Ebenezer Zane
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Ebenezer Zane (1747-1811) was an American pioneer, road builder and land speculator. Born in what is now Moorefield, West Virginia (which was then in the state of Virginia), Zane established the settlement known as Fort Henry in Wheeling, Virginia (present-day West Virginia) on the Ohio River. Zane is also famous for blazing the trail known as Zane's Trace.
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[edit] Family
Ebenezer Zane was one of six children born to William Andrew Zane and his wife, Nancy Ann Nolan. He had four brothers, Silas (born 1745), Andrew (born 1749), Jonathan (born about 1750), and Isaac (born 1753), and one sister, Elizabeth "Betty" (born 1759). Ebenezer Zane married Elizabeth McCulloch.
[edit] At Fort Henry
Zane headed west with his brothers Silas and Jonathan Zane from Moorefield and established Fort Henry in 1769. From 1777 to 1782, during the American Revolution, Zane and his brothers defended Fort Henry against Native American attacks. Zane's sister Elizabeth was celebrated for her courage during one of these Native American attacks: she ran out of the fortress walls to retrieve a badly needed keg of powder.
Ebenezer Zane began his military career under British rule. He served as a disbursing officer under Lord Dunmore. Zane later became a colonel in the Virginia colonial militia. In 1788, he served as a western delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention and voted in favor of ratification of the United States Constitution.
[edit] Building Zane's Trace
Following the war in 1796, Zane obtained permission and funds from the United States Congress to build a road through the Northwest Territory. In exchange for his work, Congress granted Zane tracts of land in the areas where the road intersected the Muskingum, Hocking, and Scioto rivers.
When Zane's Trace was completed, it crossed what is now the state of Ohio from Wheeling, Virginia to Maysville, Kentucky. Although the road was a rudimentary path and at first suitable only for travel by foot or horseback (not by wagon), the state of Ohio undertook improvements in the early 1800s. It was the only major road in Ohio until the War of 1812. See the entry on Zane's Trace for more information.
Zanesville, Ohio was named in his honor. Ebenezer Zane died of jaundice in 1811.
He was a maternal ancestor of author Zane Grey, who was born in Zanesville.
