One-hundred, ninety-nine years ago, today, the realDaniel Boone passed away. Two days prior, I posted about the television show Daniel Boone that was hardly accurate in its portrayal or his frame of life despite being a popular show.
On September 26, 1820 the great pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly in his sleep at his son’s home near present-day Defiance, Missouri.
The indefatigable voyager was 86. Boone was born in 1734 (he has two different dates of birth due to the 1752 Gregorian calendar switch) to Quaker parents living in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Following a squabble with the Pennsylvania Quakers, Boone’s family decided to head south and west for less crowded regions and they eventually settled in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. There the young Daniel Boone began his life-long love for wilderness, spending long days exploring the still relatively unspoiled forests and mountains of the region. An indifferent student who never learned to write more than a crude sentence or two, Boone’s passion was for the outdoors, and he quickly became a superb marksman, hunter and woodsman. (It should be noted here that historian John Mack Faragher stated that Boone “acquired a level of literacy that was the equal of most men of his times. He was often the only literate person in groups of frontiersmen.”)
In May of 1769, Boone and five companions crossed over the Cumberland Gap and explored along the south fork of the Kentucky River. Boone returned in 1773 with his family, hoping to establish a permanent settlement. An Indian attack prevented that first attempt from succeeding (Boone’s eldest son James and, William Russell‘s son Henry were captured and tortured to death, a prelude to Dunmore’s War.) but, Boone returned two years later to open the route that became known as Boone’s Trace (or the Wilderness Road) between the Cumberland Gap and a new settlement along the Kentucky River called Fortress Boonesboro. Boonesboro eventually became one of the most important gateways for the early American settlement of the Trans-Appalachian West.
After the French and Indian War (1754–1763) broke out between the French and British, and their respective Indian allies, North Carolina Governor Matthew Rowan called up a militia, for which Boone volunteered. He served under Captain Hugh Waddell on the North Carolina frontier. Waddell’s unit was assigned to serve in the command of General Edward Braddock […].
Boone served in the North Carolina militia during [the] “Cherokee Uprising“. His militia expeditions went deep into Cherokee territory beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains and he was separated from his wife for about two years.
On December 22, 1769, Boone and a fellow hunter, Benjamin Cutbirth, were captured by a party of Shawnees, who confiscated all of their skins and told them to leave and never return.
Image Credit: wikipedia.org & wikimedia.org Charles Wimar 1853
[During the Revolutionary War], Boone’s daughter Jemima and two other teenaged girls were captured outside Boonesborough by an Indian war party on July 5, 1776. The incident became the most celebrated event of Boone’s life. James Fenimore Cooper created a fictionalized version of the episode in his classic novel The Last of the Mohicans (1826).
He lived quite an eventful life.
♦ In February 1778, Boone was adopted into the Shawnee tribe as a prisoner to replace a fallen warrior (a Shawnee custom) and was named Sheltowee (Big Turtle), eventually escaping.
♦ In September 1778, he was court-martialed due to misunderstandings during the Siege of Boonesborough.
♦ There is some indication that Boone crossed paths with Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather.
♦ In 1780, Boone was [a] Lieutenant Colonel in the Fayette County militia. In October, his brother Ned was killed by Shawnees and beheaded for a trophy, as the they thought they had killed Boone.
♦ In 1781, he was elected as a representative to the Virginia General Assembly.
♦ [Traveling] to Richmond to take his seat in the legislature, […] British dragoons under Banastre Tarleton captured Boone and several other legislators near Charlottesville. The British released Boone on parole several days later.
♦ In 1782, he was elected sheriff of Fayette County.
♦ By 1787, he owned seven slaves.
♦ In 1798, a warrant was issued for Boone’s arrest after he ignored a summons to testify in a court case, although the sheriff never found him.
♦ Also in 1798, the Kentucky assembly named Boone County in his honor.
♦ From 1799 to 1804, he served as syndic and commandant, appointed by the Spanish governor of Spanish Louisiana (now St. Charles County, Missouri).
♦ American painter John James Audubon claimed to have gone hunting with Boone in the woods of Kentucky around 1810 (some historians believe Boone visited his brother Squire near Kentucky in 1810).
♦ Boone died of natural causes at his son Nathan’s home. He was 85.
” I posted about the television show Daniel Boone that was hardly accurate in its portrayal of his frame of life despite being a popular show.”
***How much, of what we think we know, is really accurate?
One thing I noticed and was surprised… I guess I shouldn’t be… Aaron, Brett, and Bob Boone are related to him…all three MLB players at one time.
What a life he had…he paid for it in the people he lost.
Like the Sherriff was going to find Daniel Boone…
The Hinoeumaresponded:
September 27, 2019 at 2:50 PM
I did SO much reading last night. Even just using History & Wikipedia, it was a daunting task, laying out the info. There is much more to the story. I just hit the high points.
He also had a great deal of trouble with finances. He was broke several times. Lost land holdings several times. Was shot during the Siege of Boonesborough… At one time, he was gone so long, his family thought he was dead.
The brutal torture of his eldest son James & the beheading of his brother Ned must have been awful. Henry Russell died along with James. A curious connection that I couldn’t find a place for was…Henry’s father William went on to be the brother-in-law of Patrick Henry.
That warrant was over debt. Most likely the sheriff didn’t look too hard.
The guys name is just so known…although the tv show wasn’t real…it did spread his name…but with false things.
You know a lot of those guys were bad at money that I’ve read about. He did lose a lot of people by his wanderings. I had no clue he was a sherriff… I learned more about him here than I ever knew
The Hinoeumaresponded:
September 28, 2019 at 12:06 AM
Well, I’m glad I could provide you with some entertainment and…a history lesson. LOL!
Flick Friday is a bust. September 27 was a sucky day for movie releases. I started in 1949 and got all the way to 1989 and, nothing. I ran out of time. Geezus…
The Hinoeumaresponded:
September 28, 2019 at 2:54 PM
That’s just it. There weren’t any releases but, then again, was searching in five year increments. I found an obscure, really bad horror flick for 1989 but, by that time, it was almost midnight. So, I gave up. *sigh*
Thank Heavens for ordinary men, who really weren’t ordinary. Although, I’m sure they didn’t know that at the time. Looking back through history and many genealogies, those of us today can be grateful for these men (and women).
September 27, 2019 at 12:39 AM
” I posted about the television show Daniel Boone that was hardly accurate in its portrayal of his frame of life despite being a popular show.”
***How much, of what we think we know, is really accurate?
September 27, 2019 at 1:50 AM
Couldn’t hazard a guess on statistics. With the TV show, it was bad enough to have the Kentucky legislature condemn it.
September 27, 2019 at 3:35 AM
Thank you for this. He was one of those characters who’s name I had heard a lot about but never knew why.
September 27, 2019 at 2:19 PM
Welcome. His story is far more intricate than what I posted. I just hit highlights. And, some if what is known about him is disputed.
September 27, 2019 at 9:59 AM
One thing I noticed and was surprised… I guess I shouldn’t be… Aaron, Brett, and Bob Boone are related to him…all three MLB players at one time.
What a life he had…he paid for it in the people he lost.
Like the Sherriff was going to find Daniel Boone…
September 27, 2019 at 2:50 PM
I did SO much reading last night. Even just using History & Wikipedia, it was a daunting task, laying out the info. There is much more to the story. I just hit the high points.
He also had a great deal of trouble with finances. He was broke several times. Lost land holdings several times. Was shot during the Siege of Boonesborough… At one time, he was gone so long, his family thought he was dead.
The brutal torture of his eldest son James & the beheading of his brother Ned must have been awful. Henry Russell died along with James. A curious connection that I couldn’t find a place for was…Henry’s father William went on to be the brother-in-law of Patrick Henry.
That warrant was over debt. Most likely the sheriff didn’t look too hard.
September 27, 2019 at 5:17 PM
The guys name is just so known…although the tv show wasn’t real…it did spread his name…but with false things.
You know a lot of those guys were bad at money that I’ve read about. He did lose a lot of people by his wanderings. I had no clue he was a sherriff… I learned more about him here than I ever knew
September 28, 2019 at 12:06 AM
Well, I’m glad I could provide you with some entertainment and…a history lesson. LOL!
Flick Friday is a bust. September 27 was a sucky day for movie releases. I started in 1949 and got all the way to 1989 and, nothing. I ran out of time. Geezus…
September 28, 2019 at 12:23 AM
Hey it was… that is why I read blogs… to learn. More entertaining than the news! And more truthful…
Wow… that still is impressive that you got that many. I enjoyed it…
September 28, 2019 at 2:38 AM
I got how many? You lost me, again…
September 28, 2019 at 2:40 AM
Lol I’m good at that. From 1949 through 1989.
September 28, 2019 at 2:54 PM
That’s just it. There weren’t any releases but, then again, was searching in five year increments. I found an obscure, really bad horror flick for 1989 but, by that time, it was almost midnight. So, I gave up. *sigh*
September 28, 2019 at 3:39 PM
I got ya. I have a soft spot for old even bad horror movies.
I will give you credit…you dig up some ones I would have never thought of.
September 28, 2019 at 3:59 PM
That’s me. I find weird shit.
September 28, 2019 at 8:04 PM
That keeps it from getting boring! That is the only way to go.
September 27, 2019 at 11:27 AM
Thank Heavens for ordinary men, who really weren’t ordinary. Although, I’m sure they didn’t know that at the time. Looking back through history and many genealogies, those of us today can be grateful for these men (and women).
September 27, 2019 at 2:55 PM
It was a whole different world from where we are, now. Those people were tough. Can you imagine anyone today surviving that way of life?
September 27, 2019 at 3:07 PM
No. Even though there are huge groups of ‘Survivalist’ they are nothing like then.