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| Fess Parker as Daniel Boone |
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| Daniel Boone |
Most
of us have heard the story of Daniel Boone, the pioneer and frontiersman who
helped blaze a trail into America’s early frontier. Or maybe we remember the TV
show “Daniel Boone,” which ran from
1964 to 1970 – not exactly a lesson in history, but it did have a catchy intro
song …
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| Quakers |
Daniel
Boone was born on November 2, 1734 the sixth of eleven children that Squire and
Sarah (Morgan) Boone would have. The Boones were Quakers and lived in the Oley
Valley, near what is now Reading, Pennsylvania. Daniel grew up learning to hunt
with the Lenape Indians who lived nearby.
Boone
had very little formal education but could read and write, and enjoyed reading
Gulliver’s Travels to his hunting buddies around a campfire.
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| French and Indian War |
Daniel
volunteered for the French and Indian War in 1755 and served under Captain Hugh
Waddell as a wagoner in North Carolina. While serving, Boone met John Findley
who told him stories about the abundance of game and beautiful settings of the
Ohio Valley. Boone’s interest was peaked but it took 12 years before he would
make that hunting trip into Kentucky.
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| Mrs. Boone |
In
August 1756, Boone married Rebecca Bryan and settled down in North Carolina
saying he now had all he needed, "a
good gun, a good horse, and a good wife." Over
the years, they had a total of ten children. Boone supported his large family
by hunting and trapping, leaving every autumn on long hunts that could last for
months.
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| Squire Boone |
Daniel
again served in the military during the “Cherokee Uprising” in 1758, moving his
family to safety in Virginia until the conflict was over. In 1767, Boone
reached Kentucky with his brother, Squire. While there he ran into his old
friend, John Findley who convinced him to take a long hunting expedition
through Kentucky.
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| Boonesborough |
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| Through the Cumberland Gap |
Boone
left in 1769 to clear a trail through the Cumberland Gap; he was gone for two
years. When he returned, he packed up his family and moved with another 20 or
so families along the Wilderness Road and into Kentucky. Boone led the pioneers
to a spot along the Kentucky River and named it Boonesborough.
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| The American Revolution |
With
the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, the Indians saw a chance to
drive the colonists out of Kentucky. By 1776 less than 200 people remained in
the area. Those that did were staying in the fortified settlements of
Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and Logan’s Station.
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| Rescuing Jemima |
Then
on July 14, 1776 Boone’s daughter, Jemima and two other local girls were
captured by a Cherokee and Shawnee war party. Boone and a group of local men
were able to get the girls back two days after the ambush. (A fictionalized
version of the story was written and entitled Last of the Mohicans in 1826.)
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| Boone Taken Captive |
Two
years later, Boone was captured by the Shawnee Indians. He eventually escaped
and returned to Boonesborough to help defend it against Indiana raiders. He
then left to purchase land for the settlers but was robbed of the monies. He
was forced to repay all of the settlers and was never able to escape from the
lawsuits and debt.
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| Daniel Boone |
Boone
was elected to several government offices including sheriff, lieutenant
colonel, and as a legislative delegate. But Kentucky had lost its appeal and
Boone moved his family to Upper Louisiana; what is now Missouri, in 1799.
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| Hunting in Missouri |
Spain
owned this part of the country and Boone was treated well by the Spanish
government, receiving a large land grant and a leadership title. Boone was happy
with his life until the U.S. took over the land and denied
his claim to the land. It wasn’t until 1814 that Congress restored a part
of his landholdings to him.
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| Nathan's Home |
Rebecca
Boone died in 1813 and Boone moved near St Charles, Missouri to live with his
son, Nathan. Daniel Boone died in
Defiance on September 26, 1820. He was 85 years old.
Daniel
Boone was buried next to his wife in an unmarked grave in Marthasville,
Missouri. The graves were marked with stones sometime in the mid-1830s. But in
1845, Boone’s remains, along with Rebecca’s, were disinterred and moved to the
new cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state’s capital. But were they?
Controversy has existed over this for almost 170 years.
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| The Missouri Stone |
The
folks in Missouri claimed that Daniel Boone’s grave stone was actually placed
over the wrong grave but no one had done any thing about it. When the
Kentuckians arrived, they took the wrong remains back with them.
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| Carving on Kentucky Stone |
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| Kentucky Monument |
In
1983, a forensic anthropologist examined the plaster cast that had been made of
Boone’s skull before the remains were buried in Frankfort. The verdict was that
the skull belonged to an African American. Officials in Frankfort quickly
disputed the findings.
Today,
both Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky and the Old Bryan Farm Graveyard in
Missouri claim to have Daniel Boone’s remains, a conundrum that might have tickled
his fancy …
~
Joy
