author
Mary Addams Bayne
1856–1939
A Kentucky novelist with a strong feel for place, she wrote fiction rooted in local history and everyday community life. Her surviving work invites readers into early Kentucky through warm, detailed storytelling.
1 Audiobook
Crestlands: A Centennial Story of Cane Ridge
by Mary Addams Bayne
About the author
Mary Addams Bayne was an American author born in Kentucky in September 1856. Records identify her as Mary Addams before her marriage to James Christopher Bayne in 1885, and later life records place her in Bagdad and Shelbyville, Kentucky. She died on March 7, 1939, and was buried in Bagdad Cemetery in Shelby County.
She is best known for Crestlands: A Centennial Story of Cane Ridge, published in 1907 by The Standard Publishing Company and illustrated by O. A. Stemler. The novel is a work of historical fiction set in early Kentucky, showing her interest in regional history, settlement, and community life.
Another book linked to her is Bluegrass and Wattle; or, The Man from Australia from 1909. Even from the small surviving record, her books suggest a writer drawn to place, memory, and the lives of ordinary people, especially in Kentucky settings.