Simon Kenton was not mortal/ draft 1

Simon Kenton was not mortal/ draft 1

fiction
edward w Pritchard

Some expressions are familiar to modern Americans but the original derivation that the words describes seems unreal, as if the event in question that the word denotes never occurred. One such word derivation is the phrase " to run the Gauntlet. "  The phrase to run the gauntlet  describes a type of torture American Indians forced captives to do whereby Indians warriors line in two long rows and a prisoner would run along between the two lines of braves and the Indians would pummel the captive with fists, clubs or other weapons. Often the captive would be maimed or die in the process.

Is anything ultimately possible? Can a mortal man run the gauntlet nine times and survive? Could the nine times number be the inaccurate fact that solves the mystery of " can a man run the gauntlet in the homeland of Shawnee Indians nine times and survive to old age with a piece of a tomahawk in his head"?

Simon Kenton was a renowned American pioneer who fled Virginia in 1771 at the age of 16 after believing he had killed a man in a fight over a girl. Four years later after wandering under an alias in Ohio and Kentucky he found out the man was alive and he could resume his rightful name.  Simon Kenton then had many adventures in early frontier America and in the American Revolution and Indian Wars.

Captured by Shawnee Indians near Xenia Ohio in 1778 Simon Kenton a large robust man was forced to run the gauntlet a total of nine times. Simon Kenton carried a piece of a tomahawk embedded in his skull as a reminder of the ordeal of the Gauntlet the rest of his life.

What makes a man be able to endure such an ordeal? Pioneer stock. The extraordinary will to live of the Frontiersman in early American History? Perhaps the story isn't true.

Sometimes our ancestors were larger than life. Imagine to run or walk along between two long rows of Indians braves and squaws with clubs and have each take a solid whack at you with some sort of weapon. Repeat nine times.

Whatever we think of the tactics of our early ancestors in acquiring and taming our Country we must admire their tenacity. Strong stock were our ancestors. Their exploits at times seem impossible for mortal men to endure.