FACTS ABOUT DANIEL BOONE

His father immigrated to Pennsylvania. He was a Quaker. Daniel was the sixth of eleven children. He was born on Nov. 2, 1734. His family was forced to move to North Carolina when his father refused to apologize for two of his boys marrying “worldlings” (non-Quakers). He was kicked out of the church.

Daniel was given a rifle at age 12 and became a professional hunter in his teens. After his first hunting expedition, he sold the furs and spent all the money on “a general jamboree and frolick”.

During the French and Indian War, he served as a teamster in Braddock’s army. His cousin Daniel Morgan was also employed. (Later Boone would join Morgan’s famous campaign in the Ohio River Valley in the Revolutionary War.) When Braddock’s army was ambushed in the Battle of the Wilderness, Boone ran away to live to fight another day.

In 1775, he was part of a group of 30 frontiersmen who blazed the Wilderness Trail over the Appalachians into Kentucky. They wanted to establish a colony called Transylvania. Boone helped found the settlement of Boonesborough and brought his family to settle there. The fort had 15-foot walls and 26 log cabins.

He had ten kids with his wife Rebecca. Or possibly nine. According to some sources, he was once away on a “long hunt” that lasted two years. Rebecca thought he was dead and took up with his brother Ned. She gave birth to child during this period. When Daniel returned, he treated the boy as his own.

In 1776, his daughter Jemima and two other teenage girls were captured by Shawnee Indians while canoeing. Boone led a group that tracked the Indians for three days. They were aided by Jemima dropping broken twigs to mark their path. They rescued the girls, while killing two of the abductors.

In 1778, he was captured while hunting ahead of a party of men who had gone to a salt deposit. He convinced the men to surrender to the outnumbering Shawnees. They were taken to the village and forced to run the gauntlet. Boone was treated very well by the Indians and adopted into the tribe and given the name Big Turtle. He convinced the chief to postpone an attack on Boonesborough until the spring and promised to facilitate its surrender. He later escaped, traveling 160 miles in four days to warned the settlement. He then led the defense when the Indians laid siege to the fort. Unfortunately, Boone’s acting friendly with the Indians was so convincing many of the captured party felt he had betrayed them. He was acquitted in a court martial, but bad blood remained.

In 1781, he and his brother Ned were out hunting. When Daniel went off on his own to hunt a bear, Indians encountered Ned and killed him. Thinking he was the famous Indian-fighter Daniel Boone, they beheaded Ned and brought the trophy back to their village.

In 1784, a book entitled “The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke” by John Filson made Boone famous. It was a typical 18^th Century biography that was loose with the facts, but it was based on interviews with Boone.

He failed as a land speculator and real estate investor, mostly because he was bad at it. He was accused of shady dealing and ended up owing a lot of people a lot of money. He tried various businesses, like supplier of ginseng root, but failed at all of them. He once owned a tavern where his seven slaves worked.

Partly to escape his creditors, he moved to Missouri in 1799. The Spanish government gave him 850 acres, hoping his name would entice other settlers. Boone ended up having to sell the property to pay debts. He died at age 85 in Missouri.

He never wore a coon skin cap. He and other frontiersmen preferred beaver hats.

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