Simon Kenton

Notable people · Frontiersman · Soldier · Militia General

Simon Kenton

Frontier scout who survived Shawnee captivity in the Mad River country in 1778, later settled in Urbana as a militia general, and is buried there.

Born April 3, 1755, Bull Run Mountains, Prince William County, Virginia (sources disagree on the county)
Died April 29, 1836, New Jerusalem, near Zanesfield

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: April 3, 1755, Bull Run Mountains, Prince William County, Virginia (sources disagree on the county) source
Died: April 29, 1836, New Jerusalem, near Zanesfield (Logan County) source
Buried: Oak Dale Cemetery, Urbana (first buried above his cabin near Zanesfield; moved to Urbana after an 1865 Ohio act) (Champaign County) source
Also known as: Simon Butler, General Simon Kenton, Cut-ta-ho-tha
Known as: Frontiersman, Soldier, Militia General
Organizations: Ohio militia

Life story

Simon Kenton was born in 1755 in Prince William County, Virginia. He fled to the frontier at 16 after a fight and became a scout, serving in Lord Dunmore's War in 1774.

In 1777 he saved Daniel Boone at Boonesborough. In 1778 the Shawnee captured him; he was rescued by Simon Girty and adopted by the tribe. He later scouted for George Rogers Clark and fought in the Northwest Indian War under Anthony Wayne in 1793-94.

In April 1799 he led settlers to the area between Springfield and Urbana, and in 1810 he moved to Urbana. That year he became a brigadier general of militia, and he served in the War of 1812, helping identify bodies after the Battle of the Thames.

He died in 1836 at New Jerusalem, Logan County, and his remains were later moved to Oak Dale Cemetery in Urbana. Kenton, Ohio, and Kenton County, Kentucky, are named for him.

Ohio ties

Old Chillicothe (Oldtown, Little Miami River) (1778)
brought here as a captive, tied to an unbroken horse, and made to run the gauntlet Greene County · source
Mac-a-cheek towns and Wapatomica, upper Mad River (near West Liberty and Zanesfield) (1778; 1786)
held captive and condemned to burn in 1778; led the advance with Boone when Benjamin Logan's Kentuckians destroyed the towns in 1786 Logan County · source
Kenton farm on the Urbana-Springfield road, Moorefield Township (c. 1799-1802)
had a cabin and lived here; later the Kenton-Hunt Farm Clark County · source
Urbana (c. 1802-c. 1820)
settler, militia brigadier general, county jailer c. 1811-12, judge of the first municipal election in 1816 Champaign County · source
Mount Tabor Church, near Urbana (1819)
converted at a Methodist camp meeting Champaign County · source
Head of Mad River, a few miles north of Zanesfield (New Jerusalem) (c. 1820-1836)
last home; died and was first buried here Logan County · source
Oak Dale Cemetery, Urbana (1865-)
reburial site and monument Champaign County · source

Timeline

1755 Born on 3 April at the headwaters of Mill Run in the Bull Run Mountains, Virginia, to Mark Kenton Sr. and Mary Miller Kenton. source
1771 At 16, believing he had killed William Leachman in a fight over a girl, fled west and took the name Simon Butler. source
1774 Served as a scout in Lord Dunmore's War and, with Simon Girty, carried a message from the Mingo leader Logan's camp on Congo Creek in the Scioto valley. source
1777 Saved the life of Daniel Boone at Boonesborough, Kentucky. source
1778 Captured by the Shawnee after a horse raid on Old Chillicothe, made to run gauntlets in the Little Miami and Mad River towns, and condemned to be burned at Wapatomica. source
1778 Spared through the intervention of Simon Girty and the Mingo leader Logan, then ransomed at Upper Sandusky by the British interpreter Pierre Drouillard and taken to Detroit, from which he escaped. source
1780 Guided George Rogers Clark's militia, with Daniel Boone, up the Little Miami valley against the Shawnee towns; Clark marched again in 1782. source
1786 As a major, led the advance with Boone when Gen. Benjamin Logan's Kentuckians destroyed the Mac-a-cheek towns at the head of Mad River. source
1793 Served under Anthony Wayne, and lay at Greenville until winter before being discharged. source
1799 In April, with Col. William Ward, led families from Mason County, Kentucky, to settle between present-day Springfield and Urbana. source
1802 Settled in Urbana, Champaign County, according to John McDonald (1838) and the 1881 county history; Wikipedia gives 1810. source
1810 His eight-year-old daughter Elizabeth was buried in Urbana's Old Grave Yard while he, held within the town limits for debt, watched from across the street. source
1811 Served as Champaign County jailer while himself held within the prison bounds for a surety debt. source
1812 Thought to have attended Governor Return J. Meigs's council with Shawnee, Wyandot, Seneca and Mingo leaders at Urbana on 6-9 June. source
1813 Joined Governor Isaac Shelby's Kentucky troops when they reached Urbana and fought at the Battle of the Thames (Moraviantown) in Upper Canada. source
1816 Served as one of the three judges of Urbana's first municipal election. source
1819 Converted at a Methodist camp meeting at Mount Tabor, near Urbana. source
1820 Moved to the head of Mad River in Logan County, near the site of Wapatomica. source
1824 Visited the Kentucky legislature at Frankfort, which released state claims on his mountain lands; a federal pension of $20 a month followed, obtained by Senator Jacob Burnet and Congressman Joseph Vance. source
1836 Died on 29 April at his home near Zanesfield and was buried on a hill above his cabin on the Sandusky road. source
1865 After Kentucky and Ohio had contested for his remains since 1854, the Ohio legislature named Urbana his permanent resting place and appropriated $5,000 for a monument. source
1865 Reinterred in Oak Dale Cemetery, Urbana; William T. Coggeshall's speech was printed in the Urbana Citizen and Gazette on 7 December. source
1931 The Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge opened, carrying U.S. 62 over the Ohio River between Maysville, Kentucky, and Aberdeen, Ohio. source
1980 The Kenton-Hunt Farm north of Springfield, where Kenton had a cabin, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 8 February 1980 (80002955), with Kenton named as a significant person. source
2007 The restored 1894 Pennsylvania Railroad depot in Urbana was rededicated to serve users of the Simon Kenton Trail. source

What Simon is known for

Saved Daniel Boone at Boonesborough in 1777
Scout for George Rogers Clark and soldier under Anthony Wayne
Brigadier general of the Ohio militia in 1810

Stories

His own prisoner

Around 1811 Kenton was Champaign County's jailer in Urbana, while Kentucky creditors held an execution against him for a debt he had guaranteed. Under the old law on imprisonment for debt he was allowed the 'prison bounds' instead of a cell, which ran from the alley on Scioto Street to High Street and from Ward to Reynolds streets. He walked them with a long staff charred at one end from poking the fire. When he reached the line he would stop short and turn back, so that, as his own jailer, he never broke his bond. At the county's first court, held in George Fithian's house in Springfield, the sheriff had already returned a writ on Kenton with the words 'found Simon Kenton, but he refuses to be arrested', and he was not punished for it.

Source

A funeral he could not follow

In 1810 Kenton's eight-year-old daughter Elizabeth died. She was buried in Urbana's burying ground at Ward and Kenton streets, which then stood at the town limits. Because of his unpaid debts Kenton could not leave the town, so he followed the procession as far as the line and watched the burial from across the street. The 1942 Federal Writers' Project guide to Urbana tells the same story with the general sitting on the boundary stone in tears. The graveyard was closed in 1856, and many but not all of its burials were moved to Oak Dale Cemetery.

Source

Two states and one grave

Kenton died in April 1836 at his cabin near Zanesfield and was buried on the brow of a hill above it on the Sandusky road. From 1854 Kentucky, which claimed him as one of its founders, contested in court and in its legislature for his body. The Federal Writers' Project guide notes that 16 of his kin had fought for the Union. In 1865 the Ohio legislature named Urbana his permanent resting place and set aside $5,000 for a monument, and he was reburied in Oak Dale Cemetery that December. In 1881 the county history still complained that the grave had 'no monument worthy of the man', and it suggested the Urbana-born sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward, grandson of Kenton's partner William Ward, for the job.

Source

Saved three times in 1778

In 1778 Kenton and two companions stole horses from the Shawnee town of Chillicothe on the Little Miami and were caught near the Ohio River. Tied to an unbroken colt, he was taken back to Chillicothe, made to run the gauntlet and moved up the Mad River towns, where Ohio's park magazine counts five gauntlets in two weeks. He was condemned to be burned at Wapatomica, near present-day Zanesfield. Simon Girty, his old fellow scout, persuaded a council to spare him. The Mingo leader Logan then sent word to Upper Sandusky, where the British interpreter Pierre Drouillard bought him and took him to Detroit, and from there he escaped. He came back to the same upper Mad River country in old age and died there.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Kenton, Ohio; Kenton County, Kentucky
Simon Kenton Trail, Ohio
Simon Kenton Council, Scouting America
Simon Kenton schools in Xenia and Springfield, Ohio

Named for Simon Kenton

Kenton, county seat of Hardin County (incorporated 1845) (Kenton, Hardin County) source
Simon Kenton Trail (Springfield, Urbana, West Liberty, Bellefontaine), with its trailhead at Urbana's restored Pennsylvania Railroad depot (Urbana, Champaign County) source
Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge (Aberdeen, Brown County) source
Simon Kenton Council, Boy Scouts of America (owner of Camp Oyo) (Scioto County (Camp Oyo), Scioto County) source
Simon Kenton Trace, which crosses Antioch Road south of New Antioch (Clinton County, Clinton County) source
Simon Kenton Elementary schools in Xenia and Springfield (Xenia; Springfield) source
Kenton County, Kentucky (Kentucky) source

Family

wife: Martha Dowden
wife: Elizabeth Jarboe
son: Simon Ruth Kenton

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Simon Kenton grave and monument, Oak Dale Cemetery
Oak Dale Cemetery, end of Patrick Avenue, Urbana Champaign County · source
2 Ohio Historical Marker 3-11, In Memory of Simon Kenton (1755-1836)
Oak Dale Cemetery, Urbana Champaign County · source
3 Kenton-Hunt Farm (NRHP 80002955), site of Kenton's cabin; 1828 farmhouse now the Simon Kenton Inn
4690 Urbana Road (State Route 72), Moorefield Township, north of Springfield Clark County · source
4 Ohio Historical Marker 34-11, Old Grave Yard / War Council of 1812 (burial of his daughter Elizabeth)
Ward and Kenton streets, Urbana Champaign County · source
5 Ohio Historical Marker 10-11, Mt. Tabor Church / Mt. Tabor Cemetery (his 1819 conversion)
Mount Tabor, Champaign County Champaign County · source
6 Zane-Kenton Memorial boulder
East end of Water Street (County Road 5), Zanesfield Logan County · source
7 Ohio Historical Marker 3-46, West Liberty / Glover Hall (Shawnee town destroyed in 1786 by Logan's army with Kenton)
West Liberty Logan County · source
8 Old Chillicothe Site, where Kenton ran the gauntlet in 1778 (private)
Oldtown, Xenia Township Greene County · source
9 Ohio Historical Marker 1-29, Historic Little Miami River (Clark's 1780 and 1782 marches guided by Kenton and Boone)
Greene County Greene County · source
10 Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge (1931), U.S. 62 over the Ohio River
Aberdeen, Ohio, to Maysville, Kentucky Brown County · source
Kenton's last home and first grave, on the Sandusky road a few miles north of Zanesfield (unknown)
New Jerusalem, near Zanesfield Logan County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Oak Dale Cemetery (Kenton's grave) (grave)
Urbana, Champaign County ZIP 43078 (approximate) · Urbana · Champaign County · official page

Ohio places

Where Simon Kenton was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Lived: Urbana, Champaign County ZIP 43078 · Urbana · Champaign County
Died: New Jerusalem, Logan County ZIP 43311 · Logan County
Buried: Urbana, Champaign County (Oak Dale Cemetery) ZIP 43078 · Urbana · Champaign County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Simon Kenton, and what the record shows.

Often said Kenton was born in Prince William County, Virginia.

The record Sources disagree. Wikipedia and Find a Grave say Prince William County, the 1881 History of Champaign County says Fauquier County, and the inscription on his Urbana gravestone says 'Culpepper Co. Va.' All agree on 3 April 1755. source

Often said Kenton moved to Urbana in 1810 (as Wikipedia states).

The record John McDonald, who knew Kenton and published his sketch in 1838, says he settled in Urbana 'about the year 1802', and the 1881 county history also gives 1802. By 1810-11 he was already county jailer there. source

Often said At the Thames, Kenton deliberately misidentified Roundhead's body as Tecumseh's to protect the chief's corpse.

The record Wikipedia's only source for this is Allan Eckert's The Frontiersmen, which its own bibliography labels 'popular history in narrative form'. McDonald's 1838 account, which places Kenton at the battle, describes Tecumseh's death and does not mention the story. source

Often said Kenton joined the Methodists about 1810.

The record McDonald says 'about 1810', but the 1836 obituary he quotes says Kenton had been a Methodist for 'more than eighteen years', and the Mt. Tabor marker dates his conversion to an 1819 camp meeting. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

John McDonald, Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, General Duncan McArthur, Captain William Wells, and General Simon Kenton (Cincinnati, 1838) 1838, Library of Congress (Internet Archive)
The History of Champaign County, Ohio (W. H. Beers, 1881), with the Simon Kenton biography at pp. 304-309 1881, Allen County Public Library (Internet Archive)
Urbana and Champaign County, Writers' Program (Ohio), Federal Writers' Project 1942, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Internet Archive)
Edward Eggleston and Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet, including sketches of George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton ... 1878, Cornell University Library (Internet Archive)
William B. Allen, A History of Kentucky (1872), Kenton sketch at pp. 33-40 1872, University of Virginia (Internet Archive)
Jean Backs, 'Simon Kenton - Frontier Hero', Ohio State Parks magazine, Fall 2003/Winter 2004 (archived) 2003, Ohio Department of Natural Resources (Wayback Machine)

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

No known restrictions
Grave of Simon Kenton
Public domain
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Front of the farmhouse at the Kenton-Hunt Farm, located at 4690 Urbana Road (State Route 72) north of Springfi...
Public domain
A historical marker on the southwestern lawn of the Mason County Clerk's Office, located at the northeastern c...
Public domain
A garden (foreground) and fields (background) on the western side of Oldtown, an unincorporated community in X...
Public domain
Wood carving of Simon Kenton rescuing Daniel Boone at the Battle of Boonesborough.
Public domain
Pioneer Simon Kenton
Public domain
Frontiersman Simon Kenton
Public domain
A historical marker for Solomon's Town (site 33LO1), located along County Road 39 north of Huntsville in Richl...
Public domain
Thomas S. Hinde, pencil drawing of General Simon Kenton, 1832
Public domain
No known restrictions