The biographical encyclopœdia of Ohio of the nineteenth century:

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPZEDIA.
faithful wife following him to the grave about three months
after his demise; they both lie in Bellefontaine. In later
years a cemetery was laid out al)out eight miles bac,k of St.
Louis, and is known as Bellefonta-ine. Thliey left a family
of eleven children. The eldest, Henry J. Hunt, who at that
time was nineteen years of age, went with three Frenchmen
in a pirogue from Detroit, Michigan, to St. Louis, Missouri,
leaving the subject of this sketch and the rest of the children
with various relatives scattered from Fort Wayne, Indiana,
to Boston, Massachusetts. In I8I2, when his brother-in-law,
Dr. Abraham Edwards, of Daytoll, Ohio, was appointed
Surgeon-General to the army of General Hull, John Elliott
went to live with his brother, Henry J. Hunt, in Detroit,
Michigan, and witnessed Hull's surrender to the British
army under General Brock, He was present also at the
retaking of Detroit, Michigan, by General Harrison. While
in his fourteenth year, his brother, who was as a father to
the children, sent him to Sandwich, Canada, to secure at
least an elementary education, no schools being then in existence in Michigan. His student life in Canada, as well
as all the schooling ever received by him, was embraced
wit hin th e l imits of on e y ear. He was the first beholder
ofe wscso the landing of the celebrat ed t ravellers, Lewis and Clark,
fro m their three ye ar s tour to the Pacific Oce a n in I8O6.
In I8I6 h e settled i n M atum ee City, then the ca pital of
Wo od c ounty, Oh io, o n the Miami of the Lake, and there,
and in Toledo, in t he same State, has since p ermanently
resided. His first vote was cast at the Presi dential election
in which Henry Cla y figured, and was given ill favor of that
eminent st atesman; h e subsequently voted at the ensuing
Pr esi dential electi o n in favor of General Jackson, and his
v iews co ncern ing the proper policy of the American nation
are expre ssed i nw th e cod e and principles of the Jeffersonian
Democratic element. He was twice elected to the Sen ate
of Ohio, and was elected a Senatorial Deleagat e to form the
Constitutional Convention in 1849-5o. For a period of
eight years he held the offi ce of Po stma ster of Tole do, Oh io,
and was electe d Major-General of the Ohio militia, by the
Legislature in I837, sinc e which time he has liv ed i n reti remwent, secluded from th e ceaseless whir and turmoil which
characterize the rapid and marvellous development of a
people and interests whose incoming he has seen, whose
growth he has noted with all intelligent and unflagging solicitu(le. Thus he expresses himself, white with the snows
of many years, loved, esteemed, and revered: "I was born
at the head of this river, I shall ere long be buried at its
foot." But a few simple words, yet they hold to a reflective
mind, the varied incidents and circumstances of his career
and life being passed in swift review, a wondrous kaleidoscope where ale seen vivid pictures of adventurous pioneers
and hostile Indlians, Br-itish assailants and American defenders, log school-houses now replaced by stately institutes of
learning in marble anal in everlasting granite, great state~smenl of the olden time, lonely rivers whose very courses
were almost unknown which are lnow crowded with sails
and smok,e-stacks, forests' and prairies in- whose gloomy
recesses and rank grass the wolf, the wild cat and the
buffalo were, now the sites of teeming cities: all this and
more, do those simple words evoke from the historic past,
and give food for grave, sweet thought, to the patriot of
to-day. He was married, May 29th, 1822, to Mary Sophia
Spencer, sister of Mrs. General Cass, wife of General Governor Cass, of Michigan, at whose house the marriage ceremony took place; she is a second cousin; also, of ChiefJustice Waite, now on the bench.
ENTON, GENERAL SIMON, one of the Pioneers
of the valley of the Ohio, and a soldier of the Revo o lution, was born, March, 1755, in Fauquier county,
Virginia. His father emigrated from Ireland, and
his mother was of Scottish descent, her ancestors
having been among the first settlers of Virginia.
His parents being in middling circumstances, he was enployed till the age of sixteen years in the cultivation of corn
and tobacco. At that period an incident occurred which
changed the destiny of his future life. A neighbor's son
had married a lady to whom he was attached, and with him
young Kenton had a series of personal rencontres which
terminated in the complete discomfiture of his adversary,
who exhibited no signs of life at the close of the last
combat, determined him to flee fiom home without even
seeing or consulting his parents or friends. He crossed the
Allegheny mountains, April 6th, I77I, and at Ise's Ford
changed his name to Simon Butler. Having met three men
who were preparing to descend the Ohio river, he joined
them, being possessed of a good rifle, the frtuit of hard labor,
and with them proceeded as far as Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh.
Here he formed a friendship with the notorious Simon Gir-ty,
who was the means, at a fiture period, of his rescue f-om
the Indians, when doomed to the stake. Accompanied by
a single companion, he descended the Ohio as far as the
mouth of the Great Kanawha river, and asceind',ig the Elk
river, they built a camp, and passed the winter in trapping,
selling their peltries to a French trader. They remained at
this point until the spring of I773, when, attacked b)y the
Indians, the party became separated. Kenton with a companion, both being wounded, reached the mouth of the Great
Kanawha river, cohere they met another party who dressed
their wounds. Here they entered the employ of Mr. Briscoe, echo was then endeavoring to form a settlement on the
Great Kanawha, contempo raneously with the founding of
Wheeling, Grave Creek, and Long Reach. Kenton, with
his first earnings, procured a good rifle, and immediately
joining a trapping party, proceeded to the Ohio. In I774,
an Indian war being imminent, he with others repaired to
Fort Pitt. Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, having
raised an army to chastise the aggressors, Kenton was employed as a spy to precede the troops and report the condition
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