Simon Kenton (aka "Simon Butler") (April 3, 1755 – April 29, 1836) was an American frontiersman and soldier in
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
,
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
, and
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. He was a friend of
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...
,
Simon Girty
Simon Girty (November 14, 1741 – February 18, 1818) was an American-born frontiersman, soldier and interpreter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who served as a liaison between the British and their Indian allies during the American Revolution. H ...
,
Spencer Records,
Thomas S. Hinde,
Thomas Hinde
Doctor Thomas Hinde (July 10, 1737 – September 28, 1828) was Northern Kentucky's first physician, a member of the British Royal Navy, an American Revolutionary, personal physician to Patrick Henry, and treated General Wolfe when he died in ...
, and
Isaac Shelby
Isaac Shelby (December 11, 1750 – July 18, 1826) was the first and fifth Governor of Kentucky and served in the state legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina. He was also a soldier in Lord Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary Wa ...
. He served the United States in the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
, the
Northwest Indian War, and the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
. Surviving multiple gauntlets and ritual torture, in 1778, he was adopted into the
Shawnee people
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky an ...
. He married twice and had a total of 10 children.
Family and early life
Simon Kenton was born at the headwaters of Mill Run in the Bull Run Mountains on April 3, 1755, in
Prince William County, Virginia
Prince William County is located on the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 482,204, making it Virginia's second-most populous county. Its county seat is the independent city of Manass ...
, to Mark Kenton, Sr. (an immigrant from
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
) and Mary Miller Kenton (whose family was Scots Welsh in ancestry). In 1771, at the age of 16, thinking he had killed William Leachman in a jealous rage (the fight began over the love of a girl named Ellen Cummins), Kenton fled into the wilderness of what is now West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, where for years he went by the name "Simon Butler". After learning that his victim had lived, Kenton took back his original surname.
Noted activities
In 1774, in a conflict later labeled
Dunmore's War
Lord Dunmore's War—or Dunmore's War—was a 1774 conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations.
The Governor of Virginia during the conflict was John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore—Lord Dunmore. H ...
, Kenton served as a scout for the European settlers against the
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
Indians in what is now West Virginia and Kentucky. In 1777, he saved the life of his friend and fellow frontiersman, Daniel Boone, at
Boonesborough, Kentucky
Boonesborough is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Kentucky, United States. Founded by famed frontiersman Daniel Boone in 1778 as one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains, Boonesborough lies in ...
.
The following year, Kenton was rescued from the Shawnee in Ohio by
Simon Girty
Simon Girty (November 14, 1741 – February 18, 1818) was an American-born frontiersman, soldier and interpreter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who served as a liaison between the British and their Indian allies during the American Revolution. H ...
. He had survived many days of
running the gauntlet
Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...
and various other ritual tortures that usually caused death. He was later taken about for more torture at
Upper Sandusky. There, he was saved by Pierre Drouillard, an interpreter for the
British Indian department
The Indian Department was established in 1755 to oversee relations between the British Empire and the First Nations of North America. The imperial government ceded control of the Indian Department to the Province of Canada in 1860, thus setting ...
and father of explorer
George Drouillard.
[, ''Explore'', Fall-Winter 2003] The Shawnee respected Kenton for his endurance; they named him ''Cut-ta-ho-tha'' (the condemned man). He was "adopted into the tribe by a motherly squaw whose own son had been slain."
Kenton served as scout on the 1778
George Rogers Clark expedition to capture
Fort Sackville
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the French, British and U.S. forces built and occupied a number of forts at Vincennes, Indiana. These outposts commanded a strategic position on the Wabash River. The names of the installations were change ...
during the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. Independence did not mean an end to warfare; in 1793-94, Kenton fought in the
Northwest Indian War with
"Mad" Anthony Wayne.
Kenton started exploring the area of the
Mad River Valley of Ohio and making claims as early as 1788. Kenton first saw the area a decade before while he was held as a prisoner with the Shawnee and vowed that if he survived, he would return. In April 1799, Kenton and his associate,
Colonel William Ward, led a group of families from
Mason County, Kentucky
Mason County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Maysville. The county was created from Bourbon County, Virginia in 1788 and named for George Mason, a Virginia delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention ...
to an area between present-day Springfield and
Urbana, Ohio
Urbana is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Ohio, United States, west of Columbus. Urbana was laid out in 1805, and for a time in 1812 was the headquarters of the Northwestern army during the War of 1812. It is the burial place ...
.
In 1810, Kenton moved to Urbana, Ohio, where he achieved the rank of brigadier general of the state militia. He served in the War of 1812 as both a scout and as leader of a militia group in the
Battle of the Thames
The Battle of the Thames , also known as the Battle of Moraviantown, was an American victory in the War of 1812 against Tecumseh's Confederacy and their British allies. It took place on October 5, 1813, in Upper Canada, near Chatham. The Britis ...
in 1813. This was the battle in which the Indian chief
Tecumseh was killed. Kenton was chosen to identify Tecumseh's body, but recognizing both Tecumseh and another fallen warrior named
Roundhead
Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who ...
, and seeing soldiers gleefully eager to carve up Tecumseh's body into souvenirs, he identified Roundhead as the chief.
Marriage and family
Kenton married Martha Dowden and they had four children together.
After she died in a house fire, the widower married Elizabeth Jarboe as his second wife. He had six children with her.
Prior to his first marriage, Simon's first son (Simon Ruth Kenton) was born to Christina Ruth in 1773.
Kenton died in (and was initially buried at) New Jerusalem in
Logan County, Ohio
Logan County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,150. The county seat is Bellefontaine. The county is named for Benjamin Logan, who fought Native America ...
. His body was later moved to Urbana, Ohio.
Later, his widow Elizabeth Jarboe Kenton and a number of their children moved to northwestern Indiana, to an area straddling
Jasper
Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...
,
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, and
Pulaski Counties. It was heavily settled by families who migrated from
Champaign County, Ohio
Champaign County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,714. Its county seat is Urbana. The county takes its name from the French word for "open level country".
Champaign County comprises the ...
, where Kenton is buried.
Namesakes
Simon Kenton is the namesake of
Kenton, the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
of northwestern Ohio's
Hardin County.
Kenton County, Kentucky
Kenton County is a county located in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 169,064, making it the third most populous county in Kentucky (behind Jefferson County and Fayette County). It ...
, is named for him,
as is
Simon Kenton High School in
Independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
, the county seat. A statue honoring him was erected in
Covington, Kentucky
Covington is a home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking Rivers. Cincinnati, Ohio, lies to its immediate north across the Ohio and Newport, to its east across the Licking ...
's
Riverside Drive Historic District, overlooking the
Ohio River.
Simon Kenton Elementary Schools were named in
Xenia and
Springfield, Ohio.
Singer/songwriter
Tyler Childers
Timothy Tyler Childers (born June 21, 1991) is an American singer and songwriter. His music is a mix of neotraditional country, bluegrass, and folk. He released his breakthrough album ''Purgatory'' in August 2017. Childers has released five stu ...
wrote the song "Middle Ground" in reference to Kenton and his expeditions.
Simon Kenton Post #20 in
Elsmere, Kentucky
Elsmere is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, Kenton County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 8,451 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census.
Geography
Elsmere is located in western K ...
, of the Kentucky Department of the American Legion is named in his honor.
Simon Kenton Road is a residential street at the base of Bull Run Mountain in
Prince William County, Virginia
Prince William County is located on the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 482,204, making it Virginia's second-most populous county. Its county seat is the independent city of Manass ...
.
The
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...
have the
Simon Kenton Council, a division covering central Ohio to northern Kentucky.
In the
Frontiersman Camping Fellowship of the
Royal Rangers
Assemblies of God youth organizations include two youth organizations operating under the auspices of the Assemblies of God, the Royal Rangers and the Mpact Girls Clubs (formerly known as the Missionettes).
Royal Rangers
Royal Rangers is an adv ...
, Indiana, is designated the Simon Kenton Chapter.
The
Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge is a suspension bridge built in 1931 that crosses the Ohio River and connects Maysville, Kentucky, and Aberdeen, Ohio.
Ohio's
Simon Kenton Trail is a 32-mile multiple-use path that stretches from
Springfield to
Bellefontaine.
The Simon Kenton Pub is a small bar located in the Water Wheel Restaurant at
The Inn at Gristmill Square in
Warm Springs, Virginia.
The Simon Kenton Inn is an 1828 historic house with five guest rooms and The Pub restaurant, located near Springfield, Ohio, on land deeded to Simon Kenton by the U.S. Government ''circa'' 1800.
References
*
Clark, Thomas D. ''Simon Kenton: Kentucky Scout''; Originally published 1943; 1971 paperback reprint edition, Jesse Stuart Foundation; .
*
*Crain, Ray. ''Simon Kenton: The Great Frontiersman''. Available in either hardback or paper back; Published June 1, 1992;
*
Eckert, Allan W. ''The Frontiersmen: A Narrative''; Originally published 1967; 2001 paperback reprint edition, Jesse Stuart Foundation; . Popular history in narrative form.
*
Kenton, Edna. ''Simon Kenton: His Life and Period, 1755-1836''. Originally published 1930; reprinted Salem, NH: Ayer, 1993.
External links
The Official Simon Kenton pageSimon Kentona
Ohio History Central
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenton, Simon
1755 births
1836 deaths
American explorers
American folklore
American militiamen in the War of 1812
Kentucky pioneers
Indiana in the American Revolution
Kentucky militiamen in the American Revolution
American people of the Northwest Indian War
People from Urbana, Ohio