Simon Kenton. 



A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MAN AS HE WAS KNOWN IN URBANA. 



BY GEO. A. WEAVER, ESQ. 



An excellent portrait in existence, a copy of wliieli this Association 

 has, represents Kenton apparently at the age of 70, with a face clean 

 shaven, a kindly expression of eye, a prominent chin, well moulded 

 mouth, long nose, deep overarching eyebrows, and high forehead, 

 somewhat narrow toward the top. The whole fkce is a striking one, 

 and indicative of a higher type of intelligence than was usual among 

 the frontiersmen even of his time. Unlettered, really unable to read, 

 and quite unused to the ways of civilization, yet he knew the events 

 of his day and the men who took part in the Indian warfare in a way 

 that showed rarer intelligence than is exhibited in most of the regis- 

 tered accounts of those times. Colonel Jno. H. James says that in an 

 interview which he had with him a few years before his death, with 

 the purpose of writing up from his own lips with that peculiar diction 

 of his, his own life, he found him with one of the most remarkable 

 memories he ever met with. 



He was a great snuflf taker and the habit affected, somewhat, his 

 manner of speech. Not unpleasantly however, for his way of snuffing 

 at the air, with a sidelong hitch of mouth and chin, gave a sort of 

 emphasis or novel energy to his peculiarly abrupt utterances. His 

 manners were usually bland and courteous; and no man, says 'Squire 

 Patrick, was more chaste in habits and conversation. "He resented," 

 says the 'Squire, "the charge that he was a horse thief. 'I never stole 

 horses, except from the hostiles.' He looked upon that as only an act 

 of reprisal. He never utilized the horses but always restored them to 

 the lawful owners or to those who had suffered losses of the kind." 



The eccentricity of voice and the archaic style of his language 

 accorded well with the shrewd character of his comments. The very 

 manner of the man would have been worth preserving, and it is most 

 unfortunate that Col. James could not have completed the sketches 

 that he began. Being asked what he thought of General St. Clair, 



