Ephraim Kibbey
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ephraim Kibbey
| image =
| image_size =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1756|11|20}}
| birth_place = Somers, Connecticut
| death_date = {{death date and age|1809|04|22|1756|11|20}}
| death_place = Deerfield, now South Lebanon, Ohio
| death_cause =
| resting_place = Deerfield Cemetery, South Lebanon, Ohio
| signature =
}}
Ephraim Kibbey (1754 or 1756 – 1809) was a United States soldier in the American Revolution, a frontiersman and early settler of Ohio, the leader of Mad Anthony Wayne's famous forty scouts in the Northwest Indian War, and a member of the 1st Ohio General Assembly.{{cite book|last1=Griffiths|first1=George R|title=Edward Kibbe, New England colonist and Ephraim Kibbey, frontiersman|date=August 1991|publisher=Family History Library|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|pages=5–23|url=https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE192374|accessdate=24 December 2014|ref=Griffiths}} He was a contemporary of Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, and Simon Girty, and what Daniel Boone was for Kentucky, Kibbey and his fellow pioneer, Benjamin Stites, were to early southwest Ohio.{{cite journal|last1=Baer|first1=Bro. Henry|title=Pioneer Masonry in the Northwest Territory, The Story of Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge, No. 2, Cincinnati|journal=The Builder Magazine|date=November 1927|url=http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/the_builder_1927_november.htm|accessdate=24 December 2014|ref=Builder}}
Family and early life
Ephraim Kibbey was a descendant of Edward Kibbe (born 1597 or 1611, died November 1694), an early settler of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who immigrated from England about 1639.{{cite book|last1=Griffiths|first1=George R.|title=Ibid.|pages=1–5}}
Noted activities
Ephraim enlisted in 1777 at Essex, New Jersey in the Continental Army. He endured the brutal winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge with George Washington under the command of Capt. Jacob Martin in General William Marshall's 4th New Jersey Regiment{{cite web|last1=The Friends of Valley Forge Park|title=The Valley Forge Muster Roll|url=http://valleyforgemusterroll.org/index.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314195204/http://valleyforgemusterroll.org/index.asp|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 14, 2011|website=ValleyForgeMusterRoll.org|accessdate=24 December 2014|ref=Valley Forge}} and was eventually assigned to Capt. Seth Johnson's company of the 3rd New Jersey Regiment under Col. Elias Dayton.{{cite book|last1=Bassett|first1=Mary Cooley|last2=Johnston|first2=Sarah Hall|title=Index of the Roles of Honor (Ancestor's book, Lineage book)|date=1901|publisher=National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68|edition=XXXVII|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9NKAAAAYAAJ&q=revolutionary+war+ephraim+kibbey&pg=PA68|accessdate=24 December 2014|ref=Bassett}}
Following the American Revolution, Kibbey spent time in the frontier of southwestern Pennsylvania before proceeding, with Benjamin Stites and several other pioneers, to settle the Symmes Purchase with the establishment of Columbia, Ohio, just upriver from the future location of Cincinnati, in 1788. All that remains today of this settlement is the Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, Cincinnati, including a large monument erected in 1879 dedicated "To the First Boat-Load."{{cite book|last1=Howe|first1=Henry|title=Historical Collections of Ohio... An Encyclopedia of the State|date=1908|publisher=State of Ohio|location=Ohio|page=809|edition=Vol 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9lPiAAAAMAAJ|ref=Howe}}
Anthony Wayne and his Legion of the United States relied heavily on the famous forty (72){{cite book|last1=Morgan|first1=J.B.F.|title=The Rise and Progress of the Deer Creek Settlement|date=December 25, 1889|publisher=Ross County Genealogical Society|page=21|url=http://jwmyers3.com/family/Book-DeerCreekSettlement/Book-DeerCreekSettlement.html#-21-|ref=Morgan}} scouts led by then-Captain Kibbey in their fight against the Western Confederacy. The scouts were selected from among the finest frontiersmen and Indian fighters, and had several notable forays assisting the Legion in leading to victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.{{cite book|last1=Nelson|first1=S.B.|title=History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio: Their Past and Present, Including...biographies and Portraits of Pioneers and Representative Citizens, Etc, Volume 1|publisher=S.B. Nelson & Co.|location=Cincinnati, Ohio|page=339|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdUyAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=24 December 2014|ref=Nelson|year=1894}}
Kibbey was among the first settlers of Deerfield, now South Lebanon, Ohio about 1795{{cite web|last1=Ohio History Connection|title=Ohio History Central - South Lebanon|website=ohiohistorycentral.org |url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/South_Lebanon|accessdate=24 December 2014|ref=deerfield}} and participated in the defense of the new settlements and in surveying and cutting roads, notably the then-called Kibbey's Road, the first road across the state of Indiana to Vincennes, Indiana.{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=George R|title=Early Indiana Trails and Surveys|journal=Indiana Historical Society Publications |volume=6|date=1919|pages=352–353|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0GfjAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=24 December 2014|ref=indiana}}
He was later elected to the Legislature of the Northwest Territory in 1798 and 1802{{cite book|last1=Griiffiths|first1=George R.|title=Ibid.|page=11}} and served from 1803 to 1804 in the 1st Ohio General Assembly.{{cite book|last1=Ohio General Assembly|title=Legislative Manual of the State of Ohio|date=1920|publisher=State of Ohio|page=283|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nb4-AQAAMAAJ&q=ephraim+kibbey+ohio+legislature|ref=GA}}
Ephraim died at Deerfield, now South Lebanon, Ohio, in 1809.
Marriage and family
Kibbey and his wife, Phebe Ann (Crane) (1758-1813), had 7 children: John Crane, Elisabeth, Joseph, Julia Ann, Jerusha, Ephraim, and Phebe.{{cite book|last1=Griffiths|first1=George R.|title=Ibid.|page=12}} John Crane Kibbey's son, John F. Kibbey, was the third Indiana Attorney General, and John F.'s son was Joseph Henry Kibbey, Territorial Governor of Arizona.{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=Henry Clay |title=Memoirs of Wayne County and the City of Richmond, Indiana: From the Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present, Including a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families in Wayne County, Volume 2 |date=1912 |location=Indiana |pages=96–98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ge1iWCsC4nkC&q=%22John+F.+Kibbey%22+%22Attorney+General%22+%22Indiana%22+%22Oliver%22+%22Morton%22}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|20769125}}
- [http://cwcfamily.org/stitexp.htm The Stites Expedition]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kibbey, Ephraim}}
Category:18th-century American explorers
Category:American people of the Northwest Indian War
Category:Members of the Ohio House of Representatives
Category:Members of the Northwest Territory House of Representatives
Category:Northwest Territory officials
Category:People from Somers, Connecticut