Boone

BOONE, Daniel, American pioneer: b. Bucks County, Pa., 11 Feb. 1735; d. 26 Sept. 1822. He was one of 11 children. His father emigrated from England and when Daniel was very young removed with his family from Bucks into Berks County, not far from Read ing, then a frontier settlement exposed to In dian assaults. It abounded with game, and thus Daniel became accustomed to a life in the woods and formed an intense love for unculti vated nature. His education was confined to a knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic. When he was about 18 his father removed to North Carolina and settled on the Yadkin. Here, in 1755, Daniel married Rebecca Bryan and for some years followed the occupation of a farmer, but about 1761 his passion for hunt ing led him, with a company of explorers, along the wilderness at the head-waters of the Tennessee River. In 1764 he joined another company of hunters on the Rock Castle, a branch of the Cumberland River. He had be come dissatisfied with life in North Carolina. The customs of the colony were becoming lux urious, the rich were exempt from the neces sity of labor and the people were much op pressed by taxes. Boone imbibed a chronic hatred of law forms which lasted through life, and his neglect of these, in securing his titles to land, reduced him to poverty on more than one occasion.

In 1767 a backwoodsman named John Fin ley made an excursion farther west than had before been attempted and returned with glow ing accounts of the border region of Kentucky, which he represented as a hunter's paradise. Boone headed a party of six for its explora tion, leaving his Yadkin home 1 May 1769. On 7 June, in the same year, they reached an ele vation from which they beheld the whole region watered by the Kentucky River and its tribu taries. At this point on the waters of the Red River, a branch of the Kentucky and supposed to be within the present limits of Morgan County, they halted and hunted until Decem ber without seeing a single Indian, although they were continually on the alert for them. They then parties, Boone and a man named Stewart keeping company, and on 22 December these two were surprised and captured by Indians, who robbed them and kept them prisoners for seven days, when they man aged to make good their escape. Early next month Boone and Stewart were gratified by the arrival in the wilderness of Daniel's younger brother Squire and another hunter from North Carolina, bringing tidings of the family at home and a much-needed supply of powder and lead. Soon after this event Stew art and Boone were again attacked by Indians. Boone escaped but his companion was shot and scalped, and the man who came with Squire having perished in the woods, the two brothers were left alone together. On 1 May it was decided that Squire should return for supplies, while Daniel remained to take care of and in crease the store of peltry. They parted, and until 27 July, when Squire returned, Daniel remained in utter solitude, without bread, salt or sugar. The brothers then continued their explorations over other parts of Kentucky until March 1771, when, taking as much peltry as their horses could carry, they returned to their families on the Yadkin, Daniel having been absent about two years, during which time he had seen no human beings but his hunting companions and the hostile Indians. He was now anxious to remove to Kentucky, and al though his wife and children were easily per suaded to do so, two years elapsed before he could make the necessary arrangements. He sold his farm, and on 25 Sept. 1773, the two brothers, with their families, set out for Ken tucky. At Powell's Valley, through which their route lay, they were joined by five families and 40 men well armed, but on approaching Cum berland Gap, near the junction of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, they were attacked by Indians and were forced to retreat 40 miles to Clinch River, leaving six of their party slain, among whom was Boone's eldest son, James. The emigrants were much disheartened and Boone remained at Clinch River until June 1774, when Governor Dunmore sent him a mes sage to proceed to the wilderness of Kentucky and conduct thence a party of surveyors who were believed to be in danger from the In dians. This undertaking was successful, but no incidents of it have been preserved excepting that Boone was absent 62 days, in which he traveled on foot 800 miles. While he was gone to Kentucky the Shawnees and other Indians northwest of the Ohio River became hostile. Boone was appointed to the command of three contiguous garrisons, with the commission of captain, and, having fought several battles and defeated the Indians, he returned to his fam ily on Clinch River and spent the next winter in hunting. He was shortly after employed by the Transylvania Company, established to pur chase lands in Kentucky, to explore, mark and open a road from settlements on the Holston to the Kentucky River. In the face of great dangers this was accomplished, and on 1 April 1775,a site having been selected on the bank of the Kentucky River, the party erected a stock ade fort and called it Boonesborough. Boone soon removed his family to the new settlement, his wife and daughters being the first white women that ever stood on the banks of the Kentucky. The winter and spring.of 1776 wore away without any particular incident, as the Indians, though by no means friendly, made no direct attack. On 14 July a daughter of Boone and two female companions were captured by a party of Indians, but next morning Boone and his companions followed the trail and sur prised the Indians so suddenly that they had not time to murder their captives and the three girls were restored to their families. During the whole of 1777 Boone was employed with his command in repelling the attacks of the Indians, who were incited to the most savages deeds of cruelty by the British during the Rev olutionary War. His services were of incal culable advantage to the new settlements. On 1 Jan. 1778, the people suffering greatly for want of salt, he headed a party for the lower Blue Licks to manufacture it, and on 7 Feb ruary, while at some distance from the camp, he was surprised and made prisoner by a party of 100 Indians. Again in this instance his con

summate knowledge of the red man's charac ter saved him and his friends. He ingratiated himself in their regard and obtained favorable terms for his party at the Licks, who became prisoners of war under the promise of good treatment. He knew that the Indians would march to attack Boonesborough and that if he and his party resisted they would all be mur dered and those at the fort massacred, as no warning could reach them. He was conducted to old Chillicothe and thence to Detroit, where he was kindly received by the English com mander, Governor Hamilton. In order to baf fle his captors he pretended to be very much pleased with his mode of life among the In dians, went through the form of adoption by them, having his hair pulled out excepting the scalp-lock, This white blood washed out" in the river and his face painted. On 16 June he went out to hunt and, when out of view, started di rect for Boonesborough, more than 160 miles distant, which he traveled in less than five days. He reached Boonesborough in time to warn the garrison. All supposed him dead, and his wife, under that impression, had returned with her children to North Carolina. The fort was at once put in complete order for defense, arid on 8 August it was besieged by 444 In dians, led by Captain Duquesne and 11 other Canadians, having French and British colors. Summoned to surrender, Boone replied with defiance, and after a savage attack upon the fort the assailants, six times greater in number than the garrison, raised the siege, leaving 37 of their party killed and many more wounded. Boone was now promoted to the rank of major. In 1778 he went to North Carolina to see his family. The next year, having invested nearly all his little property in paper money to buy land warrants, and having, besides his own, large sums of money to invest for other people, he was robbed of the whole, about $20,000 on his way from Kentucky to Richmond, where the court of commissioners was held to decide on Kentucky land claims. In 1780 he returned with his family to Boonesborough, and in Octo ber of that year his brother, on a hunting ex cursion with him, was killed and scalped by the Indians and Boone himself narrowly es caped. The Indians being exceedingly trouble some, a large party of militia was formed to follow and punish them, who, against Boone's counsel, suffered themselves to be drawn into an ambuscade, and the disastrous battle of the Blue Licks followed, in which Boone lost an other son and had a brother wounded. At the close of the Revolutionary War Colonel Boone returned to the quiet life of his farm and to his passion for hunting. In 1792 Kentucky was admitted into the Umon as a sovereign State and as courts of justice were established, liti gation in regard to land titles commenced and was finally carried to great lengths. From de fective titles, Boone, with hundreds of others, lost the lands he possessed, with their valuable improvements, and thus after the vigor of his life was spent he found himself without a sin gle acre of the vast domain he had explored and fought to defend from savage invaders. Disgusted with his treatment, he resolved to abandon Kentucky and move to the Far West, which he did in 1795. He settled first on the Femme Osage, about 45 miles west of Saint Louis, where he remained until 1804; he then removed to the home of his youngest son until 1810 and finally went to live with his son-in law, Flanders Callaway. As the country at the time of his removal was under the dominion of Spain, on 11 July 1800, he was appointed commandant of the Femme Osage district; and as his fame had preceded him, 1,000 arpents, or about 850 acres, of choice land were marked out on the north side of the Missouri River and given to him for his official services. This princely estate he also subsequently lost because he would not take the trouble to go to New Orleans to complete his title before the imme diate representative of the Spanish Crown. Having left Kentucky in debt, he was much troubled for a while by ill success in hunting, but at length he obtained a valuable store of peltry, turned it into cash, went to Kentucky, without book account, paid every one what was demanded and on his return to upper Loui siana with but half a dollar left, said that he was ready to die content. In 1812 he petitioned Congress to confirm the title to his claim of 1,000 arpents of land, which he had neglected to have done in proper form and was in dan ger of losing as he had everything else. He sought the aid of the Legislature of Kentucky and his petition was successfully urged in Con gress, in requital for his eminent services. He continued to hunt 'occasionally as long as his strength remained but was obliged to give up his rifle several years before his death. Ches ter Harding, who in 1820 painted the only por trait of him ever taken, informs us that his first sight of the old pioneer found him lying in his bunk in the cabin, engaged in cooking a venison steak on a ramrod. His memory of immediate events was very defective but of past years a; keen as ever. He was quite feeble but able to walk out with Harding every day. This portrait now hangs in the State House at Frankfort, Ky. He died surrounded by his children and descendants, some of the fifth gen eration, in the 88th year of his age. On 20 Aug. 1845 the remains were deposited with appropriate ceremonies in the cemetery at Frankfort. In all the relations of private life Boone was a model for imitation. In spite of his many Indian encounters he was a lover of peace, modest in disposition, of incorruptible integrity, moral and temperate. Consult Sparks' American Biography' (New York 1856), and Thwaites, R. G., (Life of Daniel Boone' (ib. 1902).