A North Carolina-based publishing company recently released a trilogy of hardback biographies of frontier Appalachian women written by West Virginia University P.I. Reed School of Journalism instructor Mary Rodd Furbee.

Booklist, School Library Journal, Todays Librarian and other publications have favorably reviewed the biographiesgeared for readers age 10 and up. Morgantown Reynolds Publishing released the books.

Titles in the”Women of the Frontier”series include: Anne Bailey: Frontier Scout; Wild Rose: Nancy Ward and the Cherokee Nation; and Shawnee Captive: The Story of Mary Ingles.

The women profiled receive scant mention in history books, Furbee said, because they were not prominent, wealthy or married to notable men. Nevertheless, the ordinary women’s lives shed great light on the historical and cultural forces at play on what was then the nation’s western frontier, she added.

“I featured women who were much like the thousands of unsung women who lived and worked in the Appalachian Mountains during the Colonial years,”Furbee said.”Like their neighbors, they were courageous and tough as nails. They were a part of frontier settlement, tribal and colonial warfare and land disputesand they kept society together during tumultuous times.”

Yet Bailey, Ingles and Ward were extraordinary as well as ordinary, Furbee added. Anne Bailey went from being a servant in Liverpool, England, to a pioneer wife, scout, messenger and peddler. She traversed the MidlandTrail in what is today West Virginia.

Mary Ingles also traversed Southern West Virginiathe New River Gorge areaduring her dramatic escape from Shawnee captors, who had taken her into Ohio.

During the same period, Nancy Ward of Tennessee and the Carolinas was a Cherokee tribal leader with the title Beloved woman of the Cherokee, Furbee said. In that role, her responsibility was to protect the Cherokee from harm and guide the tribe along the road of Peace.

“Given what was happening to the Cherokee and other native tribes at that time, this was no easy task,”Furbee said.”She was torn between a desire for peace and the reality that her People’s way of life was being destroyed by the onslaught of white settlement.”

The biographies highlight the women’s adventures, yet also detail their early influences and life journeys, which Furbee said, are as compelling as their exploits.

“Many people have heard about Mary Ingles dramatic escape from captivity,”Furbee said.”But few know much about her early childhood in a Scotch-Irish community outside Lancaster, Pa. The same is true of Anne Bailey, who wasnt only a scout, but an indentured servant, pioneer wife and peddler.”

Excerpts of the reviews, as well as of the books, are posted on the author’s Web page,www.mfurbee.com.

Other titles by Furbee include Women of the American Revolution (Lucent Books) and Outrageous Women of Colonial America (John Wiley&Sons).

Outrageous Women of the American Frontier will be released in January, and Furbee is currently at work on a book about women of the Civil War era.

At noon Oct. 13, Furbee will appear at the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston. At 3 p.m. Nov. 9, she will do storytelling based on her books as part of the annual Mountaineer Week celebration. And on Nov. 23, she will be signing her books at Walden Books, Morgantown Mall.

For more information on the books, ordering or author events, see Furbees Website,www.mfurbee.com. Furbee can also be reached at the WVU School of Journalism, 304-293-3505, ext. 5415.