Josiah Hunt and The Palmer Furnace©

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Dr. Jonathan Palmer, a modern caver, is credited with publicizing the use of the “Palmer Furnace” as it is known today by us modern folk.  He used a candle or a carbide lamp to exhaust warm gases, up under a shirt or a blanket, to quickly warm up, when cold, an idea he probably got from old-time hard rock miners. 

 

But the idea behind the Palmer Furnace was known at least as far back as the late 18^th century, it dates to 1793 to be exact.  Some authors attribute the idea of using a small smoldering fire, built in a pit, and partly smothered with dirt, while sitting above it, wrapped in a blanket to Lewis Wetzel; others such as Allen Eckert, the author of The Frontiersman, attributed the early use of a Palmer Furnace to Simon Kenton.  Both Lewis Wetzel and Simon Kenton were active during the 1790’s in the Upper Ohio Valley area and while I don’t doubt Mr. Eckert; I believe the originator of the “secret camp-fire” technique was actually a little known frontiersman named Josiah Hunt.

 

The earliest known primary biographical source that I can find, that speaks of the “secret camp-fire”, dates to 1847, and was written by Judge Thomas Coke Wright.  Judge Wright was the earliest Greene County historian and was also a contemporary of many of early settlers in Greene County and who had spoken with Josiah Hunt, whom he described as speaking with “...a tone of candor and sincerity, as well as modesty, in his manner of relating the thrilling scenes in which he had been an actor...”¹.  In this account, written Judge Wright, and sent by him to Henry Howe, for inclusion in his Historical Collections of Ohio, 1847, the creation of “secret camp-fire” is attributed to Josiah Hunt. 

 

During The Northwest Indian War of 1785 to 1795, which ended with the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville, signed in 1795, according to an account written by Judge Wright, Josiah Hunt in 1793 worked both as a soldier and a hunter supplying meat to the garrison at Fort Greene-ville, as it was then known. 

 

Because the Native Americans of the Confederated Tribes would ambush anyone leaving the fort, Hunt would leave the Fort after dark, walk towards his chosen hunting ground and then bivouac for night, before hunting in the morning.  During the winter of 1793, he used the following technique to keep from freezing to death in the night, a technique that is like what we know of today as a ‘Palmer Furnace’.

 

The narrative goes on to say that the Native American warriors who knew of this daring hunter, and who were actively hunting him, were so impressed with the ingenuity of his secret campfire, a trick that, apparently, they did not know about, and his skill as a warrior and hunter that they promoted him to “Captain”, a term of great respect among Native Americans warriors of the time.  The fact that the Native American warriors were impressed with how he made his secret campfires, also leads me to believe that he was the inventor of this method.

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Josiah Hunt, How He Made His Secret Camp-Fires”, where we will talk about how to make an emergency furnace to keep from freezing to death.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

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That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

Sources

 

Bigelow, David; History of Prominent Mercantile and Manufacturing Firms in the United States, Vol VI, [David Bigelow, Boston, 1857], page 265-270, https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Prominent_Mercantile_and_Manu/y1w-AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22History+of+Prominent+Mercantile+and+Manufacturing+Firms+in+the+United+States%22+1857+%22josiah+Hunt%22&pg=PA266&printsec=frontcover, accessed May 7, 2026

 

Howe, Henry; Historical Collections of Ohio, [Derby, Bradley & Company, Cincinnati, 1847], page 199 to 200, https://books.google.com/books?id=ri8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=%22josiah+hunt%22+roth&source=bl&ots=M7iiOgL5Xj&sig=WXic_CR-GpPKHcgxxeXT3oCTcz4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=noyDU8XEDuilsQTX7ICQCw&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22josiah%20hunt%22%20roth&f=false, accessed May 7, 2026

 

Rapacz, Andrea; Personal conversation regarding The Phineas Meigs’ Hat, May 01, 2016, 10:51 am

 

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; “N. W. Territory Map, 1801”, by William Barker, [© 2026], https://digital.library.illinois.edu/items/9d2ba5e0-994e-0134-2096-0050569601ca-2, accessed May 9, 2026

 

Webster, Noah; A Dictionary of the English Language: Compiled for the Use of Common Schools, [George Goodwin & Sons, Hartford, 1817], page 275, https://books.google.com/books?id=fJ8RAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=ross+bark+dictionary&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T5kXUu-ZAcTd4QTxtYCQCw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ross%20bark%20dictionary&f=false, accessed May 9, 2026