Questions and Answers
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Question 1: My son asked me to tell him about Daniel
Boone. I have often heard the name Daniel Boone, and that he
was involved at an early time in settling in what was then the
wilderness of Kentucky, and that he fought with the Indians, but not
much else. Can you write a thumbnail sketch describing who he
was and what he did that made him famous?
Answer: Daniel Boone was born October 22nd, 1734
(per what is called the “Old Style” Julian Calendar in effect at that
time) in the English colony of Pennsylvania, near what is now the city
of Reading. In 1752, the English colonies changed over to
what is called the “New Style” Gregorian Calendar, which if used,
changed Daniel’s birth date to November 2nd, 1734.
His birth was two-and-a-half years after the birth of another to be
famous American, George Washington. At the time the
place of Daniel’s birth was near the western edge of white settlement
in Pennsylvania, as in all of the colonies almost all of the settlement
was near the Atlantic Coast. Daniel’s father’s name was
Squire and his mother’s name was Sarah. Squire was a
blacksmith, weaver, and farmer, and he was successful at his
trades. When Daniel was fifteen years old, in 1750, his
family moved to the western frontier region of the colony of North
Carolina. There he helped with the family farming and at
times went off into the western wilderness toward what became he state
of Tennessee, to hunt and trap. He brought meat home for the
family and furs and hides for which he received money or needed items
through bartering.
In 1755, Daniel was a wagon driver with British General Edward
Braddock’s ill-fated campaign against the French in
Pennsylvania. Braddock was killed, the troops were
badly battered and retreated, and some of the wagon drivers, like
Daniel Boone, escaped death or capture by cutting the horses loose and
then riding one to safety. Not too long after this experience
Daniel at age twenty-one married seventeen year old Rebecca Bryan.
During the 1760s Daniel started taking long hunting and exploring trips
toward the west into what became eastern Tennessee, and north into
southwestern Virginia and Kentucky, and also at one point went
exploring with several other men in northern Florida.
By the end of the 1760s Kentucky was totally uninhabited by white man
or Indian, but was a vast hunting grounds for both the Cherokees from
the west and south, and their enemies the Shawnees from north of the
Ohio River. In 1769 Daniel went hunting and
exploring in Kentucky with five other men. Daniel and one of the other
men, his brother-in-law John Stewart, were captured twice by Indians
while hunting together, and after a day or so of captivity escaped both
times. While heading toward Kentucky he marked the trail from
North Carolina to eastern Tennessee, which soon after was followed by
white families who became the first families to settle in
Tennessee.
After the captures and escapes of Daniel and John Stewart, and after
Indians destroyed or stole all of the many furs that had been
accumulated, the other four men who had been with Daniel and John
Stewart decided to leave Kentucky and go back to the
settlements. About that time, Daniel’s younger brother Squire
arrived in Kentucky with a friend bringing supplies. And a
short time after that John Stewart disappeared while hunting (his body
found five years later with signs that he had been killed by
Indians). Squire returned to the settlements taking the furs
that they had gotten, while Daniel stayed in Kentucky. Squire
brought supplies to Daniel twice thereafter and hunted for a while
before heading back home. In all Daniel remained hunting and
exploring in Kentucky for a full two years, before returning to North
Carolina.
In 1773, Daniel and his family and friends and relatives headed for
Kentucky to set up the first white settlement, however before the
reached the Cumberland Gap five of the younger men of the party were
killed by Indians, including the Boones oldest son James.
This incident cause everyone to head back to their homes in North
Carolina, except for Daniel and his family who took of living in
southwestern Virginia. The next year a war called Lord
Dunmore’s War broke out all along Virginia’s western border.
It was named Lord Dunmore’s War after Virginia’s Governor John Murray,
Earl of Dunmore. Daniel was commissioned as a Lieutenant and
soon after raised in rank to a Captain and put in charge of three forts
in southwestern Virginia. There are documents showing that he
carried out his duties in an exceptional manner.
Daniel Boone had known Judge Richard Henderson in western North
Carolina for some years through Daniel’s need for legal service and
advice. Being very interested in Kentucky as most persons
were at the time, Henderson had gotten all the details about Daniel’s
explorations into the Kentucky wilderness that had become known as a
paradise controlled by sometimes hostile Indians.
While events in the war were still going on in the north, in August a
group of nine prominent North Carolina men formed a land company known
as the Louisia Company (in January of 1775 the name was changed to the
Transylvania Company). The company was led by Judge
Henderson, and their purpose was to establish the 14th colony called
Transylvania in what was then the wilderness of Kentucky. In
so doing they planned to sell the land and become wealthy.
Early in the fall Henderson and one of the partners, Captain Nathaniel
Hart, along with Daniel Boone who was quite friendly with the Indians,
had visited the Cherokee Indian towns in Tennessee for seeing if the
Cherokees would be willing to sell their claim to their Kentucky
hunting grounds. For various reasons the Indians were willing to
exchange nearly 20,000,000 acres for £10,000 of merchandise.
Daniel Boone gathered the Indians at a place called Sycamore Shoals in
eastern Tennessee, near the Virginia border. It is stated
that 1200 Indians were present for the signing of a treaty to seal the
agreement, however before the affair was over Daniel Boone was on the
way, at the lead of 28 men who were hired to cut what became known as
Boone’s Wilderness Trail or the Boone Trace. When they
reached the Kentucky River they started a settlement and built a fort,
naming it Fort Boonesborough in Daniel Boone’s honor. The
timing of establishing Fort Boonesborough coincided with the start of
the Revolutionary War. RGW-2,8; DLM-332
The next year Daniel took his family to live at Fort Boonesborough, and
the following year, 1776, his fourteen year old daughter, Jemima, and
two other girls were kidnapped by Indians. He led the rescue
effort that resulted in the rescue of the girls two-and-a-half days
later.
In 1778, Daniel and twenty-eight other men were captured by Indians
while away from the fort boiling salt as the Blue Licks
spring. After five months Daniel escaped just
before a planned raid on Fort Boonesborough by the Indians.
When the Indians arrived and put the fort under siege, Daniel was the
main leader who outsmarted the Indians during the nine-day
siege. Finding the capture of the fort too difficult the
Indians gave up and left for their tribal homes north of the Ohio
River. By this time, with all of the many exciting incidents,
of blazing the trails, being captured and escaping, rescuing his
daughter, and leading the defense in Kentucky, Daniel’s notoriety
spread throughout the
colonies.
Kentucky became a county of the colony of Virginia, and then in 1780,
Kentucky County had been separated into three counties, Lincoln,
Jefferson, and Fayette. Daniel became one of the
county’s several militia leaders. He was also elected to the
Virginia Assembly the next year from Fayette County, and while there
was captured by the British at Charlottesville, near Thomas Jefferson’s
Monticello. He was released soon after his
capture. Daniel got to know Jefferson on a personal
basis while in the legislature. Within the next several years
he had appointed roles of Deputy County Surveyor, Sheriff and Coroner
for the county, County Lieutenant of Fayette County, a role that
outranked all other county civil and militia roles. He was
elected to the Virginia Legislature two more times, and while serving
as a regular under George Rogers Clark in Virginia’s frontier army in
Kentucky, he rose in rank to Major, Lt. Colonel, and finally was
commissioned as a full Colonel.
In 1782, he lost his next oldest son Israel, while both were at the
Battle of Blue Licks. As the fighting with the Indians north
of the Ohio continued after the Revolutionary War treaty with England,
Daniel remained in a military role. In 1789 he and his family
moved to what was Kanawha County in what is now West Virginia, during
which time he met such leaders as George Washington, Patrick Henry, and
Henry Lee (the future father of Robert E. Lee). After a final
peace with the Indians came about in 1794, Daniel and his family
returned to Kentucky, and in 1799 he and his family moved to Spanish
Upper Louisiana where he became a Spanish official prior to the
Louisiana Purchase, where he lived out the last twenty years of his
life, still hunting and exploring until near his death in September of
1820. In his lifetime Daniel became one of the most legendary
of America’s early heroes, a recognition that extended into western
Europe. Even today Daniel Boone remains one of the most
recognized persons in American history.
Question 2: What made Daniel Boone famous?
Answer: Daniel Boone’s lifetime just happened to
occur during a very important time in America’s history. When
he was born, the English Colonies were along the east coast, and people
that had arrived from England over the years had settled relatively
close to the coast. To the west was a plush wilderness of
trees, clear streams, and lands that were rich for farming and abundant
with wildlife. However almost all of those lands were beyond
the very difficult to penetrate Appalachian Mountain range, that
stretched from the north to the south of what is now the United
States. There was also another problem, various Indian tribes
were scattered throughout toward the west and they claimed the lands as
theirs. The Indians were unpredictable, and at times became
very hostile to white settlers who came into their
territories. Many who ventured into the wilderness did not
return, mainly because to do so required an excellent understanding of
the Indians ways as well as how to survive in the wilderness.
There was however a strong reason for the people in the east to migrate
westward. Most of the people in the east were farmers who
raised crops for their family’s existence and for using for trading for
the other family necessities. Our good farming
practices of today were unknown. As the farmers used the poor
farming practices of their day, the depleting of the nutrition in the
soil reduced the production of their crops to where it was difficult or
impossible to survive in any reasonable manner. Most families
eventually borrowed money for seed and feed and for purchasing farm
animals, and for other needs, from the more well off upper class in
their regions. It usually didn’t take long before they
couldn’t repay their debts, and as a result many lost most of what they
had accumulated. Most came to realize that they somehow had
to migrate west to where they could start anew for themselves and their
children. But that was impossible unless someone in some
manner would lead the way. Such a move required someone to
explore the region ahead, to mark the trail west, to set up a
settlement, and to defend that settlement from the Indians until the
Indians gave up their hostile acts or their claim to the
land. While there were some others involved, the one person
who fit the mold and finally came forward to lead the way, with the
courage to set and maintain the course, and who had the needed keen
knowledge of the Indian’s ways and how to survive in the wilderness,
was Daniel Boone. People trusted his knowledge and abilities
with their lives and followed him westward.
The trails from North Carolina to Tennessee and from Tennessee into
Kentucky, and in time the trail for crossing the Mississippi River to
settle in what is now Missouri were Boone marked trails.
Within a short time after living in what is now Missouri, two of Daniel
Boone’s grown son’s, Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone marked the trail
for getting to the Boone Salt Lick in 1805, and Nathan marked the trail
for going nearly all of the way across the state to the site near
Kansas City for building fort Osage in 1808. At the time
these were the only white man’s trails going west into the interior
west of the Mississippi River, except for the Spanish trails many miles
away in Mexico and the southwest. All five of these trails
were the earliest trails used by thousands of families migrating
westward for a hoped for better future. They
represent five of the ten original westward migration trails from
Pennsylvania to the Pacific Ocean, the trails responsible for what we
call America’s Westward Expansion.
Daniel became famous because people in his time knew what he had done
for opening up the west to white settlement, and they also were aware
of his captures and escapes, the rescuing of persons who had been
captured by Indians, and many of his other adventures. He was
truly a famous American wilderness hero, and while everyone in his time
knew that, modern historian have allowed such important American
history fall through the cracks until very few today are able to know
about the famous persons who made America the country that it
became. Fortunately for Daniel Boone, his name and image
still remains as one of America’s leading legends, even if people don’t
really know what he did during his lifetime.