Descendants of Gregory Boon
A Biographical Sketch of DANIEL BOONE, the pioneer
by
Jesse Proctor Crump, one of his descendants
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The men who build the towns forget the men who lead the way!
The glory of the first-to-go is as a vanished day!
But yet an urge is in our blood, a faith that conquers fear!
The nation's Soul inherits still from Boone the pioneer!
DANIEL HENDERSON.
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Preface
For a number of years, as one of the descendants of the subject of the following sketch, I have been collecting data for the purpose of preparing a genealogy of his descendants in order that a permanent record might be made for future generations from which they might trace their family history back to the man who was one of the founders of the State of Kentucky, as well as one of the first Americans to settle within the present limits of the State of Missouri.
In the course of my correspondence with various persons throughout the United States, including County officials, Boone descendants and others, I came into communication with Mrs. James R. Spraker, a descendant of Samuel Boone, a brother of Daniel Boone, and the author of the Genealogy published herewith, to whom I turned over my genealogical data concerning Daniel Boone and his descendants, and in addition thereto have prepared the following sketch of the life of Daniel Boone.
Recognizing that the various biographers of Daniel Boone have written a full history of his life as it relates to the part he took in the opening up of a way to, and the settlement of Kentucky, I have, therefore, confined this sketch to such portions of his life as will be of special interest to his descendants, who may thereby be able to follow him from the cradle to the grave without having to read so much that pertains to the part he played in the opening up of the present State of Kentucky and the adjacent territory.
With this end in view this sketch is presented to his descendants in the hope that they may realize the important part taken by him during and subsequent to the period of the War of the Revolution when every pioneer was compelled to carry his musket for the purpose of obtaining food for those dependent upon him and for the additional purpose of defending their lives and homes.
The force and the worth of the character of Daniel Boone are being fully recognized today. The magic of his name inspired the savages of the frontier with awe and the settlers with courage and confidence. His presence and prowess along the border contributed more to the civilization of that section than that of any other man of his time, except Washington alone, who was two years and eight months his senior. It is a fact, susceptible of proof, that a larger number of biographies of Boone have been written and published than of any other American, except of Washington, his co-patriot.
Each Boone descendant should be proud of the fact that he can trace his lineage to a man so prominent in the history of our country, and at the same time should strive to uphold the ideals of the country for which Daniel Boone struggled so long and faithfully.
In the preparation of this sketch I have secured information from,
(a) "History of Kentucky," by Lewis Collins. (1847, 1874)
(b) "Pioneer Families of Missouri," Bryan and Rose. (1876)
(c) "History of Callaway County, Missouri." (1884)
(d) "History of St. Charles County, Missouri." (1885)
(e) "The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self Made Men," Missouri Volume. (1878)
(f) "Life of Daniel Boone," by John M. Peck. (1847)
(g) "The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone," by Timothy Flint. (1857)
(h) "The Life of Daniel Boone," by Cecil B. Hartley. (1902)
(i) "Daniel Boone," by Reuben Gold Thwaites. (1913)
(j) "Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road," by H. Addington Bruce. (1916)
(k) "The Lyman C. Draper Manuscript Collection," in the Wisconsin Historical Library, at Madison.
Reference, by letter, being made throughout the following sketch, to the above mentioned sources of information.
I am indebted to Mr. Alfred Pirtle, President of The Filson Club, of Louisville, Kentucky, for furnishing me with a copy of Filson's Map of Kentucky and with copies of certain of the Filson Club publications; to Mr. Floyd C. Shoemaker, Secretary of The State Historical Society of Missouri, at Columbia, and to Miss Stella M. Drumm, Librarian of the Missouri Historical Society, at St. Louis, for copies of their files; to Mr. Purd B. Wright, Librarian of the Kansas City, Mo., Public Library, and to Miss Grace Berger, one of his assistants, for their courtesy in extending to me the use of many works of reference in the library; to Mr. A. C. Barrow and Mr. T. G. Stuart of Winchester, Kentucky, and Miss Martha Stephenson, Secretary of the Harrodsburg Historical Society, at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, for historical data; and to various descendants and others for their help in procuring genealogical data. To all of these I desire to express my sincere thanks for assistance so kindly and generously rendered.
Independence, Missouri.
JESSE P. CRUMP.
August, 1921.
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Daniel Boone
The immediate ancestors of the American Boone family resided in the Village of Bradninch, about eight miles from the City of Exeter, in Devonshire, England. George Boone, the grandfather of Daniel Boone, was born in the year 1666 at Stoak, a village near the City of Exeter. His father had been a blacksmith but he became a weaver. He married Mary Maugridge, daughter of John Maugridge and Mary (Milton) Maugridge, who was three years his junior. This couple, professed Quakers, became the parents of nine children, all born in Bradninch, one of whom, Squire Boone, was the father of the subject of this sketch.
George Boone, with his wife and children, emigrated to America, embarking from Bristol, England, on August 17, 1717, and arrived at Philadelphia on the 10th of October. In April, 1718, he acquired four hundred acres of land by entry and settled in Oley Township, Philadelphia County, now Exeter Township, in Berks County, Pennsylvania; Exeter Township remained a part of Philadelphia County until March 11, 1752, at which time Berks County was formed from parts of Lancaster and Philadelphia Counties, and included Exeter Township. The three original counties established by William Penn at the first settlement of the Province of Pennsylvania in 1682 were called Bucks, Philadelphia and Chester, Lancaster County being formed from Chester County on May 10, 1729.
Squire Boone, son of George and Mary (Milton) Boone, was born on the "Fourth day of the Week, between 11 and 12 in the Forenoon, on the 25th day of November, 1696." The record of the monthly meeting of the Society of Friends, held at the hamlet of North Wales in Gwynedd Township, in Pennsylvania, shows, that "Squire Boone, son of George, of Philadelphia Co., yeoman, married to Sarah Morgan, daughter of Edward Morgan, of same county, at Gwynedd Meeting House, 7-13-1720." She was a "sister to the father of Colo. Daniel Morgan of the Revolution Rifle Men."
In the year 1730 Squire Boone purchased from Ralph Ashton, by deed dated October 20, 1730, a tract of 158 3/4 acres situated in his father's Township of Oley, in the then Philadelphia County, on the East side of the Schuylkill River, eight miles Southeast of the present City of Reading and a mile and one-half from Exeter meeting house. In the home established here Daniel Boone was born October 22, 1734. His biographers do not agree on the date of his birth, but the above date is given in his family Bible. This record should be regarded as final and conclusive evidence and should settle the question of the respective dates of his birth, marriage and death. James H. Boone, a great-great-grandson of Daniel Boone, who has the Bible in his possession at this time, says that it was purchased by Daniel Boone several years previous to his death, and was given by him to his third son, Daniel Morgan Boone, who in turn, gave it to his son Daniel Boone, and at his death it was given to his son, the James H. Boone above referred to.
In a sketch of "Colonel Daniel Boone" given in the Missouri edition of "The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men," published in 1878, (e) Daniel Boone, son of Daniel Morgan Boone states, "that the Bible referred to was the property of his grandfather, Colonel Boone; that the records therein were made under the old hunter's personal supervision up to the time of his death, and that the subsequent records of the family have been carefully kept in the same book, by James Boone, a son of Major Nathan Boone, and is the most reliable record of the family history in existence."
A photographic copy of the family record, as shown in said Bible, is published herewith, the pages being very much worn at this time and the ink faded, due, says Mrs. Lemuel Stevenson, a sister of James H. Boone, to the fact that said pages were taken from the Bible and buried during the latter part of the Civil War, in order that the Union soldiers might not learn the ages of the Boone boys and force them to take part in their depredations against the citizens along the Missouri and Kansas border immediately following the closing of the war. It is impossible, at this time to decipher the names and ages of all of Daniel Boone's children as given in said Bible, but elsewhere in this sketch will be found their names and dates of birth taken from the "Biographical Dictionary" (e) hereinbefore referred to, the writing in said Bible being perfectly legible at the time of the writing of the "Biographical Dictionary" sketch from which we have secured the information relative to the dates of birth of the Boone children, and in addition thereto, have interviewed many of the Boone descendants and procured a verification of the dates hereinafter given.
The records of the Exeter Monthly Meeting show that Daniel, son of Squire and Sarah Boone, was born "8-22-1734"; this being Julian or Old Style of reckoning time, the first month of the year being March, the eighth month would be October, making the date of his birth October 22, 1734, same as shown in his Bible. The Gregorian Calendar, or New Style, was adopted in 1582,* but the year 1700 being a leap year in the Julian calendar and a common year in the Gregorian, the difference in the styles during the eighteenth century was eleven days. (Am. Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th Edition Vol. II, page 1227.) Hence by setting the Old Style date forward eleven days gives the New Style date of Daniel Boone's birth as November 2, 1734, the date given by several of his biographers.
*1582 was the year in which the New Style calendar was established by Papal decree in the Catholic countries of Europe. It was not adopted by Great Britain and her Colonies until Sept., 1752.
Squire Boone retained his land in Philadelphia County until April 11, 1750 on which date he conveyed it to William Mogridge, and with his family of eleven children moved to North Carolina and settled on the banks of the Yadkin River near Holman's Ford, in what was then Rowan, but now Davidson County; the home of the Boone family being on a high hill overlooking the Yadkin River at a point about eight miles from Wilkesboro. The cabin occupied by them has been rebuilt by the "Daniel Boone Memorial Association of North Carolina," which Association was created by act of the General Assembly of North Carolina in the year 1909, "with power to purchase and hold lands and other property, to erect suitable memorials, to solicit and collect funds, together with historical materials, and to do all such things as are necessary to perpetuate the memory of the life of Daniel Boone in North Carolina." At the time of the removal of Squire Boone, with his family, to North Carolina Daniel was sixteen years of age and helped in the working of his father's farm and in the family smithy, for his father being a weaver and farmer was also a blacksmith.
It was while living here that Daniel Boone received a common school education; from an inspection of letters written by him we find that he became a good penman, but was deficient in spelling, a deficiency common with the men of his generation, Daniel's study hours having evidently been spent in the pursuit of the game which abounded in his neighborhood, rather than in the study of books. Daniel Bryan in a letter to Lyman C. Draper under date of February 27, 1843, states that Daniel Boone "never took any delight in farming or stock raising but followed hunting until he grew to manhood; he was about five feet eight or nine inches high, stout, strong made, light hair, blue eyes, yellow eye brows, wide mouth, thin lips, nose a little on the Roman order." (k, 22 C 22)
We find no record of the doings of Daniel Boone after the removal of the family to North Carolina, until the year 1755, when the British General, Edward Braddock, with George Washington upon his staff, attempted to drive the French and Indians from Fort Duquesne, in Pennsylvania. In the army under Braddock was a company of North Carolina frontiersmen under command of Captain Edward B. Dobbs; Daniel Boone was a member of this company as a wagoner and blacksmith, he being at that time in the twenty-first year of his age. The engagement with the French and Indians resulted in the complete routing of Braddock's forces on July 9, 1755, many of the Colonial and British troops, as well as Braddock himself, being killed. Daniel Boone escaped on the back of one of his wagon horses.
A few years before Squire Boone moved to North Carolina, one Morgan Bryan, with a family of seven sons and one daughter, all grown, moved from Virginia to North Carolina and settled in the forks of the Yadkin River, at a place which was afterwards called "Bryan's Settlement." (k, 22C 22.)
Joseph Bryan, the eldest of these sons, had several children, among whom were Rebeccah and Martha. Rebeccah, born January 9, 1739, became the wife of Daniel Boone; Martha became the wife of Edward Boone brother of Daniel. William Bryan, the sixth son of Morgan Bryan, married Mary Boone, sister of Daniel, the Boones and Bryans thus establishing a relationship from which have sprung numerous descendants now living in all parts of the United States.
In order to settle the question of the parentage of Rebeccah Bryan, concerning which Boone's biographers do not agree, we will endeavor to state sufficient facts with reference thereto so that no doubt may remain in the minds of his future biographers. Daniel Bryan, in his letter hereinbefore referred to, states that "Daniel Boone married Rebecka Bryan, daughter of Joseph Bryan." Daniel Bryan, was a nephew of said Joseph Bryan and a son of William Bryan who married Mary Boone, and was given the name "Daniel" for Daniel Boone, the brother of his mother, Mary (Boone) Bryan. His testimony therefore should be taken as conclusive.
From Draper Mss. 22-8-241, we find that "Samuel Boone, son of George Boone, who was a brother of Col. D. Boone, born in Hoy's Station, Madison County, Kentucky, Jan. 15, 1782," makes this statement: "Jos. Bryan, the father-in-law of Col. Daniel Boone, was a tall raw boned man--an old man when informant saw him about 1797."
From Draper Mss. 19-C-120, we find that Enoch M. Boone, born in Boonesborough October 16, 1777, son of Squire Boone a brother of Daniel Boone, states: "Old Joseph Bryan, Mrs. Daniel Boone's father, in 1798 rented Wells' Station in Shelby--in a year or so he and his family, two sons and a son-in-law, bought land on Floyd's Fork in Shelby County and there settled, and there old Joseph Bryan died about 1805."
By deed dated April 6, 1804, we find that one Mordecai Redd conveyed to Joseph Bryan a certain tract of land on Floyd's Fork, then in Jefferson County, said land now being in Oldham County which county was cut off of the Northeast corner of Jefferson County, in 1820. The deed therefor being shown of record in Jefferson County in Deed Book 7, at Page 178, bearing out the above statement of Enoch M. Boone as to the purchase by Joseph Bryan of land on Floyd's Fork. Filson's "Map of Kentucke," drawn by John Filson in the year 1784, shows Floyd's Fork as a tributary of Salt River running in a Southerly direction from the North central portion of the then Jefferson County. On this map Filson states: "While this Work shall live let this Inscription remain a Monument of the Gratitude of the Author to Col's Dan'l Boon, Levi Todd & Jas. Harrod, Capt's Christ'r Greenhoop, In'o Cowan & Wm. Kennedy Esq'rs of Kentucke: for the distinguished Assistance with which they have Honord him in its Composition: & a testimony that it has received the Aprobation of those whom he justly Esteems the best qualified to Judge of its Merit."
The Last Will and Testament of Joseph Bryan was probated in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on March 4, 1805; in said will he bequeaths to his wife Alee, "A gray mare, a bed and furniture and thirty dollars, either cash or property;. * * * I also give and bequeath unto my daughters MARTHA BOON and REBEKAH BOON the sum of twenty dollars each, either cash or property.(*)" With the papers of said estate is found the following receipt:
"Received of Joseph Bryan, of Kentucky, Jefferson County, Twenty Dollars, it being the full amount of the estate left to me by Joseph Bryan, deceased, of the same State and County aforesaid.
November 22nd, 1811.
Test: Stephen W. Callaway.
(Signed) DANIEL BOONE."
*Copy of this will in full may be found on page 509.
Daniel Boone and Rebeccah Bryan were married August 14, 1756, the ceremony being performed by Squire Boone who was then a Justice of the Peace for Rowan County, North Carolina. Their children were:
I. James, born May 3, 1757.
II. Israel, born January 25, 1759.
III. Susannah, born November 2, 1760. (In the "Biographical Dictionary" [e] the date of the birth of Susannah
Boone is given as November 2, 1760, while the Boone Bible gives the date as November 3, 1760; the Bible plainly shows that the day of her birth has been written in different ink from the original writing and the date changed. We, therefore, conclude that the date of her birth given in the "Biographical Dictionary"
[e] is the correct one.)
IV. Jemima, born October 4, 1762.
V. Levina, born March 23, 1766.
VI. Rebecca, born May 26, 1768.
VII. Daniel Morgan, born December 23, 1769.
VIII. Jesse Bryan, born May 23, 1773.
IX. William, born in June, 1775. Died in infancy.
X. Nathan, born March 2, 1781.
For a short time after their marriage Daniel and Rebecca occupied a log cabin on his father's farm, but they soon acquired land of their own lying upon Sugar Tree, a tributary of Dutchman's creek, in the Bryan settlement, a few miles North of Squire Boone's. Here they lived for several years. About the year 1759, the Yadkin valley was raided by Cherokee Indians and some of the Yadkin families, including Daniel and Rebecca Boone and their two sons, James and Israel, removed to Culpepper county in Eastern Virginia. There Daniel was employed with his wagon in hauling tobacco to Fredericksburg, the nearest market town. (i).
In the year 1760 Daniel Boone became a member of a regiment of several hundred North Carolinians led by Colonel Hugh Waddell, that took part in the war against the Cherokees which brought about the treaty of peace which was signed November 19, 1761. Subsequent to the signing of the treaty he brought his family back to the Yadkin region.
In Peck's Life of Daniel Boone (f) we find that. "Immediately upon this adjustment of Indian affairs, several companies of hunters from Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, hearing of the abundance of game in the valleys along the head waters of the Tennessee River, penetrated the wilderness in their favorite pursuit. At the head of one of these companies was Daniel Boone, from the Yadkin settlements, who ranged through the valleys on the head waters of the Holston, in the southwestern part of Virginia. In 1764 we find him, with another company of hunters, on Rock Castle, a branch of Cumberland River within the present boundaries of Kentucky, employed, as he stated, by a party of land speculators, to ascertain and report concerning the country in that quarter."
In 1765 he explored as far South as Pensacola, Florida, but was dissuaded by his wife from settling there. (j)
"In 1767, a backwoods hunter by the name of John Finley, with a few others like himself, made an excursion farther west than the previous hunting parties had gone, upon the waters of Kentucky River, where he spent the season in hunting and trading with the roaming bands of Indians. Their course lay through a portion of Tennessee, where every thing grand and picturesque in mountain scenery, or romantic and delightful in deep and sheltered valleys existed. They found an exuberant soil, from which sprang giant forests. They saw the rich cane brakes of Kentucky. To the hunter here seemed a terrestrial paradise, for it abounded with all kinds of game." (f)
Upon Finley's return a party of six was formed for the purpose of exploring the country through which Finley had hunted. The party included Finley, Boone, a brother-in-law of Boone's named John Stewart, and three other Yadkin settlers, Joseph Holden, James Mooney and William Cooley.
The earliest authentic account of Daniel Boone is a brief sketch of a portion of his life, from 1769 to 1783, which was published in 1784 by John Filson, who wrote it from the statements of the old pioneer, though it purports to be in the first person. In this sketch we find, in the language of Filson, to whom Boone distated this part of his life: "It was on the first of May in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky." (f)
In December, 1769, the party above referred to divided into smaller groups for convenience in hunting and exploring. Boone and Stewart formed one group, and on the 22d of the month they were made prisoners by a band of Shawnee Indians and were compelled to guide the Indians to their camp, where the Indians made prisoners of the rest of the party and plundered the camp of every thing they had, after which Boone and his entire party were released and ordered to leave at once. They were told by the Indians that they were trespassing on lands which belonged exclusively to the red men. Finley, Cooley, Mooney and Holden started for home, but Boone and Stewart refused to leave and decided to follow the Indians in an effort to recover their property. They succeeded in entering the Shawnee camp and secured four horses, but were again captured two days later. After being prisoners seven days they escaped; taking with them their guns and ammunition they continued hunting and in January, 1770, were joined by Squire Boone, brother of Daniel, and another hunter named Alexander Neely, who had left the settlements on the Yadkin for the purpose of finding Daniel Boone and his associates, and had brought with them supplies of powder and lead.
The two Boones, Stewart and Neely continued their hunting; Daniel Boone and Stewart hunting together, separating during the day to meet at nightfall. One evening Stewart failed to appear at the appointed place whereupon the balance of the party made search for him, but were unable to find him. Five years afterward, while Boone was on a hunting trip in the same vicinity, he discovered in a hollow tree, a few human bones and a powder horn marked with Stewart's name. Soon after Stewart disappeared, Neely started home leaving the two Boones. On the first day of May, 1770, Squire Boone left Daniel and returned to the Yadkin settlements with the furs they had collected. Squire returned in July and they spent some time in hunting and exploring. Squire again went home in October but returned before the end of the year; he and Daniel remained until the following March, 1771, when they started on their homeward journey with their pelts. On this journey they were captured by a band of Indians and robbed of all they possessed, but were permitted to proceed without further molestation. Daniel having been away from his family nearly two years, found, upon reaching home, that he had another son, Daniel Morgan Boone, born December 23, 1769, just seven months and twenty-two days from the day he started on the trip with Finley and his party.
"For two and a half years after his return Boone quietly conducted his little farm, and, as of old made long hunting trips in autumn and winter, occasionally venturing, some times alone, some times with one or two companions, far west into Kentucky, once visiting French Lick, on the Cumberland, where he found several French hunters. There is reason to believe that in 1772 he moved to Wautaga Valley, but after living there for a time went back to the Yadkin. Early in the following year he accompanied Benjamin Cuthirth and others as far as the present Jessamine County, Kentucky, and from this trip returned fired with quickened zeal for making a settlement in the new country.
"The spring and summer were spent in active preparations. He enlisted the co-operation of Captain William Russell, the principal pioneer in the Clinch Valley; several of the Bryans, whose settlement was now sixty-five miles distant, also agreed to join him; and five other families in his own neighborhood engaged to join the expedition.
"The Bryan party numbering forty men, some of them from the Valley of Virginia and Powell's Valley, were not to be accompanied by their families, as they preferred to go in advance and prepare homes before making a final move. But Boone and the other men of the upper Yadkin took with them their wives and children; most of them sold their farms, as did Boone. Arranging to meet the Bryan contingent in Powell's Valley, Boone's party left for the West on September 25, 1773--fifty-six years after old George Boone had departed from England for the Pennsylvania frontier near Philadelphia, and twenty-three years after the family had set out for the new south west frontier on the Yadkin." (i)
Proceeding on their journey they were not molested until the tenth of October, 1773, when they were approaching a pass in the mountains called Cumberland Gap; the young men who were engaged in driving the cattle had fallen in the rear of the main body, were assailed by a party of Indians and six of their number killed, including James Boone, the eldest son of Daniel Boone. This so discouraged the company that all, except Boone and his family, returned to their former homes, while Boone and his family retraced their steps forty miles and stopped at Blackmore's Fort on the Clinch River in the south western part of Virginia.
In the autobiography dictated by Daniel Boone to John Filson, and published in 1784, Boone says:
"I remained with my family on Clinch until the 6th of June, 1774, when I and one Michael Stoner were solicited by Governor Dunmore of Virginia to go to the falls of the Ohio to conduct into the settlements a number of surveyors that had been sent thither by him some months before; this country having about this time drawn the attention of many adventurers. We immediately complied with the Governor's request, and conducted in the surveyors, completing a tour of eight hundred miles, through many difficulties, in sixty-two days.
"Soon after I returned home, I was ordered to take the command of three garrisons during the campaign which Governor Dunmore carried on against the Shawanese Indians; after the conclusion of which, the militia was discharged from each garrison, and I, being relieved from my post, was solicited by a number of North Carolina gentlemen, that were about purchasing the lands lying on the South side of Kentucky River, from the Cherokee Indians, to attend their treaty at Wataga, in March, 1775, to negotiate with them, and mention the boundaries of the purchase. This I accepted; and, at the request of the same gentlemen, undertook to mark out a road in the best passage from the settlement through the wilderness to Kentucky.
"I soon began this work, having collected a number of enterprising men, well armed. We proceeded with all possible expedition until we came within fifteen miles of where Boonesborough now stands, and where we were fired upon by a party of Indians that killed two, and wounded two of our number. This was on the 20th of March, 1775. Three days after we were again fired upon and had two men killed and three wounded. Afterward we proceeded on to Kentucky River without opposition and on the first of April began to erect the fort Boonesborough at a salt lick, about sixty yards from the river, on the south side.
"On the fourth day the Indians killed one of our men. We were busily employed in building this fort until the fourteenth day of June following, without any further opposition from the Indians; and having finished the works, I returned to my family on Clinch.
"In a short time I proceeded to remove my family from Clinch to this garrison, where we arrived safe, without any other difficulties than such as are common to this passage; my wife and daughter being the first white women that ever stood on the banks of Kentucky River."
see secon notes on wife Rebecca Bryan .
Notes for REBECCA BRYAN:
When Boonesborough was organized as a town, Boone was made one of the trustees, and was also one of the six delegates elected from Boonesborough, on May 23, 1775, "for the purpose of legislation, or making and ordaining laws and regulations for the future conduct of the inhabitants" of Transylvania (a. Vol. 2 pg. 501,) a tract of land purchased from the Cherokee nation by a company formed by Colonel Richard Henderson, comprising more than one-half of the present State of Kentucky. (a. Vol. 2 pg. 337).
While Boonesborough was not the first town in Kentucky we find that in June, 1774, Boone assisted in laying off the first inhabited town at Harrodstown, now Harrodsburg, on a fork of Salt River, now in Mercer county, he being, at that time, on his trip with Michael Stoner, hereinbefore referred to.
On July 14, 1776, Boone's second daughter, Jemima, together with Elizabeth and Frances Callaway, daughters of Colonel Richard Callaway, were captured by a band of Indians while they were in a canoe on the Kentucky River within sight of Boonesborough. They were followed by Boone and a party of men from the fort, and were rescued on the following day. One of the men in this party was Samuel Henderson, who was married on August 7, 1776, at Boonesborough, to Elizabeth Callaway, one of the girls who was captured. Their first child, Fanny, born May 29, 1777, was the first white child of parents married in Kentucky. Another member of the pursuing party was Flanders Callaway, who afterwards married Jemima Boone.
Boone's life, for several years after this, was occupied in protecting the settlers from the Indians. Boonesborough was attacked on April 15, 1777, and again on the following fourth of July. So disastrous were the Indian hostilities that year that only three of the settlements proved permanent--Boonesborough with twenty-two men; Colonel Harrod's fort, or Harrodsburgh, with sixty-five, and Logan's fort with fifteen.
On January first, 1778, Boone with a party of thirty men, went to Blue Licks, on Licking River, to make salt for the different garrisons; on the 7th day of February, Boone while hunting to procure meat for the party, was captured by Indians; on the following day they took him to the Licks where twenty-seven of the party of salt makers who remained there, surrendered to the Indians. The entire party, as prisoners, were taken by the Indians to Old Chillicothe, the principal Indian town on the Little Miami where they arrived on the 18th day of February. On the 10th of March, Boone and ten of his men were taken by the Indians to Detroit, where they "were treated by Governor Hamilton, the British Commander at that post, with great humanity." The men of Boone's party were left in captivity with the British at Detroit, but Boone was brought back to Old Chillicothe on April 25, 1778. Here he was adopted into the family of the Indian chief, Black Fish, and on June first, was taken by the Indians to the salt springs on the Scioto river and kept there ten days making salt. On their return to Chillicothe, Boone, learning that the Indians were preparing to march against Boonesborough, escaped and arrived at Boonesborough on June 20, 1778, after an absence of four months, and found that his wife, having given him up for dead, had returned with her family, including her son-in-law, William Hays, to her childhood home upon the Yadkin. His brother Squire, and his daughter Jemima, who had married Flanders Callaway, a son of James Callaway, a brother of Colonel Richard Callaway (K. 24C.119) were the only kinsfolk to greet him. Boone at once proceeded to put the fort in a condition to repel the expected attack.
On August eighth, four hundred Indians under command of Boone's Indian foster-father, Black Fish, appeared before the fort and besieged it until the 20th day of August, at which time they withdrew. Of the garrison but two were killed and four wounded. Soon after this Boone was promoted from Captain to Major.
In the Fall of 1778, he went to his family in North Carolina, but returned with them to Boonesborough in the summer of 1779. In December, 1779, Boone's cousin, William Scholl, with his family, from Shenandoah County, Virginia, joined Boone at Boonesborough (k. 23C. 104 & 106). In the year 1779, the legislature of Virginia appointed a commission to settle Kentucky land claims, at which time Major Boone was commissioned by certain settlers to purchase land warrants from the State Government of Virginia, and for this purpose set out for Richmond in the Spring of 1780. With his own money and the additional funds entrusted to him for that purpose, he carried twenty thousand dollars in depreciated paper money, but was robbed of the entire sum while on his way.
The writer has the original receipt given by Boone to his son-in-law William Hays, for money deposited by him with Boone at this time, which reads as follows:
"February 10th, 1780. Received of Wm. Hays Fore Hundred & Eight Pounds for to bring a Warant for a settlement of Premtion a Laying on the North Forke of Licking.
(Signed) Daniel Boone."
Boone was criticized by some of his neighbors who had entrusted their money to him, but some of them remained loyal to him, among whom was Colonel Thomas Hart, who, in a letter to his brother, Captain Nathaniel Hart, under date of August 3, 1780, absolved Boone from all blame and states: "I have known Boone in times of old, when poverty and distress held him fast by the hand; and in these wretched circumstances, I have ever found him of a noble and generous soul, despising everything mean; and therefore I will freely grant him a discharge for whatever sums of mine he might have been possessed of at that time." (b. page 29)
In the Western District of Virginia, prior to 1776, there were only seven original counties, one of said number being Fincastle County, out of which Kentucky County was taken on December 31, 1776. On November 1, 1780, the County of Kentucky was divided into three counties, viz: Jefferson, Lincoln and Fayette--Daniel Boone being named as Lieutenant-Colonel of Fayette County. He was also a Deputy Surveyor of said County, serving under Colonel Thomas Marshall, surveyor.
In 1779, soon after Boone's return to Boonesborough, he moved his family to a new location on the banks of Boone's Creek across the Kentucky River at a point several miles Northwest of Boonesborough. Here he built a log house, which was called Boone's Station, within the then limits of Fayette County; said station being located near the present site of the town of Athens in the present Fayette County. Soon after he reached here he was joined by Edward and Samuel Boone, and his son-in-law, William Hays, with their families.
In the Fall of the year 1775, William Bryan, brother-in-law of Daniel Boone, with three of his brothers and several neighbors, left the settlement at the forks of the Yadkin River in North Carolina, to explore Kentucky with the intention of selecting lands on which to settle. They spent a short time at Boonesborough and then returned to North Carolina to make preparations to return to Kentucky to plant corn before moving their families. (k.22 C.22.)
In March, 1776, the Bryans returned to Kentucky, crossing the Kentucky River at Boonesborough and settled Bryan's Station, "sixteen miles North of Boonesborough" (k.22, C.22) on the North fork of the Elkhorn River, five miles Northeast of the present site of Lexington in Fayette County, where they cleared sixty acres and planted corn. Leaving two men to care for the corn, they returned to North Carolina to bring their families to Kentucky in the fall following, but the Cherokee Indians at that time had commenced war against the frontier of Virginia and North and South Carolina, which prevented the Bryans' return to Kentucky, until April 1779, when they were again at the Bryan camp; they "erected a small fort and put in a crop of corn, then returned to North Carolina to move the family to Bryan's Station," (k.22 C.22) leaving several men, including Samuel Bryan and William Grant, who had married a sister of Daniel Boone, with their respective families, to protect the fort. In the summer of 1779, William Bryan, with his brothers, Joseph, Morgan and James, and their families, and a number of their neighbors, all emigrated to Kentucky and settled at Bryan's Station, where they built a number of cabins and enlarged the fort. Collins History of Kentucky, Vol. 2, page 186, says:
"Bryan's Station, about five miles Northeast of Lexington, was settled by the Bryans in 1779, In 1781, Bryan's Station was much harassed by small parties of Indians."
"This was a frontier post, and greatly exposed to the hostilities of the savages. It had been settled in 1779 by four brothers from North Carolina, one of whom, William, had married a sister of Colonel Daniel Boone."
From a History of Kentucky, by Perrin, Battle and Kniffin, published 1888, we find on Page 163, that "Bryan's Station established on the South bank of the North fork of the Elkhorn, about five miles Northeast of Lexington. This colony consisted principally of immigrants from North Carolina, of whom the Bryans were the most conspicuous. There were four brothers of this family: Morgan, James, William and Joseph, all men in easy circumstances with large families of children approaching maturity. William, though not the eldest, was the natural leader of the party. His wife was the sister of Boone, as was also the wife of William Grant, another member of this settlement. The station early fell a victim to the hostility of the savages."
In December, 1779, and January, 1780, the Commissioners appointed by Virginia to settle land claims, held their court at Bryan's Station, at which time it was found that the station land was within the limits of a survey made in July, 1774, for William Preston, then surveyor of Fincastle County, Virginia. This finding resulted in the Bryans losing title to the land occupied by them.
In the Spring of 1780, the Indians killed several men, including Colonel Richard Callaway and William Bryan, a son of the William Bryan one of the founders of Bryan Station.
In the month of May, 1780, William Bryan, one of the four brothers who had founded Bryan Station, was killed by Indians while he was out hunting with eleven other men from the Station in quest of meat for the use of their families. With the loss of their lands and the death of their leader, the Bryan's left Kentucky in August, 1780, and returned to North Carolina, where they stayed until the trouble with the Indians had all been settled.
So much has been written concerning "Bryan Station" and its founders that the writer deemed it of sufficient importance to insert in this sketch the foregoing facts pertaining thereto, in order to prove the correct name of the Station and its proper location. The principal testimony being that of Daniel Bryan, son of William Bryan, one of the four brothers who founded the Station.
This Daniel Bryan was born in North Carolina on February 10, 1758, and was twenty-one years of age, when he accompanied his father to Kentucky and Bryan's Fort was first erected. His letter, written in 1843, may be found in Draper Mss. 22 C 5, and should be sufficient evidence to convince all doubters as to the real name of Bryan's Station and by whom, when and where it was founded.
To return to the subject of our sketch, we find him with his brother, Edward Boone, in October, 1780, boiling salt at Grassy Lick in the north east part of the present Bourbon county. While they were returning home Edward was killed by Indians, but Daniel escaped, returning to his station on Boone's Creek where a party consisting of men from several stations in that vicinity, was at once formed for the purpose of pursuing the Indians and avenging Edward's death. With this party was Daniel Boone, his son, Israel, and his nephew-in-law, Peter Scholl, who was the husband of Mary, daughter of Edward Boone. The pursuing party failed to overtake the Indians and returned to their several stations.
In April, 1781, Daniel Boone was elected to the Legislature at Richmond, Virginia, as one of the first representatives of Fayette County.
On the night of August 15, 1782, Bryan's Station was besieged by several hundred Indians and British, the attack continuing for two days; the besiegers being repulsed by aid of men from other stations. On August 19, 1782, the Indians who had besieged the station were pursued and overtaken at the Blue Licks, by one hundred eighty-two Kentuckians under Colonels Todd, Trigg and Boone. The pursuing party fell into an ambush, were overpowered and forced to flee leaving seventy-seven killed and twelve wounded. Boone's son, Israel, was among the dead, he being at that time twenty-three years, six months and twenty-four days old. As soon as the knowledge of the defeat at the Blue Licks reached the fort at Louisville, General George Rogers Clark made arrangements for a formidable expedition into the Indian country, which resulted in the destruction of the principal Indian towns on the Miami and Scioto rivers. This expedition was the last in which Colonel Boone was engaged for the defense of the settlements of Kentucky. (f. page 138.)
Late in 1782 Daniel Boone was deputy surveyor of Fayette county and was also Sheriff and County Lieutenant of Fayette, he being in frequent demand as a pilot and surveyor by persons seeking lands on which to settle. On August 19, 1783, he was appointed deputy surveyor of Lincoln county. In the Fall of 1784 he and his sons-in-law, William Hays and Joseph Scholl, with their families settled on Marble Creek, North of the Kentucky river, about five miles from Boone's Station, then in Fayette County. (k. 23 C 104.)
About the year 1786 he left the neighborhood of the Kentucky river and lived for some time at Limestone, now Maysville, at the mouth of Limestone Creek, a tributary of the Ohio River, then in Bourbon county, now in Mason county. (a. Vol. 2 p. 556.) He was there a tavern keeper and merchant, and was one of the first trustees of the town. While living at Limestone, in 1786, he was also made one of the first trustees of Washington, the oldest town in the then Bourbon county. In 1788 he moved from Limestone to the Kanawha Valley near Point Pleasant, situated at the junction of the Great Kanawha and Ohio Rivers in what was then the Northwestern part of the State of Virginia, but now within the limits of Mason county, West Virginia. In the same year he, with his wife and their son Nathan went by horseback, to their old Pennsylvania home in Berks county, on a visit to kinsfolk and friends. He returned to Point Pleasant, and, on October 6, 1789, upon the organization of the first court held after the formation of Kanawha County and appointment of officers of the first military organization, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel, and in 1791 was elected as one of two representatives in the legislature from Kanawha county.
We find no record of Boone's life at Point Pleasant during the years immediately succeeding this except a number of surveys of land in said county, made by him in 1791, 1795 and 1798; the last survey recorded in said county in which Boone took part was made September 8, 1798. (Daniel Boone, by Dr. John P. Hale.)
The precise date of Boone's leaving Kanawha County for Upper Louisiana, now Missouri, is not known to the writer, but we find in Collins' History of Kentucky, Vol. 2, page 562:
"Daniel Boone, the great pioneer, was a resident of Maysville in September, 1788. How late he remained at Maysville is not known. Depositions show that he was in Northern Kentucky in 1795; and Rev. Thos. S. Hinde saw him in October, 1797, on pack horses, take up his journey for Missouri, then Upper Louisiana."
In Peck's "Life of Daniel Boone" we find a record of the "Proceedings of the Legislature of Kentucky and of Congress, confirming Daniel Boone's Title to Lands in Missouri," the report from the committee on Public Lands, in the House of Representatives in Congress, on the 24th day of December, 1813, referring to the petition of Daniel Boone, states:
"That the petitioner was invited by Zenon Trudeau, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana under the Spanish Government, to remove from Kentucky, who, as an inducement to his removal, promised the petitioner a grant of land in that country. The petitioner did remove to Louisiana before the year 1798; and on the 24th of January, 1798, he received from Zenon Trudeau a concession of one thousand arpents of land situated in the District of Femme Osage; had the same surveyed on the 9th of January, 1800."
Upon arriving in Upper Louisiana Boone and his wife resided for a time with his son Daniel Morgan Boone, who had built a house in Darst's Bottom, adjoining the tract granted to his father by the Spanish Government. (b. pg. 47)
Bryan and Rose, in their "Pioneer Families of Missouri" page 44, state:
"Colonel Boone and his family were the first Americans that settled within the present limits of the State of Missouri. The French had established trading posts at several points, and had formed a village of four or five hundred inhabitants at St. Louis, but there were no regular settlements beyond these."
On June 11, 1800, Boone was appointed syndic, or magistrate, for the Femme Osage district, a position which he held until the cession of Louisiana to the United States in the year 1804. He made a trip to Kentucky in the year 1801, to visit his son Jesse, in Kanawha County, Virginia, where Boone once lived. He was accompanied on this trip from Clark County, Kentucky, by his son-in-law Joseph Scholl. (k. 23 C 9; 23 C 11; 23 C 17 and 23 C 18.) During the same year (1801) he hunted beaver on the "Niango" or Niangua, river in Missouri (k), and there is a well established tradition in Camden County, in said State, the county in which the famous Hahatonka spring is located and through which the Niangua River flows, that Boone's camp and headquarters were at this spring. We can well imagine the delight of Boone, then 67 years of age, in finding such a beautiful spot whereon to erect his camp and from which to pursue his favorite calling, that of trapping. Hahatonka spring is almost entirely surrounded by high bluffs that are honey combed with caves and this neighborhood was at one time a favorite camping place of the Indians, as evidenced by the large number of arrow heads and Indian mounds yet to be found there. This spring and thousands of acres surrounding it, now belong to the estate of Robert M. Snyder, deceased. It has attracted a great deal of attention from the public for many years, and, with its surroundings, should be preserved in its natural state for the benefit and inspiration of the generations yet unborn.
At the time of Boone's removal to Upper Louisiana game was abundant and he spent a great deal of time hunting, extending his trips into the present limits of Callaway County, in Missouri, where there is yet standing a white oak tree, about one mile south of Williamsburg, in said County, on which the writer in 1917, found the initials "D. B." This tree has been known and referred to in that neighborhood for the past century as the "Daniel Boone tree." Boone's grandson, Joseph Scholl, Jr., and grand-father of the writer, owned at one time a farm of five hundred acres in this neighborhood. The last hunt made by Boone, of which we have any record, was made "up the Missouri" in June 1816, at which time he was living with his son Nathan Boone, in St. Charles County. (k. 22 S 230.)
Rebecca, the wife of Daniel Boone, died in St. Charles County, Missouri, on March 18, 1813, aged seventy-four years, one month and eleven days. After her death Boone remained for a while with his son Nathan, on Femme Osage Creek, where they had been living for several years; after which he made his home with his daughter Jemima, who, with her husband, Flanders Callaway, lived on a farm on Teuque Creek, in Warren County, Missouri, near the place where Mrs. Boone was buried.
In the latter part of the summer of 1820, Boone had a severe attack of fever, at the home of Flanders Callaway, but he recovered sufficiently to make a visit to the home of his son Nathan Boone, on Femme Osage Creek. "One day a nice dish of sweet potatoes--a vegetable of which he was very fond--was prepared for him. He ate heartily and soon after had an attack from which he never recovered. He gradually sank and, after three days' illness, died on the 26th of September, 1820," (d) aged eighty-five years, eleven months and four days, and was buried near the body of his wife, in a cemetery established in 1803 by David Bryan, upon the bank of a small stream called Teuque Creek about one and one-half miles southeast of the present site of the town of Marthasville, in Warren County, Missouri, it being at that time the only Protestant cemetery North of the Missouri River.
Daniel Boone never made any profession of religion or united with any church. In a letter to his sister-in-law, Sarah Boone, wife of his brother Samuel, written October 19, 1816, he says:
"All the Relegan I have to love and fear God beleve in Jeses Christ. Don all the good to my Nighbour and my self that I Can and Do as Little harm as I Can help and trust on God's marcy for the rest and I Beleve God neve made a man of my prisepel to be Lost." (i) The house in which Boone died is yet standing and is said to be the first stone house built in Missouri, outside of the City of St. Louis.
The body of Boone was conveyed the day following his death, to the home of his daughter Mrs. Flanders Callaway where the funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. James Craig, a son-in-law of Nathan Boone. At the time of his death the Constitutional Convention of Missouri was in session at St. Louis, and upon receipt of notice of his death, a resolution was offered by the Hon. Benjamin Emmons, a member from St. Charles, that the members wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, in respect to the memory of the deceased, and adjourn for one day. The resolution was unanimously adopted.
The picture of Daniel Boone which is shown with this sketch was copied from "Pioneer Families of Missouri," by Bryan and Rose, published in 1876. In this book the authors state:
"The portrait which we give as a frontispiece, is from a photograph of the painting made by Mr. Chester Harding, the distinguished artist of Boston, who came to Missouri in 1820, at the request of Revs. James E. Welch and John M. Peck, expressly to paint the picture. Boone, at that time, was at the home of his son-in-law, Mr. Flanders Callaway, near the village of Marthasville, in Warren County. He was at first very much opposed to having his portrait painted, being governed by feelings of modesty and a strong dislike to anything approaching display or public attention; but he was finally prevailed upon by friends and relatives to sit for his picture. He was quite feeble at the time and was supported in his chair by Rev. Mr. Welch. He wore his buckskin hunting shirt, trimmed with otter's fur, and the knife that is seen in his belt is the same that he carried with him from North Carolina on his first expedition to Kentucky.
"The picture is pronounced by persons who knew Boone intimately, to be a perfect likeness, and the following certificate from Rev. James E. Welch, who is still living, at Warrensburg, Mo., may be of interest in this connection:
" 'I, James E. Welch, of Warrensburg, Johnson Co., Mo., hereby certify that I believe this portrait to be a correct copy of Harding's picture of Col. Daniel Boone, which was painted in the summer of 1820. I stood by and held the Colonel's head while the artist was painting it, and my impressions at the time were, that it was an excellent likeness of the old pioneer, which I believe was the only picture taken of Col. Boone.
" 'Given under my hand May 16, 1876.
" 'James E. Welch.' "
The signature of Daniel Boone which is shown under his picture herewith is a reproduction of the original signed to a letter of his dated May 6, 1806, which is in the possession of the writer.
In the year 1900 there was founded, in the New York University, the Hall of Fame, wherein it was planned to honor one hundred and fifty great Americans, thirty foreign born Americans and sixty American women. The persons whose duty it was to select the names of the persons to be thus honored being empowered to vote every five years, completing the list in the year 2000. At a meeting held in the year 1915, of the electors whose ballot admits to the Hall of Fame, the names of seven great Americans were added to the list of those previously admitted, and among the seven was that of "DANIEL BOONE, PIONEER," the subject of this sketch.
On July 9, 1921, Ray Baker, director of the mint, announced the completion, at the Philadelphia mint, of the quarter of a million dollars in special fifty cent pieces, authorized by congress in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of Missouri statehood.
"The coin is the regulation half dollar size. The obverse shows the head of Daniel Boone with the dates 1821 and 1921, on either side of the figure. On the reverse are figures of an Indian and of a Missouri pioneer, with twenty-four stars. At the top is the legend, 'Missouri Centennial' and at the bottom, 'Sedalia,' where the Missouri celebration is to be held." (K. C. Star, July 10, 1921.) Missouri being the twenty-fourth state to be admitted into the Union.
We have followed Daniel Boone throughout the course of his life, down to the most recent honor paid his memory, and will here let him rest; confident are we in the belief that while the names of other men who were endowed with more learning or who rose higher in the councils of his day will have been forgotten, the fame of Daniel Boone will continue and will be a source of pride to each of his descendants.
JESSE PROCTER CRUMP
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