Boone was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania to Quaker parents in 1734. His family had trouble with the members of their church when Boone’s sisters married men outside the faith, so his entire family moved to the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina.
With only a basic formal education, Boone developed a love for the wilderness, becoming an expert marksman and tracker. He married Rebecca Bryan on August 14, 1756.
Although married, Boone gave in to the wanderlust and participated in long hunting trips, where he was gone for weeks at a time. In May of 1769 on one of his hunting trips with a small party of friends, Boone wandered into central Kentucky and spent the next several years exploring it.
Daniel Boone and Boonesboro
Boone led his family and a small group to Kentucky in 1773 to begin a settlement, but the effort failed after an Indian attack in the Cumberland Gap. In March of 1775 while working for Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Company, he was responsible for opening Boone’s Trace, or the Wilderness Road, which extended from the Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River.
It was on the Kentucky River that Boone established Fortress Boonesboro, which was used by the Transylvania Company as its base. Boone spent the next several years fighting Indians and was captured by the Shawnee. He was prisoner for three months until he overheard Chief Blackfish making plans to attack Boonesboro. After making his escape, he returned to help defend the fort.
From March 7 until September 20, 1878, Boonesboro was under siege from a combination of Indian and British forces, but did not fall, which was a step forward for western settlement.
After an embarrassing court-martial for his capture, he lost his Kentucky lands because of improper registry and moved to western Virginia. He served in the Virginia general assembly, and in 1799 moved his family by dugout canoe to the Missouri area. Boone lived in the area until his death in 1820.
Boone and his Legend
It was John Filson’s “Boone’s Autobiography” (1874) that contributed to Boone’s fame during his own lifetime, and he garnered public sympathy when he was deprived of his lands in Kentucky. Boone was known as an excellent woodsman and a steadfast man of courage. He was a diplomat in dealing with Indians and a legendary pioneer, later becoming known as an American legend.
Source:
Lamar, Howard R, ed. The New Encyclopedia of the American West. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
