, which she entered, and, having secured the powder, retraced her steps amid a shower of Indian bullets, entering the fort in safety with her valuable prize. She was twice married and resided at St. Clairsville, Ohio.