Hero of the Bull Run Mountains

Hero of the Bull Run Mountains

By John Toler

In 1777, in a skirmish with Native Americans in Kentucky, Kenton rescued Daniel Boone from a brave who had knocked him down and was preparing to scalp him.

From its earliest days, Fauquier County produced native sons who played a significant role in American history. Simon Kenton (1755-1836) was a frontiersman and scout who fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and countless other conflicts during the nation’s westward expansion.

Kenton was born in a small cabin in the Bull Run Mountains, in a valley between Highacre Hill and Roundtop Mountain known as “Devil’s Bed.” The seventh son of Mark and Mary Kenton, Simon was a boisterous child who liked to fight with other boys in the poor, isolated community.

This led to an incident in April, 1771, when he got into a brutal fight with William Leachman, with whom he had been feuding. Knocking his opponent senseless, he thought he had killed him, and, fearing the consequences, fled Fauquier County toward the Shenandoah Valley.

Kenton made his way across what became present-day West Virginia, and north up the Allegheny Mountains to Fort Pitt (today’s Pittsburgh). Along the way he used the name “Simon Butler” to hide his identity, and joined a small group of adventurers heading into the frontier.

While camped near present-day Charleston, W.Va. in March, 1773, the small band was attacked by a party of Native Americans. Kenton escaped clad only in his shirt, and spent six days wandering in the wilderness before encountering a group of explorers, who fed and clothed him.

In 1774, Virginia Governor John Murray, 4th Lord of Dunmore, was recruiting scouts for an expedition against the Native Americans in the far western region. Kenton signed on, joining other frontiersmen on the expedition. While fighting the Shawnees, the fierceness they showed in battle earned them the nickname, “The Long Knives.”

With “Dunmore’s War” over, Kenton came to Boonesboro, Ky., where he met legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone. They participated in several skirmishes with the Native Americans, and during one encounter, Boone was knocked down, suffering a broken leg. As a warrior was about to scalp him, Kenton intervened, killing the attacker. Kenton carried Boone to safety, earning Boone’s praise and gratitude – something few others ever accomplished.

Joining the Continental Army in 1778, Kenton was on a mission in the Northwest Territory when he was captured by Shawnee warriors near present-day Chillicothe, Ohio. He was subjected to horrible torture and beatings that broke his arm and collarbone. A blow to his head left him unconscious, lying on the ground for two days.

As his captors prepared to burn him at the stake, a Tory turncoat who was serving as the liaison between the British and the warriors convinced the tribal chief that Kenton would be more valuable if he were taken to the British headquarters at Detroit as a prisoner of war.

The arrangements were made, and the Tory and a Shawnee escort set out for Detroit with their prisoner. Stopping for the night at a trader’s house, Kenton’s captors engaged in a drunken spree, and with the help of the trader’s wife, Kenton managed to escape with food and a rifle.

Recovered from his ordeal, Kenton rejoined the Continental Army in February, 1779, and served as a scout for Gen. George Rogers Clark on the expedition to recapture Fort Sackville at Vincennes, Indiana, from the British.

The feud between Simon Kenton and William Leachman culminated in a fistfight on April 5, 1771. Believing he had killed Leachman, Kenton fled the Bull Run Mountains for 28 years. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine.

During a brief siege on Feb. 23, 1779, Gen. Clark’s force of 100 men surrounded the fort, and deceived into believing that Clark’s force had 1,000 men, the British commander surrendered two days later.

Learning that his father was ill, Kenton returned to Fauquier County during the summer of 1779. There he found that William Leachman – the adversary who he believed he had killed 28 years before –was alive and well, and bore him no ill will.

Returning to the Continental Army, Kenton married Martha Dowden about 1782, and completed his military service in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris with Britain.

He returned to Fauquier later that summer, and convinced members of his remaining family to come with him to Kentucky, where cheap land was available. They established Kenton’s Station, near present-day Washington, Ky. Sadly, Martha Kenton died in a house fire in 1783, leaving her husband a widower with four young children.

A year later, Kenton was commissioned a major in the U.S. Army, and headed a force of 100 scouts on an expedition led by Gen. “Mad Anthony” Wayne into the disputed Northwest Territory. The purpose of the expedition was to quell Western Native American Confederacy activity in the tribal lands ceded by the British by the peace treaty. Also at issue were the British troops to the north who were allied with the Native Americans.

American influence in the region had been lost after the disastrous defeat of Gen. Arthur St. Clair’s force by braves under chiefs Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Little Turtle of the Miamis in the Battle of Wabash in November, 1791.

On Aug. 20, 1794, Gen. Wayne launched an attack on the combined enemy forces, defeating them in the Battle of Fallen Timbers near presentday Maumee, Ohio.

Kenton returned to Kentucky and in 1797 and married Martha’s cousin, Elizabeth Jarboe. In 1802, he moved with his family to what became Zanesville, Ohio. The couple eventually had seven children.

In recognition of his past service, Kenton was commissioned a general in the Ohio Militia. His unit was federalized to fight in the War of 1812, and on Oct. 5, 1813, participated in the Battle of the Thames near present-day Ontario, Canada. There they faced British troops under Gen. Henry Proctor and their Native American allies under Shawnee Chief Tecumseh.

The battle was a complete victory for the Americans. Tecumseh was killed and the British driven into Canada. American control of the Northwest Territory was permanently reaffirmed.

By now in his late 50s, Kenton returned to Ohio, where he became a large landowner. Unfamiliar with Ohio’s real estate and property laws, he fell victim to swindlers, and lost most of his property and fortune.

Left with only a small cabin on a piece of poor land near Zanesville, Kenton’s life ended in poverty and isolation, much as it had begun in the Bull Run Mountains. He applied to the U.S. Congress for a military pension, but it took years for that to materialize.

Simon Kenton died on April 29, 1836 and was buried in the small cemetery on his property. In November, 1865, his remains were reinterred in the Oakdale Cemetery in Urbanna, Ohio.