American Historical Ephemera & Photography

2pp, 7 5/8 x 12 7/8 in., housed under two-sided glass (creasing, toning, scattered ink marks). Also signed by future Ohio governor Joseph Vance (1786-1852) as Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas at Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio.

Document reads, in part: "I Simon Kenton...do make ordain constitute and appoint my trusty friend William Ward of Springfield Township and county and state aforesaid Gentleman my true and lawful attorney for me in my name and to my use to ask Demand Recover or Receive for me all Debts Dues and Demands to me owing in the county of Greenbriar and State of Virginia...granting to my said attorney my sole and full Power and Authority...."

William Ward (1752-1822) was born in Augusta County, VA. Ward's father lived on the edge of the frontier, occasionally moving closer to civilization, his entire life. When William was about six years of age, his three-year-old brother was kidnapped by the Shawnee and raised as one of their own. When Lord Dunmore called for volunteers for a retaliatory war against the Indians of the Ohio Valley, Ward volunteered. He continued in service through the Revolutionary War, serving primarily in the Greenbrier area at Fort Randolph. After the war, he and his father and uncle made many trips into what is now Kentucky, buying military land grants and claiming other plots of land. William settled in Washington, near Limestone (now Maysville) in Mason County, Kentucky. There he met and went into business with Simon Kenton.

Simon Kenton (1755-1836) was also born in Virginia. When he was 16, he fled to the frontier following a fight over a woman. Kenton also fought in Lord Dunmore's War, at one point saving the life of his friend, Daniel Boone. It was said that no one knew the Kentucky frontier better than Boone, and no one knew the Ohio frontier better than Kenton. Kenton also served as a scout during the Revolution, then fought with "Mad" Anthony Wayne in the Northwest Indian Wars of 1793-94. By about the late 1780s he began exploring the Mad River Valley and making land claims in the region. Ward also was contracting with John Cleves Symmes for tracts of land in this area, although later it was determined Symmes did not have the right to sell these. In 1799 Simon Kenton and William Ward led a group of families from Mason County, Kentucky, to an area between present-day Springfield and Urbana, Ohio. Ward petitioned the state to create a new county out of parts of existing ones in 1805, and as a result, Champaign County was born.

Ward and Kenton continued to  work "land deals" together for about 3 decades, although in later years Kenton kept losing his lands and fortunes while Ward's fortunes grew.