Thomas Kenton

   General Notes:

Thomas Kenton lived for a time in Germantown, PA with relatives. We have no record of his early life, but as of 1737, he was trading with the Indians on the Ohio and was one of that intrepid band of frontiersmae who carried blankets, ammunition, trinkets and probably rum to the Indians in exchange for peltry furs. His firat purchase of land was in that area where other Irish and Scotch-Irish had settled and was, at that time, the farthest frontier in Pennsylvania. These people, fleeing form religious persecution first in Scotland, then in Ireland, were not welcomed by the Germans who had settled in the fertile southern tier of the counties in Pennsylvania. They quickly passed through Chester and Lancaster counties. the west bank of the Susquehanna River, settling along the PA-MD border. They have been described as "champions of civil and religious liberty, cool, calculating, practical and heardheaded" - a type not calculated to adjust well withthe German population but definately the kind of people to open up the wilderness of the frontier. Trade with the Indians of the Ohio Valley was the opening wedge and also a profitable venture.