IN FRANKFORT CEMETERY, overlooking the Kentucky river, stands a beautiful monument erected to the memory of Daniel
Boone and his wife, Rebecca. On the four squares of the monument are carved scenes representing Boone's conflicts
with the Indians on the "dark and bloody ground of old Kaintuke." The monument, supposedly, marks the
last resting place of the great pioneer and his wife.
But though thousands visit this scene and suppose themselves upon the sacred ground that contains the mortal remains
of the two pioneers, William Riley Willsey, 83-years-old descendant of the Boones, believes that the body of his
kinsman lies not there. He is quite certain that he knows the spot where Daniel Boone is buried, and that the secret
is shared by but few others of Boone descent. The writer, in the Boone country of Missouri, has also heard it intimated
that the grave near Marthasville, less than a two hours' ride from the county seat of Pike county, Illinois (the
grave which Daniel himself selected for his last rest) has never been disturbed and that the remains of Boone still
lie where they were deposited in September, 1820.
It has been stated in some of his "lives" that Boone died at a deer lick with his gun in his hands, watching
for deer; in others, that he died, as he had lived so much of his life, in a log cabin. These statements are untrue.
The writer has been in the room in which Boone died, in a substantial two-story stone building, the death chamber
being the front room, lower floor, to the right of the hall as one enters. This was the home of Daniel's son, Major
Nathaniel Boone, who fought at the head of his scouts in a battle with Indians on Bay Creek in what is now Pleasant
Hill township in August, 1813. Here, in the home of Nathan, old Colonel Boone died, after a three days' illness
induced by eating a dish of baked sweet potatoes, of which he was extremely fond, his death occurring September
26, 1820, in the 86th year of his age.
The body of the pioneer was carefully placed in a cherry coffin which he himself had made and which he kept under
his bed against the day when it should receive his body. He had first made a coffin of black walnut, which he kept
under his bed for several years, and would often draw it out and lie down in it, "just to see how it would
fit." But a stranger died in Boone's neighborhood, and the old man, governed by those traits of kindliness
that had marked his whole life, surrendered his coffin to the stranger and made himself another.
The old pioneer's beloved wife, Rebecca, daughter of the Bryans, whom he had married on the banks of the Yadkin,
August 14, 1756, had died March 18, 1813, on the Missouri border, in the midst of the Indian uprising incident
to the second war with Britain, and had been buried on the summit of a beautiful knoll, in the southern part of
(now) Warren county, about one mile southeast of the little town of Marthasville, overlooking the Missouri bottoms
and a small stream called Teuque, flowing by the foot of the knoll and pursuing its tortuous course to where it
empties into the Missouri, a few miles to the southeast. Shortly after the death of her whom he loved so devotedly,
and who had shared his toils, dangers and privations for more than half a century, joining with him in many an
heroic sacrifice, Boone marked a place by her side for his own grave.
After Boone's death, the encoffined body was carried from Major Nathan's home to the home of the pioneer's daughter,
Jemima Callaway, on Teuque Creek, where his funeral was held, the funeral sermon being preached by the Rev. James
Craig, a son-in-law of Major Nathan Boone. Flanders Callaway's house being too small to accommodate the immense
concourse of people, the remains were carried to the large barn near the house, into which people crowded to listen
to the funeral services. Michael J. Noyes, first Pike county editor, grandfather of May Noyes of Pittsfield, was
among those present at the Callaway home for the funeral service. He knew Colonel Boone well. Following the service,
the body was carried to the knoll overlooking Teuque Creek and there interred in the grave that Boone had marked
beside his wife.
A quarter of a century passed. The landscape changed. The isolated spot on which Boone was buried vanished from
the memories of most. Few could have pointed out the place.
In 1845 a new cemetery was dedicated at Frankfort, Kentucky. It was proposed to consecrate the ground by removing
thereto the bodies of Boone and his devoted wife, that they might slumber in the land which they had wrested from
the wilderness. When the proposal was suggested the legislature of Kentucky was in session, and one of its members,
Representative Collins, arose and eloquently favored the proposal in these words:
"There seems to be a peculiar propriety in this testimonial of the veneration borne by the Commonwealth for
the memory of its illustrious dead; and it is fitting that the soil of Kentucky should afford the final resting
place for his remains, whose blood in life was so often shed to protect it from the fury of savage hostility. It
is a beautiful and touching manifestation of filial affection shown by children for a beloved parent. It is right
that the generation that is reaping in peace the fruits of his toils and dangers, should desire to have in their
midst, and decorate with the tokens of their love, the sepulchre of this Primeval Patriarch whose stout heart watched
by the cradle of this now powerful Commonwealth."
The legislature appointed a committee, consisting of the Honorable John J. Crittenden, William Cone (a distant
relative), and Mr. Swaggart to superintend the removal of the remains from Missouri to Kentucky. In the succeeding
summer the committee came to Missouri, taking passage by water at Louisville on the steamer "Daniel Boone,"
and were received at St. Louis by a delegation of citizens, and by them conducted to the site (or the supposed
site) of the Boone interment.
Descendants of Boone and Boone's friends objected to the removal of the pioneer's body. Harvey Griswold, on whose
lands the Boones were buried, was among the objectors. He had planned to build a monument over them and beautify
the place. He was supported by many influential citizens of Missouri, who claimed Missouri had as much right to
the remains of Daniel Boone as had Kentucky, especially as Boone had himself selected the location of his grave,
instructing his friends that if he died from home, his body should be removed to the knoll overlooking Teque. It
was recalled, too, that Boone had left Kentucky with a heavy heart, deprived of his lands by Kentucky state courts
because of flaws in title, impoverished, cast adrift in his old age to fight again the battle of existence. From
all this he had at last found refuge in the Upper Louisiana, on ground that later became Missouri Territory and
then the state of Missouri.
The gentlemen from Kentucky finally won their point and on July 17, 1845, the (supposed) remains of Daniel Boone
and his wife were removed from their graves. The work was done by King Bryant, Henry Augbert and Jeff Callaway,
colored. The coffin supposedly containing the body of Mrs. Boone was found to be perfectly sound and the workmen
had but little difficulty in removing it; but the other coffin, believed to be that of Colonel Boone, was entirely
decayed, and the remains had to be picked out of the dirt by which they were surrounded. One or two of the smaller
bones were found afterward, and kept in Missouri as relics.
Such is the history of the removal; but the unwritten history of the transaction leaves the matter of Boone's present
resting place in doubt. The Negro, Callaway, a slave, taking his name from his white Callaway masters, is said
in Missouri to have been the man who pointed out to the Kentuckians the supposed burial place. The old slave, at
the age of 90, confided to Mack Rogers of McKittrick, in now Montgomery (old Callaway) county, Missouri, that the
Kentuckians did not get the body of Daniel Boone. Said the slave to Rogers (a Boone descendant): "I pointed
out to them a grave, but it was not Colonel Boone's. They dug up the body, but it was not Boone's body. The body
they dug up and took back to Kentucky was the body of a black man, a man like me."
Mack Rogers is a great great great grandson of Neddie Boone (Daniel's brother), a son of William Riley Rogers of
Pike county (whose second wife was Lulu Callaway) and a brother of the first Mrs. William W. Kelly of Newburg.
The old slave not only told Mack Rogers that Kentucky did nt get Boone's body but instructed him also as to the
sot where Boone is buried, which information Mack Rogers imparted to his cousin, William Riley Willsey. Said Mr.
Willsey: "Unless I go over into Missouri and mark the spot, the knowledge of it may perish with me."
Mr. Willsey is confident that the information imparted to Mack Rogers by the old colored slave is authentic. He
says he once asked the late Jesse Procter Crump, Boone kinsman and historian, if he thought Daniel Boone's body
was in Kentucky. He says that Crump shook his head and replied: "I think Boone's grave has never been disturbed."
Mr. Willsey remembers many stories of the Boones, told him at New Hartford by his grandmother, Fanny Rogers, granddaughter
of Charity Boone and great granddaughter of Neddie. He remembers his grandmother saying that when the Boones, Daniel
and Edward and their families, came out to Kentucky from North Carolina they tied the younger children on the pack
horses, so that in case of Indian attack the horses might carry them to safety. He remembers that old Uriah Elledge
often came to his grandmother's home at New Hartford and talked of early days in Kentucky.
He remembers his grandmother's stories of the capture of Jemima Boone and the two Callaway girls, in the year 1776,
and of how the brave girls, as they were being dragged away into the Indian fastnesses by their captors, managed
to leave a trail that they knew Mima's father could follow. The girls, who wore red underclothing, succeeded in
leaving bits of the same clinging to thorns and bushes as they were hurried along; caught at this by their Indian
captors, they were threatened with the tomahawk. Then, according to Grandmother Rogers, the girls, who wore deer-hide
shoes, managed every now and then to dig their heels into the earth with a twisting motion, leaving a trail that
Daniel Boone followed at a speed exceeding that of the fleeing savages.
A most interesting account of the capture of Mima Boone and the Callaway girls is contained in a manuscript which
Septimus Scholl, a grandson of Daniel Boone, wrote out for his children, and which was obtained in about 1844 or
1845 by the Rev. John D. Shane who died in Cincinnati and whose notes were afterward purchased by Lyman C. Draper,
collector of Boone manuscripts. A copy of this Scholl manuscript, forwarded to the writer by A. C. Barrow of Auburn,
Alabama, a Scholl descendant, is as follows:
"One of the pleasant Sunday evenings in May (it was July 14, 1776), the daughter of Col. Boone and two daughters
of Flanders Callaway (they were daughters of Col. Richard Callaway, uncle of Flanders) crossed the river in a canoe;
landing on the north bank and rambling up and down the bank in pursuit for flowers which grew spontaneously, some
Indians making prisoners of them bore off immediately. Boone, hearing their screams, knew what was the event, and
made arrangement immediately for pursuit, but night closing in, soon made the attempt fruitless until morning,
when they renewed their pursuit.
"They followed the Indian trail all day long, being enabled to do so from the contrivances of the girls. They
broke the bushes and trailed down weeds, and to give more certainty to the pursuers, they tore small strips of
their under- dressing which was red, and dropped them occasionally. The Indians discovered this and shook their
tomahawks over their heads and taking them by the tops of their heads, and drawing a knife around their throats,
they further threatened to scalp them, if they did not desist from this course. The Indians, apprehensive of being
pursued, never made a fire at night, nor stopped to cook anything to eat, until Tuesday morning, when having killed
a large deer, they made a fire and stopped to roast some meat. All of the Indians being engaged in roasting and
eating at the same time, a very uncommon occurrence, Boone and his party arrived undiscovered, and fired on and
killed the most of them at once. The balance fled, leaving the girls sitting on a log, at a small distance, who
were soon joined by Boone and his party; and after eating of the roasted venison, were taken back to Boonesborough
without loss or molestation."
Mima Boone at this time was 14; the Callaway girls Betsy and Frances, about 20 and 14 respectively. One of the
rescuing party with Boone was Flanders Callaway, cousin of the Callaway girls and Mima Boone's sweetheart. W. R.
Willsey says that his grandmother Rogers told him there were five Indians in the party that captured the girls
and that Boone and his party killed two of them, the three others escaping.
Grandmother Rogers (who was Fanny Alcorn, daughter of Mary Elledge, who was a daughter of Charity Boone and a granddaughter
of Edward Boone) had ten children. Mary (Polly) Ann Hadley, Bartlett, Nancy Jane Cram, Malinda Willsey and William
Riley Rogers have been accounted for in previous chapters.
Benjamin Franklin Rogers, sixth child and third son of David Redmon Rogers and Fanny Alcorn, was born at New Hartford,
July 23, 1835. He first married Sarah Lomax, in Missouri, and later, at Pittsfield, on January 18, 1886, married
Mrs. Margaret (Lyman) Webster of New Hartford, whose first husband was Silas Webster. He conducted an early grocery
store at New Hartford, where is now the William Varney filling station, an enterprise in which he was later joined
by his uncle, William Alcorn. He became a traveling photographer, making pictures of the early emigrant outfits
heading for California and Oregon, coming in over the old Philips Ferry trail. Later he drifted westward, to St.
Joe, great rendezvous on the emigrant trail. He died, childless, December 16, 1891, and is buried in the cemetery
of Boone descendants at Prairie Mound, near New Harford.
Seventh child of David and Fanny Rogers was James M. Rogers, born at New Hartford in 1837. He was named for his
father's brother, James M. Rogers, who died in 1831 at the age of 15 and was buried in a field near New Hartford,
along with Robert Alcorn, soldier of 1812, who died in the same year. Both bodies were removed to Prairie Mound
by direction of David R. Rogers, when that cemetery was established. James M. Rogers, the namesake of David's young
brother, died in June, 1839, at the age of one year and ten months. These two members of the Rogers family, uncle
and nephew, lie side by side in "Rogers Row" in Prairie Mound.
Eight of the Rogers children was Cynthia Ann Rogers, born at New Hartford, November 14, 1839. On September 29,
1859, she married Joseph C. McClintock. They were the parents of five children, namely:
Mary Emily, who married William H. Wassell, on September 26, 1880, and who is still living in New Hartford village
at the age of 77. Her husband, born near New Hartford April 14, 1860, was a son of James Wassell and Sarah Mathis,
both natives of Ohio. He died January 13, 1936, aged 75, and is buried in Prairie Mound. They had five children:
Maud, the first born, died in girlhood and is buried in Prairie Mound; James Leslie, born in 1888, married Hazel
J. Thomas of El Dara, at Pittsfield December 11, 1909, she a daughter of John Thomas and Letha Pryor. He died at
Hannibal, Missouri, where he was employed in a cement plant, and is buried in that city. He left two children,
Terrill and Jane Ann Wassell.
Viola May Wassell, youngest daughter of Mary Emily, married Earl H. Shinn of Pike county, and they live at Hannibal.
They have five children, Reha, Gordon, Leslie Wenton, Earl, Jr., and Betty Jean.
Mabel Cynthia Wassell married L. R. (Ren) Medaris of Pittsfield, February 28, 1904, he a son of Oliver Medaris
and Lucinda McKinney. He is a barber in Hannibal, where he and his wife reside.
Ruth Wassell married, first, Emmet Payne of St. Louis, October 9, 1909, and they had one child, Claudine Payne.
Mrs. Payne later married again, her second husband being Jack Hester, and they lived at Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Hester
is now a resident of St. Louis, as is also her daughter, Claudine, now married.
De Sota Alfreta (Dee) McClintock, daughter of Joseph C. McClintock and Cynthia Ann Rogers, married George Betts
at New Hartford, October 14, 1880. They reside in Louisiana, Missouri, and have an adopted son, Frank Betts.
Other children of the McClintocks included Christenah Salorra, who died September 21, 1867, at the age of two years
and three months, and Carrie, who was born in 1869 and died in 1875; both are buried in Prairie Mound. David Harvey,
a son, unmarried, resides in Louisiana, Missouri.
Cynthia Ann McClintock, a great granddaughter of Charity Boone, was for many years in charge of the old McClintock
House Hotel in Pittsfield, conducting the same even after she had reached a great age; there she died, beloved
by the community, February 24, 1933, aged 93 years, three months and ten days. She is buried in Prairie Mound,
where lie so many of the Boone kin.
Ninth in the Rogers family was the girl Phoebe, born at New Hartford March 10, 1844. During the Civil War she married
Frederick G. Varney, a native of Clermont county, Ohio, where he was born May 26, 1846, a son of Joseph Owen Varney
and Matilda Smith. Dr. Varney was long prominent as a dentist in Griggsville and Barry.
Phoebe Rogers Varney was mother of six children. William R. Varney, born September 25, 1864, lived only 18 days,
dying October 13, 1864, with burial in Prairie Mound.
Fannie M. Varney, born at New Hartford in 1866, married Nathan Kelly, Pittsfield dentist, at Griggsville October
7, 1888, the Varneys being then residents of Griggsville, where Dr. F. G. Varney was a dentist. Nathan Kelly was
a son of Nathan Kelly, Sr., and Sarah Fuller, and a brother of William W. Kelly, who had married Fanny Rogers,
an aunt of Phoebe Rogers Varney. Fannie Varney now lives at Lincoln, Illinois. She has a son, Edward; also a daughter.
Evelenah Varney, both at New Hartford April 28, 1869, died May 22 the same year, aged three weeks and three days,
and is buried in Prairie Mound.
Fred D. Varney, Barry merchant, married Miss Eva E. Guss of Barry, May 19, 1895, she a daughter of William W. Guss
and Roxy J. Fletcher. They went to St. Louis, where he engaged in business, later moving to Chicago, where he died,
his wife having preceded him in death. They are buried at Barry.
Minnie Varney married Charles Lambert in Chicago. She died there; her husband is still living.
Myrtle (Myrtie) Varney, born at Griggsville in 1878, married a Mr. Jewett and resides in Chicago, her husband having
died there.
Phoebe Rogers Varney died on March 6, 1888, lacking four days of being 44 years old. She is buried in Prairie Mound
cemetery.
Dr. F. G. Varney, following his first wife's death, on October 25, 1888, again married, his second wife being Mrs.
Una (Taylor) Van Hook of Atchison, Kansas, a daughter of Thomas Taylor and Telitha Hardgrove. They were married
at Barry, Dr. Varney being then a practicing dentist at Griggsville.
Two daughters, Helen and Violet Varney, born of this second marriage, died in infancy. Violet, a twin, died April
8, 1890, aged eight months; Helen died August 1, 1893, aged four months. They are interred in Prairie Mound. Primrose
Varney, another daughter, Violet's twin, married G. Montgomery Blair, Chicago dentist and native of Barry, September
20, 1908. His parents were George Montgomery Blair and Zella Long. Mrs. Blair later married a Mr. Smith and is
now a resident of Quincy, Illinois, having married a third time. She was born at Griggsville.
Dr. Frederick G. Varney died at Barry, November 11, 1925, aged 79 years, five months and 16 days. He is buried
in Prairie Mound cemetery.
Several of the Alcorn-Rogers line, who were buried in remote places in an early day, were later removed to the
cemetery of the Boones at Prairie Mound and re-interred there. One such removal was that of Mary (Polly) Ann Hadley,
first child of David R. Rogers and Fanny Alcorn, born in Kentucky, January 4, 1825, who died near New Hartford
April 12, 1853, aged 28 years, and was buried in a field west of the present Charles Shinn place at New Hartford.
Her body, after lying in the field for 20 years or longer, was taken up and removed to Prairie Mound and W. R.
Willsey says that her coffin was as sound as when she was placed within it, and her body equally well preserved.