History and Simon Kenton

Am I right in saying Simon Kenton didn't get the recognition he deserved. It seems to me he was up there or above Boone, Crockett, and the like. Other than Allan Eckert and maybe a few publications, I wonder why he sort of takes a back seat. I'd sure like to see a movie or another book about him.

Yup, heck of a story!
Make a heck of a movie, but these days he' d be cast as a trigendered, LBGQBBQEIEIO furry revolutionary Marxist!

I’ve always been high on Simon Kenton. If it weren’t for him Boone’s life story would have ended early.

Yes sir! I just wonder if it was because he was one that shied away from notoriety or if he kinda got screwed over. I was introduced to Kenton back in the 80's by my FIL. He was certain that Kenton made Boone look like he never left his front porch lol.

I think Boone was for sure a big part of expansion, and deserving of the publicity. I think Kenton should be too. Most don't know who he is but they recognize Boone, Crockett, Bridger etc.

Mike Fink was the Man.
Kitt Carson was the Man.

A lot of eastern pioneers have been forgotten,for some reason.The western pioneers got all the glory.Once I discovered Allen Eckert's writings I became fascinated with the pioneers of the eastern seaboard.Its like undiscovered U.S. history.

Many of the pioneers that were remembered were the ones that went on to business and politics after their frontier days. The ones that stayed in the frontier were often forgotten. They were rough men, men who society doesn't want men to be like. Strong, independent, sometimes ungovernable. Others were outright sociopaths. Those kind of men lived the wild life because that was who they were. They didn't fit in civilization.

Simon Kenton is buried about 10 miles from me in Urbana, Ohio.

John Chapman, AKA Johnny Appleseed, is connected to Urbana, Ohio too. His museum is there.

Keith

If I remember correctly Kenton had some la
nd deals that didn't work out, which eventually caused him to fade historically.

I had never heard of him, or dent recall hearing of him. I’m gonna see what I can find to read about him, thanks guys

Get a hold of Allen Eckert's book, The Frontiersman.

The Frontiersman should have been a movie, so many side stories.

That Dark and Bloody River by Allan Eckert is another good read on the history of the Ohio River Valley in the late 18th century. Bloody and brutal times. Guys like Kenton and Brady forged their way through the wilderness.

I agree and can't believe they didn't make a movie or three of it.

Yeah, they took his land. Boone too. Boone got so fed up with it that he moved to Missouri. Neither one of those two were good businessmen.
Kenton was illiterate and Boone not much better and it was relatively easy for the land sharks to come in after the country was tamed and legally take it away from the the original settlers and frontiersmen that had made tomahawk improvements.
Some poetic justice here I guess. The pioneers stole the land from the Indians and then the lawyers stole it back from them.
Boone settled not far from St. Charles. He and his son Nathan made a nice two story stone house there that stands to this day. Well worth seeing if you're in the area. Just a few miles off the Interstate 44 close to a town named Defiance, Mo.
Poor old Simon died a pauper subsisting on a $20 a month stipend from the government.

I agree. Boone had others chronicling him, (Draper and others), Simon didn't, except for modern day author Alan Eckert. They even had artists of the day making portraits of Boone and his wife Rebecca. During the 1830s, Kentucky fathers came to Missouri and dug up what they thought was Boones grave and took it back to Kentucky for re-burial. He became the famous patron saint of Old Kentucky only after he was dead.
Simon didn't have any of that notoriety and if it were not for Alan Eckert, Simon Kenton would be just one more obscure 1770s frontiersman and longhunter.

Well said!

PBS had a documentary about Kenton a while back. It was really pretty good.

History Teacher read us the Frontiersman in 8th grade in about 1979. Being an OH boy I was mesmerized by it.