24. Simon Kenton was a founder of Kentucky and Ohio
Although not as well-known as his associate and friend Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton was probably more influential in the settling of Kentucky and Ohio. Kenton fled to the west from Virginia in the mistaken belief that he had killed a man, and over his long career as an explorer, guide, frontier scout, and Indian fighter he developed a reputation for toughness which rivaled any on the frontier. Kenton saved the life of a wounded Daniel Boone at Boonesborough, survived Shawnee gantlets and ritual torture, and once traveled over sixty miles of wilderness in the dead of winter naked but for a loincloth, pursued by the Shawnee he had escaped. He was the first of European descent to settle in the Mad River Valley of Ohio.
