MORE THAN A CENTURY IN THE WORKS,
STATUE TO MARK FRONTIERSMAN'S GRAVE
URBANA, Ohio - Unlike his better-known contemporary Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton never sought the sort of notoriety that inspires art. And yet, there he was yesterday, captured in an 820-pound bronze likeness and hoisted into a sculptor's pickup. ''Frankly, I think he would be a little embarrassed to be such an outstanding figure today. But he deserves it,'' said Springfield, Ohio, resident Ray Crain, a Kenton expert. ''Boone had his own press corps following him around, but he was a loner. If people got very close, he'd get up and move. Kenton was exactly the opposite,'' Crain said. ''He stayed in the background, but he was outgoing, helpful and did anything he could for people.'' The life-size statue of the frontiersman, more than a century in the making, was completed recently by local artist Mike Major. The Simon Kenton Historic Corridor raised $30,000 for the project and commission, allowing Major to pick up where famed American sculptor and Urbana native John Quincy Adams Ward left off in 1863. Although Ohio legislators had warmly received Ward's offer to create a bronze of Kenton, funding dried up at the outbreak of the Civil War. A fund-raising campaign launched later - featuring penny collections from Ohio schoolchildren - covered only the pedestal's cost. ''Ward said it would be up to future generations to finish it, and that's what has happened,'' said Major's business partner, Dave Martin.During ceremonies July 4, Kenton's 6-foot-1 figure will be placed atop the pedestal at his grave in Urbana's Oak Dale Cemetery. The rugged Indian fighter, who died in 1838, spent 36 of his 81 years in Ohio. Crain, historian for the Kenton corridor committee, said the statue is glorious. ''Mike Major is a perfectionist. I don't care whether it's a painting, pen and ink or what,'' he said. ''He just does a wonderful job. We were fortunate to have the original drawings.'' Ward had created a plaster image of Kenton. After Ward's death, his wife had it completed as a 27-inch statuette. The piece is housed in the Champaign County Library and served as Major's model. The Kenton project is easily a favorite, Major said. ''I was excited, so I worked kind of quickly. The work was just about mentally finished before I laid my hands on it,'' he said. ''I got to complete a 150-year-old dream.'' Major used a welded steel frame to support the clay he would transform into the burly, redheaded Irishman. The facial characteristics dictated by Ward are, admittedly, kind. ''Kenton was kind of dented up from tomahawks, and he had a hooked nose,'' Major said. ''His face was not much.''
Kenton was more noted for his strength. Crain said Indians forced him to run a gantlet four times, a feat few survived even once. In 1777, Kenton saved Boone's life.
The bronze, which was cast in Pennsylvania, drew more than a few comments on the ride to Ohio in Major's truck. He expects more when the statue travels to Cincinnati this week for temporary display. ''I get into a lot of cultural discussions at BP stations,'' Major said with a smile. ''Outside of this area, Kenton is not real well known, so lots of people ask who it is. ''That's the great thing about figurative sculpture. If this had been an abstract piece, no one would have said a thing.''
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