lands in Kentucky and Ohio, he was kept comparatively poor by the 

 assistance rendered to others and the treachery of professed friends. 



Judge Burnet, in his notes on'*'the Northwestern Territory, says 

 that he became acquainted with Kenton at Marietta, in the iall of 

 1796, while attending Court there — Kenton being there as a witness — 

 that he was then possessed of a large estate, and a more generous, 

 kind hearted man did not inhabit the earth. ''His residence was in 

 Kentucky, in the vicinity of Washington, where he cultivated a 

 thousand acres of land, equal in fertility to any in the world." 

 Unfortunately he was illiterate and altogether too confiding. He judg- 

 ed others by himself and was not conscious of the imposition to which 

 he was exposed. He believed men were honest, nor did he awake 

 from that delusion till he was defrauded and robbed of his estate. 



He had certificates of purchase for 5 tracts of land in Ohio, 

 to-wit: 1,200 or 1,500 acres of land on the Scioto river, also what 

 was known as the Maquechack (Mac-a-cheek) tract, now consti- 

 tuting most of what is the large farm of John Enoch, the tract called 

 Kenton's old place, about half a section, now owned by the heirs of 

 Maj. Wm. Hunt on the road from here to Springfield — he had a cabin 

 on this at one time and lived there; also Kenton's mill tract and a 

 place in possession of one Anderson. The Kenton mill tract is now • 

 Lagonda. The tract occupied by Anderson embraced what afterwards 

 became the farms oi James Johnson and Orsamus Scott, in Concord 

 Township. Kenton and Col. William Ward owned several tracts 

 together in Ohio, and in the division it was claimed by Kenton as the 

 contract that as he took the Maquechack tract and AVard the tract on 

 which Urbana was located, Ward was to convey him half a section of 

 land adjoining Urbana, which he never did. Col. Ward obtained the 

 patent for Sec. 23 on which Urbana was located, as well as Sec. 22 

 south of it and Sec. 24 and 25 north of it. 



One of the incidents connected with our first Court was the return 

 of the Sheriff on a writ of capias issued against Philip Jarbo and 

 Simon Kenton for the recovery of a debt for which Kenton had 

 become surety. It illustrates the reverence of the Court and ofiicer 

 for the brave Kenton. The return of the Sheriff on the writ was, 

 "found Philip Jarbo and have his body here in Court — found Simon 

 Kenton, but he refuses to be arrested," and he was not arrested. The 

 first jail was on Market street, near where Peter Lawson lives. Ken- 



