·
Daniel
Boone - A Summary Of His Life
·
A brief history of what
brought Daniel Boone to Missouri
· A brief history of Daniel Boone’s life after moving to Missouri
·
A
brief story on why Daniel Boone was buried at Bryan Cemetery
·
Kentucky's
Removal of the Bodies of Daniel and Rebecca Boone in 1845
·
Some Rather Simple Things Most People Don’t Know About
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone - A Summary Of His Life
Daniel Boone (1734-1820)
Portrait
of Daniel Boone painted by Chester Harding
in
1820, two months prior to Daniel’s death at
the age of 85
Daniel Boone not only symbolizes the American
backwoods frontiersman, but was the lead person for America’s westward moving
frontier. In that role he was at the
forefront, exploring and hunting in the wilderness, blazing trails,
establishing wilderness settlements, and defending the settlements against
Indian attacks; at times being a
military officer, a legislator in Virginia, and a Spanish Commandant in what is
now Missouri. He was fearless, honest,
patriotic, resilient, and he survived through many incidents when others
perished. Daniel’s adventures resulted
in his being recognized as a legend in his own lifetime, and the most famous of
the American backwoods frontiersman still 200 years later.
Along the way Daniel Boone was commissioned by
various governors with military ranks during the many frontier Indian
conflicts, starting with the rank of Lieutenant in 1774, to Captain, Major, Lt.
Colonel, and eventually a full Colonel, the latter received while serving under
General George Rogers Clark in 1781.
He also held many civil appointments, such as; sheriff, coroner, County
Lieutenant (the highest ranking county official – ‘Civil and Military’ of one
of Kentucky’s three original counties), and he served in the Colony of
Transylvania’s legislature, and then in the Virginia General Assembly on three
occasions. He was also appointed by the
Virginia Council as a Deputy Surveyor in all of Kentucky’s original three
counties, and as a Trustee for the earliest towns in those counties (he never
served in the Trustee roles to which he was appointed). After his arrival in Upper Louisiana, he was
appointed by the Spanish authorities to be the Commandant (the civil, military,
and judicial leader) for the new Femme Osage District, one of only eight
Spanish districts at the time, and the farthest west white settlement in
America for the next fifteen years.
His two oldest sons were killed by Indians. Of his three living sons, all of whom moved
to Missouri, all served in the War of 1812, and all three had important civil
positions. One platted Jefferson City
and was an appointed Commissioner for surveying the north boundary line of
Missouri, one was a Missouri legislator and nominated Thomas Hart Benton for
U.S. Senator, two of the three were appointed as judges, and the other served
in the Missouri Constitutional Convention.
He was also a noted surveyor and ended up as a Lt. Colonel in the U.S.
Army. He established the first trail
across Missouri and later in the military located and surveyed military roads
of considerable length, as well as boundary lines between hostile Indian
tribes. A grandson served under three
Presidents, setting up treaties with western Indian tribes. One grandson by marriage was the first
sheriff of Callaway County, another was an early sheriff in St. Charles County,
and eventually the Missouri State Auditor, and another was a State Senator, Lt.
Governor, and Governor of Missouri.
DANIEL BOONE
A SUMMARY OF WHO HE WAS AND WHAT HE DID
by Ken Kamper, Historian
Copyright September 1996
Daniel’s
Boone grandparents and his father and uncles and aunts all came from England to
the English Colony of Pennsylvania.
His grandparents and some of the uncles and aunts arrived in 1717,
however his father and a brother and sister had arrived earlier in about 1712. They were all born in England and all
settled just east of what is now Reading, Pennsylvania.
Daniel’s grandfather George
Boone III married Mary Maugridge and had ten children: George Boone IV, Sarah Boone, Mary Boone (who died young) Squire Boone (Daniel’s father), Mary
Boone (the second daughter with the same name), John Boone, Joseph Boone,
Benjamin Boone, James Boone, and Samuel Boone.
Daniel’s
parents were married in 1720, in a Friends or Quaker wedding.
Daniel’s mother Sarah Morgan was born in America, but
Sarah’s father, Edward Morgan was from Wales, arriving in American in 1683, a
year after Sieur Robert Cavelier de LaSalle had traveled from Canada, down the
Illinois and then Mississippi Rivers to claim for France all of the lands
draining into the Mississippi River.
The background for Sarah’s mother has not been determined other than her
first name being Elizabeth.
Daniel’s father Squire Boone
and mother Sarah (Morgan) Boone had eleven children: Sarah Boone, Israel Boone, Samuel Boone, Jonathan Boone,
Elizabeth Boone, Daniel Boone, Mary
Boone, George Boone, Edward Boone, Squire Boone Jr., and Hannah Boone.
Daniel
and Rebecca Bryan married in 1756.
Rebecca Bryan’s grandfather
was Morgan Bryan. He arrived in America in 1718
from Ireland, where the English family had been exiled. His wife Martha (Strode) Bryan is believed
to have arrived in America as an infant from England with two brothers about
1697. During the voyage their parents
sickened and died at sea. Morgan and
Martha Bryan’s oldest son, Joseph, was the father of Rebecca Bryan. The name of Rebecca’s mother is not
known. She died apparently right after
Rebecca was born. The best attempt at
her mother’s name has been Hester Simpson.
Daniel and Rebecca (Bryan)
Boone had
ten children, James Boone, Israel Boone, Susannah Boone, Jemima Boone, Levina
Boone, Rebecca Boone, Daniel Morgan Boone, Jesse Bryan Boone, William Boone,
and Nathan Boone.
Daniel
was America’s first noteworthy American-born explorer. It was his exploring, then blazing the trail
that others would use, then taking the lead for establishing the earliest
westward outposts (frontier settlements), and holding them against the Indian
attempts to drive the white settlers back, that allowed other white settlers to
move westward to settle on new rich lands that offered a new life for the
eastern farmer and his family. To many
who had been in the east, their farm land had deteriorated in quality due to
farming practices at the time that depleted the minerals in the ground. As a result, most of the average and lesser
fortunate family farmers found themselves caught in a downward spiraling
debt. Following Daniel’s trails was a
chance to start over again and to bring themselves and their children up from
nothing, to again realize a chance for the future. We now call it “Following the American Dream”. As the frontier leap-frogged westward from
the Atlantic Coast to across the Mississippi River, to what became the State of
Missouri, Daniel was always at the lead with blazing the trails and in
establishing and holding the frontier settlements, and the farm families and
the rest of society followed closely behind.
The
repeated leading the way for others, and his many outstanding personal traits,
and his unusual personal abilities are the things that made Daniel famous in
his own time. He was humble, had
unusual compassion for others, believed in doing only righteousness things, had
outstanding courage, and was considered totally honest and reliable. He was also very keen in understanding the
ways of Indians and the means for survival in the wilderness, and he was an
excellent shot and hunter with a rifle, and a natural leader when called upon
to lead. With most of these traits and
abilities he had a better understanding than most. The trails from North Carolina to Tennessee, and Tennessee to
Kentucky, and across Missouri were all Boone trails that in each case, were the
earliest trails used by the white settlers and were the trails that almost
everyone followed for many years.
Some Things In the Life Of Daniel Boone
1734 -Daniel Boone was born in Philadelphia County, now Berks County, 6
mi. east of present Reading, Pennsylvania, on October 22nd per the
old Julian Calendar in use at that time, which would be November 2nd per our modern Gregorian Calendar.
1739 -Rebecca Bryan was born near present Martinsburg, West Virginia, on
January 9th , 1739, per the old Julian Calendar in use at that time,
which would be January 20th per our modern Gregorian Calendar.
1750 -When Daniel was 15 years old, his parents and the rest of the
family moved to the Yadkin valley area of North Carolina.
1755 -During the French and Indian War, he was a wagon driver during
General Braddock's ill-fated campaign against Fort Duquesne.
1756 -Daniel married Rebecca Bryan, and they continued to live in the
Yadkin valley.
1756 -Daniel's brother Israel died in North Carolina. At least two of the four orphaned children
were raised by Daniel and Rebecca.
1759 -When the Cherokee Indians went on the warpath in North Carolina,
Daniel took his family to live in Virginia.
1760-1761 -Daniel fought
against the Cherokees in North Carolina as part of Colonel Hugh Waddell’s
troops.
1762 -After the treaty was signed with the Indians, Daniel took his
family back to their home in North Carolina.
1763 -With his younger brother Squire, and several other men, Daniel
explored the northern part of present Florida.
1767 -Daniel and several men explored and hunted
over the mountains in eastern Kentucky.
1768 -Rebecca's aunt Rebecca Bryan died, and left
six children. Some of the children were
raised by Daniel and Rebecca.
1769 -Daniel blazed the first white man’s trail
from North Carolina to Tennessee, where the first settlers arrived soon after.
1769 - Daniel began a two years in Kentucky,
exploring the mostly unknown lands visited only a few times before by white
men.
1769-1770
-Daniel and his brother-in-law, John Stewart, were captured by Indians twice,
escaping both times.
1770 -John Stewart, Daniel’s brother-in-law was
killed by Indians while hunting with Daniel in Kentucky.
1771 -Having explored and hunted in Kentucky for
two full years, Daniel, along with his brother Squire who had joined him part
of the time in Kentucky, returned to their families in North Carolina.
1773
-Daniel led the first group of white
families in to attempt to settle in Kentucky.
Part of the group was attacked by Indians, who killed Daniel and
Rebecca’s oldest son James and five others.
The families returned to North Carolina.
1774
-During Gov. Lord Dunmore’s War, Daniel
was commissioned a Captain in charge of three forts in southwestern Virginia.
1775
-Judge Henderson and his associates
purchased about 20,000,000 acres of present day Kentucky from the Cherokee Indians.
1775
-Daniel led 30 men in the
"cutting" of "Boones Wilderness Trail", from Tennessee to
the middle of Kentucky, where they soon started building Fort
Boonesborough. During the trail
cutting Indians killed several of the men.
1775 -Soon after Daniel and the others arrived in
Kentucky, the Revolutionary War started in the east.
1775
-Judge Henderson and his men named the
purchased land in Kentucky, Transylvania, America’s 14th colony. Daniel and his brother Squire were members
of Transylvania legislature. Some
months later, Translyvania was dissolved and Kentucky became part of Virginia.
1776
-Daniel and Rebecca's daughter Jemima,
and two other girls, were kidnapped by Indians. With Daniel leading the rescue, the girls were rescued two days later.
1776 -Kentucky was formed into Kentucky County by
the Virginia Assembly, December 31st. .
1777 -Daniel Boone was appointed as a Captain,
along with four other men, in the militia regiment formed in Kentucky County by
the Virginia Legislature. He served
under Colonel John Bowman.
1777 -Daniel was wounded in an Indian raid on Fort
Boonesborough, and was carried to safety by Simon Kenton.
1778
-Daniel Boone was captured by Shawnee
Indians along with other men who were making salt. He was adopted into the tribe as the son of the War Chief Black
Fish. He escaped after five months in
captivity.
1778
-Daniel led the defense of Fort
Boonesborough as the fort withstood a nine day siege by Indian tribes from
north of the Ohio.
1778 -After the battle of Boonesborough, Daniel was
promoted to the military rank of Major.
1779 -Daniel led a large group of families,
including his own, from North Carolina to settle in Kentucky. It is thought that group included the
grandfather and father (who was then a child), of future President Abraham
Lincoln.
1780
-Daniel’s brother Edward Boone was killed
by Indians when out hunting with Daniel.
1780 -Daniel was with General George Rogers Clark
in a campaign against the Shawnee Indians north of the Ohio River.
1781
-Daniel was commissioned as a Full
Colonel, and was elected to the Virginia Legislature where he met with Thomas
Jefferson.
1781 -While in the legislature he was captured by
the British, however he was released after several days.
1782
-Daniel was appointed Sheriff of Fayette
County, in Kentucky (at that time Virginia), by the Governor of Virginia.
1782
-Daniel was appointed by the Virginia
Assembly as the Fayette County “County Lieutenant”, the highest ranking
position in the county.
1782
-He was a military leader at the Battle
of Blue Licks in Kentucky, where during an Indian ambush his son Israel Boone
was killed. His nephew Thomas Boone was
also killed during the battle.
1782 -Rebecca’s uncle Samuel Bryan, a Tory Colonel,
was captured in North Carolina, tried, and sentenced to death.
1783 -Rebecca’s uncle, Samuel Bryan, was freed as a
prisoner of war when he was exchanged for a high ranking American officer.
1784
-The first biography was written on
Daniel Boone by John Filson (covered only a thirteen year period).
1787
-After moving to Limestone, Kentucky,
Daniel and Rebecca opened a tavern (inn) and trading house. They took in orphaned teenager Isaac Van
Bibber to help with the work. Isaac
later married one of Daniel and Rebecca’s granddaughters.
1787
-Daniel was elected to the Virginia
Legislature for a second time, this time from Limestone, now Maysville,
Kentucky.
1787
-Chloe Flinn, who had been captured by
Indians along with her mother, sister, and brother, was freed by treaty. Her father had been killed by the Indians,
and since she had no family, Daniel and Rebecca kept her in their family for a
couple years.
1791
-Daniel was elected for a third time to
the Virginia General Assembly, this time from Kanawha County, in present West
Virginia.
1799
-Daniel moved with Rebecca and four of
his grown children to Spanish Upper Louisiana, to what is now part of the State
of Missouri. All of the Boone family
members obtained Spanish Land Grants.
1800
-Daniel was appointed as the Spanish
Commandant (the Civil Administrator and Military and Judicial leader), an
appointment that included the functions of the lesser role of Syndic (Judge)
for the new Spanish District of Femme Osage.
1800-1817 -Daniel explored, hunted, and
trapped in the region along the Missouri River, to as far west as the Platte
River. As he became older, he hunted
and trapped less, while spending much time making many things including powder
horns for his grandchildren.
1819 -Daniel’s son Jesse and his family moved to
the Missouri Territory.
1820 -On September 26th, Daniel Boone
died in the stone house of his son Nathan in the Femme Osage valley.
Daniel knew many famous persons such as George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Generals George Rogers Clark and
William Clark, ...as well as a number of governors and other political and
military leaders. His sons Daniel
Morgan Boone, Jesse, and Nathan were also considered outstanding leaders, with
each receiving a number of civil appointments and military positions of
rank.
Of the seven still living children of Daniel and
Rebecca, when they moved from Kentucky to Upper Spanish Louisiana (Missouri) in
1799, five of moved to Missouri, as did 68 of their 70 grandchildren. Most of those who moved to Missouri, lived
the remainder of their lives in Missouri.
At the time Missouri was the western extreme of white settlement in
America.
A brief history of what
brought Daniel Boone to Missouri
There are several reasons why Daniel Boone moved to
Spanish Upper Louisiana (now Missouri).
One reason was that he had been appointed as one of
the surveyors in the mid-1770s, to survey out the many parcels of land for
settlers and land claimants in Kentucky.
Kentucky was at that time was the western part of Virginia and for the
most part an unsettled wilderness.
There was a large number of appointed surveyors and some like Daniel
surveyed many thousands of acres within a relative few years. At the time the recording of surveys and
surveying methods and laws were quite awkward and confusing. And at one point, after many surveys had
already been made, the Virginia survey laws were changed to a much more refined
method. Complications come into the
scene when later surveys by other surveyors were made through and over the
original surveys. The situation of
legal ownership of the parcels of land became a major problem for most of the
original settlers. While it seems
Daniel never defended his own land in court, he had made many surveys for other
persons and became involved in the court cases, and at times he was required to
travel considerable distances to sites where he had made surveys in order to
identify the survey corners. With many
of these cases and others he was required to make legal depositions. When people lost their lands through legal
challenges most became bitter, and many blamed Daniel and the other early
surveyors for their losses. In some
instances the feelings toward Daniel became quite ugly, even though he had
performed his tasks as required at the time.
Eventually Daniel deeded all of his land to close relatives, and told
his children to never contest in court any land disputes against him.
All of Daniel Boone’s many biographers prior to
2008, had stated that Daniel Boone ran into trouble due to poorly made surveys
and/or being careless and failing to get his land recorded and/or because he
lost all his land through court decisions.
Neal Hammon, an excellent and serious researcher, and author of many
books and articles related to the land situation in early Kentucky, and himself
a Professional Architect and former County Land Surveyor in Kentucky, pointed
out recently that Daniel Boone’s personal problems in Kentucky were related to
none of those issues. Hammon found
that Daniel was a better than average and capable surveyor, had recorded the
land titles as well as others had, and also established that there were no
court records relating to Daniel’s personally owned parcels of land.
A second reason for Daniel Boone moving to Spanish
Upper Louisiana was that many of the person who had lost their lands that
Daniel surveyed, wanted Daniel to make restitution for them. Besides feeling badly for them, they often
hounded him and at times threatened him.
He moved from time to time, but apparently the situation had no long
term solution.
A third reason was that Virginia taxed the land,
which is something that wasn’t done during the early period of other states
such as Pennsylvania and Missouri. The
taxing of land caused many of those who were poor to have to give up their
lands. In some cases, like Daniel’s,
persons who owned thousands of acres found it impossible to make enough money
to pay all of the taxes. In Daniel ’s
case he either had to sell large parcels of land at low prices to pay the
taxes, or when he couldn’t come up with the money his land was sold on the
courthouse steps to pay back taxes.
Some of these issues such as taxing seemed to be political manipulations
to let political influential persons back in Virginia, arrive in Kentucky at a
later period after most of the dangers were gone, and pluck away the lands of
the earlier settlers. Many families
lost all of their land holdings.
A fourth reason for Daniel Boone’s moving to Spanish
Upper Louisiana took place during and following the Revolution War. During that time the money situation became
critical. During that period Virginia
paper money became greatly inflated.
The price of land and everything else skyrocketed and then turned into a
situation where many of the land investors, which Daniel had become, who had
purchased land seemingly wisely as the price was constantly increasing, ended
up with overvalued land and no way to sell it at a reasonable price. When such persons, including Daniel, became
desperate for money due to previous borrowing and due to needing the essential
things for just getting by, they ended up selling their land at greatly reduced
prices compared to what they had paid for it.
This seems to be his main reason for moving, since he had lost a great
fortune in land, and the lack of money due to the land price situation equated
to his losing land because of not being able to pay the taxes.
There actually was a fifth reason. By the 1790s, Daniel was a real American
hero in the eyes of Americans, and he was also noted as such by the frontier
Indians and by other countries, such as the Spanish. He was a living legend.
With continual difficulties in Kentucky, Daniel became open toward a new direction that would take him far away
from his beloved, but sometimes hostile, Kentucky. In 1798, the Lt. Governor of Upper Louisiana offered Daniel and
his family and friends free parcels of land in Upper Louisiana, if Daniel would
come to Spanish Louisiana and set up a colony of Americans. The reason for the invitation was because
while Spain claimed and controlled the lands west of the Mississippi River, the
people in Spanish Louisiana were mostly of French heritage, who had been
displaced from east of the Mississippi River, when France lost the French and
Indian War with England. The French
lived in villages as a means of protection from the sometimes hostile acts of
the Indians who claimed all of the wilderness areas. The French people more-or-less refused to move out to populate
the countryside. This created problems
because Spain had to try to populate and control the regions they claimed in
North America, or else another country such as France or England would
penetrate into the region and control it.
England was already penetrating from Canada to the north, by trading
with the northern Indians, and the Indians to the west were uncontrollable
since there was only a small Spanish militia in Upper Louisiana. And to the east of Spanish Upper Louisiana,
the Americans were creeping ever westward, and had already settled what was
called the American Bottoms, along the east side of the Mississippi River. The idea of Daniel Boone moving to Spanish
Upper Louisiana, was based on his reputation for leading and drawing other
Americans with him. In that manner the
Spanish could visualize how they would be able to extend settlement westward
into the wilderness as Daniel Boone and the frontiersmen had done in
Kentucky. By doing so as Spanish citizens,
the frontier types would keep the Indians, England, and the Americans from
penetrating into the Spanish territory.
The approach by the Spanish was working, and seemingly would have
continued to work, even under the French who took over Louisiana from the
Spanish. However all came to an end
with the Louisiana Purchase.
A brief history of Daniel Boone’s life after moving to Missouri
After Daniel’s move to what is now Missouri, his first
several years were occupied with his role as the Spanish Commandant for the
Femme Osage District. His district
seems to never have been defined on paper, but for certain ran from his Spanish
Land Grant at the Missouri River near present day Matson, and included to the
north what is now the Busch Wildlife and Conservation Area, and then on
westward to a few miles west of present day Marthasville. After the Louisiana Purchase his district
and his role dissolved as all of the land north of the Missouri River became
the St. Charles District. Within those
few years his sons came more into prominence as Daniel about age seventy, fit
more into the role of hunter and family patriarch. His sons and grandsons became the ones to get involved with civil
and military appointments, while at first Daniel carried out a small business
of trading (something he did on a larger scale in Kentucky and what is now West
Virginia), and during his winters for the first dozen years or so he went on
long hunts with family members. The
long hunts, along many of the western rivers of what is now Missouri, lasted
usually for several months and included trapping beaver and hunting mainly deer
and bear. During the War of 1812, and
after his health started to become a problem, he hunted closer to home and at
times went with one of his son Nathan’s slaves during some of the winters when
he felt well enough to do so. 1816 was
his last long hunt, during which he became ill and returned back to the
settlements. At that time it is felt
that he and his hunting companion went as far as the Platte River in
Nebraska. However, more and more his
health kept him at home where he entertained and was entertained by all of the
little grand children and great-grandchildren.
A brief story on why Daniel Boone was buried at Bryan Cemetery
In March of 1813, Rebecca and Daniel were tapping
trees and making maple sugar with a few other family members at a sugar camp
about five miles up the Charette Creek from where their daughter Jemima and her
husband Flanders Callaway. The
Callaways lived adjacent to the old French village of Charette (near present
Marthasville). David Bryan, Rebecca’s
first cousin, who had been raised partly by Daniel and Rebecca, lived near the
Callaways as did a few of the other early settlers. Other than along the rivers, most of the land in Missouri was
still unsettled wilderness, and Charette was noted as a small village of then
seven run down houses in the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition on its
way west in 1804, and on its return in1806.
Also noted was that Charette was the farthest west white settlement in
America. By the time of the sugar
making in 1813, several new settlements had been established farther to the
west along the north side of the Missouri River.
While they were making sugar at the sugar camp,
Rebecca became ill, and was taken to Jemima’s house. After several days she passed away, and Daniel chose the place
for her burial less than a mile away on a small knoll above Tuque Creek, on
David Bryan’s farm.
"Research Paper"
Related To The Factual Life Of Daniel Boone
Kentucky's Removal of the Bodies
of Daniel and Rebecca Boone in 1845
by Ken Kamper
© October 2008
Part of an
In-progress "Research Paper"
Each time I looked at the wording on the old bronze
plaque on the Boone Monument at the Bryan Cemetery (Boone Burial Place) I read
down to the part that states "REMOVED TO FRANKFORT, KY.
1845", and found myself hesitating. The reason for my
hesitation was because I knew that there was something that wasn’t really
correct with that part. Then after the pause, I somewhat pushed my
feelings aside and continued on with reading the rest.
What seemed to bother me regarding that line on the
plaque, wasn’t the old stories about how the Kentucky delegation in 1845 missed
the body of Daniel Boone, when the delegation supposedly moved Daniel and Rebecca’s
bodies to Kentucky, but rather my thoughts about the real story about what took
place at that time. The real story of
what took place, as researched and pieced together by Ralph Gregory and myself,
is something quite different from the old stories that have surfaced over the
years in Missouri. Both Ralph and I
conducted our research separately, and both of us arrived at the obvious
conclusion, that the Kentucky delegation dig up the right graves, however they
returned to Kentucky with only the larger skeleton bones, with everything else
related to the bodies remaining in Missouri. Such a conclusion
comes from the following;
What took place with the digging up of the bodies is
found in an eyewitness newspaper account, as found in the St. Louis New Era newspaper, datelined
Marthasville, Missouri, July 17th, 1845, the day when the bodies
were removed. The article recorded the
events of the day, including the discussions with the land owner, the
gathering of friends and relatives to the grave, and the eloquent address by
the Kentucky leader, and the disinterment.
Regarding the disinterment, the first issue of note
is that the Kentucky delegation didn't remove and take the bodies in the form
that everyone in present day imagines, by digging out the caskets and taking
the caskets with the bodies intact.
What the grave diggers actually found was that both of the wooden
caskets had disintegrated and no longer existed. With that being the case, the diggers would have dug right
through the top of the casket areas and into the area of the bones before
realizing that the wooden caskets no longer existed. Per the newspaper account, the diggers found that the larger
bones were still solid and could still be handled, but were light in weight and
dark in color. The smaller bones
crumbled to powder when touched and the none bone parts of the body (including
heart and brain as Ralph Gregory states it), had become part of the soil. By removing the larger bones that could be
removed, the diggers worked their way down to the large planks that had
been placed under the caskets.
Since the original caskets no longer existed, in
order to take the "supposed bodies" back to Kentucky, the Kentucky
delegation came up with two wooden boxes for taking the larger bones. As a result they obtained essentially all of
the main skeletal bones and from all logical reasoning very little else. The body removal effort was rather crude as
the bodies were often referred to as relics instead of bodies, and as further
suggested by the story that Harvey Griswold had later found the jaw bone of
Daniel Boone later laying on the ground.
His find is supported by the fact that the jaw bone is missing from the
cast of Daniel's skull on display at the Kentucky Historical Society. Based on logical reasoning, the Kentucky
delegation did not throw the dirt into the boxes with the bones, since the
needed amount of the dirt to account for all of the decomposed body area would
have more than the boxes would be able to contain, the weight would have been
an obstacle for moving and carrying boxes, and the known intent for the
contents of the boxes when back in Kentucky would have been to put the bodies
(without dirt) into fancy caskets for reburial. What the Kentucky delegation put into the boxes is substantiated
by another account from Kentucky by a man, John Mason Brown, who when a
lad of eight years old held Daniel’s skull and saw the rest of the bones
(something he would never forget). John
Mason Brown was with his father, Judge Mason Brown, and in the room when
the boxes with the bones were opened.
Judge Mason Brown was the man in charge of the Kentucky Committee
responsible for obtaining the bodies from Missouri. John Mason Brown recalled how the bones were removed from
the wooden boxes and placed neatly into elaborate coffins, with the
bones placed in the correct locations to recreate the skeletons.
John Mason Brown's great-grandson, Meredith Mason
Brown, has written the most current Daniel Boone biography. The book went on sale nationally this month
(October 2008). In his end notes
(p.340) on the above subject, Meredith Mason Brown mentions my name and calls
my version of how the larger bones were removed to Kentucky, while the smaller
items and no longer visible items were left in Missouri, "sensible".
The wording "REMOVED TO FRANKFORT, KY.
1845", when placed on the plaque originally made some sense because
at the time (1915) the wording was accepted by everyone as being
correct. However, at this point, the statement is
somewhat misleading, and tends to downgrade the Missouri burial
place by implying that a professional effort at removing the caskets took
place. The idea that both cemeteries are valid, is appealing,
and that Rebecca is not totally absent from Missouri while Daniel
"might" still be here, is also appealing.
Of
note is that King Bryan, Henry Augbert, and Jefferson (Jeff) Callaway, (about 38 years of age, and at one time a slave
of Flanders Callaway), were the men who dug up the graves of Daniel and
Rebecca. Jeff Callaway found both of
the silver sleeve buttons Daniel Boone’s initials and gave them to the sister
of Eviza Howell Coshow. Eviza saw the
cuff links as mentioned in one of her many letters to the historian Lyman
Copeland Draper.
Some Rather
Simple Things Most People Don’t Know About Daniel Boone
By Ken Kamper
November 2nd,
2008
There are many important issues related to Daniel
Boone that need to be presented for public Knowledge. There are probably as
many things that still need to be researched and recorded as are currently known
about him. Much of the new information
will come from records that were previously inaccessible or very hard to find,
and some will come from a serious study of the previously inadequately researched
history collections, such as the very large Draper Manuscript Collection. The Draper Collection consists of hundreds
of thousands of correspondences and other documents assembled by Lyman C.
Draper between the 1830s and 1890s.
Draper wrote and talked with a number of Boone family members and
persons who had known Daniel Boone. The
Draper Collection is owned by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. I have been involved for a number of years
in an ongoing effort to find, sort, record, and present, those many missing
items of valuable Boone related history.
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The following is a short summary describing where Daniel
Boone lived during his lifetime, along with a few facts related to some of his
many civil and military roles, a number of which having been overlooked by his
biographers. The items mentioned just
scratch the surface of his unique life and the many things that he accomplished
during his life.
Daniel was born in Pennsylvania, the sixth of ten
children of Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone.
His date of birth was October 22nd, 1734, per the Julian
Calendar that was in use at the time.
The Julian calendar had been in use since the time of Julius
Caesar. In 1752, 18 years after the
birth of Daniel Boone, England and the English Colonies switched over to the modern
calendar that we still use called the Gregorian Calendar. The Gregorian Calendar removed 11 days from
the Julian Calendar, making Daniel’s birth by the new calendar, November 2,
1734. The new calendar also started the
first of the year at the beginning of January instead of the first of March, as
had been the case with the Julian Calendar.
The place of Daniel’s birth was approximately six
miles east of what is now the city of Reading, Pennsylvania. Daniel lived with his parents in Pennsylvania until May 1st,
1750, when at the age of 15, his parents left Pennsylvania, traveling down
through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to the back country of North
Carolina. Most persons at the time
were living near America’s east coast, and relatively few were living in the
back country that bordered on the lands of the Indians. Daniel, who was already an expert marksman
with a gun upon the family’s arrival in North Carolina, spent much of his time
hunting and exploring.
Most all of the persons living in the North Carolina
backcountry were farmers, and the others performed trades, except for a few who
held government positions such as surveyors and land agents. Daniel’s father farmed, while also having a
weaver’s business and a blacksmithing business. Meanwhile Daniel’s understanding of the wilderness as well as
his abilities with a gun gave him the potential to make many times more money
by obtaining and selling furs, than he could make by farming. His hunting also supplied a goodly amount of
food needed for his parents, and after he married in 1756, when he was 21 years
of age to 16 year old Rebecca Bryan, his hunting helped keep his growing family
with a supply of food. Daniel’s
hunting and trapping of furs which brought good prices on the market, would
have made his life quite comfortable, however a number of times while hunting
and trapping he was robbed of his furs, traps, guns, and horses by Indians,
turning some of his long hunting trips into costly ventures with no meaningful
result.
In continuing to track down the locations where he
lived, records indicate that he lived at four different locations during his 21
years in North Carolina, with a temporary move during that time to live near
Fredericksburg in Culpeper County, Virginia.
This move to Virginia was for protecting his family from the Indian
hostilities in the Yadkin Valley region during the French and Indian War. The time in Virginia was 1758-1762. His living locations when in North Carolina
were north of the town of Salisbury when he lived with his parents, then close
to the present town of Farmington, to live near Rebecca’s parents. Then to a place called Holman’s Ford, which
was farther west along the Yadkin River, and finally to a place along Beaver
Creek near the present day town of Boone (named for Daniel at a later time), in
present Watauga County.
Following a failed attempt to establish the first
white settlement in Kentucky, Daniel moved in 1774, to Moore’s Fort in southwest
Virginia. At the time the frontier
settlements of Virginia were involved in (the Virginia governor) Lord Dunmore’s
War with the Indians north of the Ohio River.
The next year, and for 14 years, from 1775 until 1789, he lived in
Kentucky which was then part of Virginia.
The locations were Fort Boonesborough from 1775 until 1779, then
approximately 5 miles farther west to one of his parcels of land where he built
Boone’s Station near the present town of Athens, and lived from 1779 to ca.1882,
then he moved his family another 5 miles farther west to his farm on Marble
Creek, and finally, in 1786, he and his family moved to the new town of
Limestone along the Ohio River, in northeast Kentucky. In 1781, while living at Boone’s Station, in
Fayette County, he had been elected to the Virginia legislature, and in 1787,
when living at Limestone he was elected a second time to the Virginia
legislature. During this period in
Kentucky, Daniel held many military and civil positions. His military advancement was significant,
starting with the rank of Lieutenant 1774 and raising in rank to a full Colonel
by 1782. For several years he held the position
of the highest civil and military authority (the position of County Lieutenant)
for the then large county of Fayette.
During this time there were nearly constant Indian hostilities and many horrid
atrocities against the settlers. He
also held positions appointed by the Governor or Governor’s Council or Virginia
legislature of Sheriff, Coroner, County Militia Lt. Colonel (second highest
county militia rank), Deputy Surveyor for the three Kentucky counties, and also
appointed as one of the Trustees for the three earliest towns in Kentucky. While in attendance in the Virginia Assembly
in 1781, he was associated with Thomas Jefferson, who was then Governor for
part of the time, and he was also acquainted with Patrick Henry and many of the
other early leaders of the American Independence movement. During the 1781 term the British marched
though Virginia, and at one point captured Daniel Boone and came close to
capturing Thomas Jefferson. Daniel
also knew John Marshall, the future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. At one point, when John was a teenager, he
carried and delivered a letter of Daniel Boone’s to the letters recipient. Daniel
also knew and wrote letters to Virginia Governor Benjamin Harrison, a signer of
the Declaration of Independence and father of the future President William
Henry Harrison.
In 1789, Daniel moved with his family to what is now
West Virginia, which was then part of Virginia. He was elected for the third time to the Virginia legislature in
1791, and was commissioned as the Lt. Colonel of Kanawha County’s militia by
Governor Henry Lee. Governor Lee also appointed
him as the contractor to transport supplies and provisions to the militia units
in Kanawha County. Henry Lee was the
famous General Light-horse Harry Lee during the Revolutionary War, and father
of Robert E. Lee (born some years later in 1807). It would seem that it was
during this third term in the Virginia assembly, that Daniel and Rebecca became
friends with George Washington, as Daniel’s son Nathan stated.
Daniel lived at two locations in what is now West
Virginia, and then in 1795, he moved back to Kentucky which by then had become
a state. He first settled on son Daniel
Morgan Boone’s land for a couple of years along Brushy Fork of Hinkston Creek,
near present day Millersburg in Nicholas County. He moved again in 1797 to near where present day Greenupsburg is
located in Greenup County, along the Ohio River in eastern Kentucky. It was near Greenupsburg that Daniel’s son
Jesse Boone lived, and where Jesse and his family remained after Daniel and the
rest of the Boone family moved to Spanish Upper Louisiana (Missouri) in
September and October of 1799.
After arriving in Spanish Louisiana, Daniel lived
with his son Daniel Morgan Boone, who had obtained a Spanish Land Grant in 1797
near the present town of Matson in St. Charles County. The Spanish authorities appointed Daniel to
the important position of Spanish Commandant.
His role consisted of being the civil, military, and judicial leader over
one of the seven Spanish Districts.
After the Americans purchased and took over the Louisiana Territory in
1804, Daniel’s district was absorbed into the St. Charles District, and Daniel
moved with Rebecca to live in a cabin on the land of son Nathan Boone. He did some blacksmithing, trading, and
hunted and trapped and explored along the Missouri River tributaries to the west. Rebecca died in 1813, and thereafter he
spent considerable time living between the home of Nathan and a blockhouse of
Callaway’s Fort. Callaway’s Fort had
surrounded the house of Daniel’s daughter Jemima and her husband Flanders
Callaway, and was near present day Marthasville, in Warren County. During his last year or so, Daniel spent
considerable time living with his son Jesse, who had moved with his family to
the then Missouri Territory in 1819. Jesse
lived a few miles southeast of present day Williamsburg, which is in Callaway
County. After living nearly 21 years
in his chosen final homeland of what is now Missouri, Daniel died on September
26th, 1820.
Daniel lived within the following modern states;
1734-1750; in Pennsylvania at 1 location for 15
years.
1750-1758; in North Carolina at 2 locations; approx.
8 years.
1758-1762; in Virginia at 1 location; approx. 4
years.
1762-1773; North Carolina at 3 locations (one
location being a return to his old farm in 1758); approx. 11 years.
1774; in Virginia at 1 location; approx. 1 year.
1775-1778; in Kentucky (then Virginia) at 1
location; approx. 4 years.
1778-1779; in North Carolina at 2 locations; approx.
1 year.
1779-1789; in Kentucky (then Virginia) at 3
locations; approx. 10 years.
1789-1795; in West Virginia (then Virginia), at 2
locations, approx. 6 years.
1795-1799 in Kentucky (now a state), at 2 locations,
approx. 4 years
1799-1820; in what is now Missouri, at 4 locations,
approx. 21 years.
In what are now our present states; Pennsylvania (15),
Virginia (5), North Carolina (20), Kentucky 18), West Virginia (6), Missouri
(21).
Note: KY for 14 yrs and WV for all 6 years were
counties of Virginia.
In colonial times he lived within the colonies of;
Pennsylvania (15 years); North Carolina (19 years); Virginia (4 years),
These numbers assume that the colony ceased to exist
with the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
In total Daniel lived at 21 different locations
during his lifetime.