Outline for Oral Lessons on Westward Immigration.
(Adapted to the Third or Fourth Grade.)
1. The Western Country and How It was Reached—Virginians and their neighbors moved oftener than the colonists to the north. Attracted by “mineral springs,” “salt licks” and “blue grass.” Buffalo paths converge at Cumberland Gap. Wilderness Road, two hundred miles long, from Virginia through this gap to Kentucky, made by Daniel Boone in charge of thirty men. At first only a narrow path for horsemen and footmen. Pack saddles, how made and used.
2. Daniel Boone, “Columbus of the Land.”—Born in Pennsylvania, father settled in Wilkes County, North Carolina, when Daniel was about 13 years old. Early life on frontier farm, used gun almost as early as hoe. Little log home. Married at 20; five years later he decided to move, wanted “elbow room.” “If these people keep coming, soon there will not be a bar in all this country.” Prospecting trip across the mountains, with two or three backwoodsmen at the time of the French and Indian War. Up a tree to escape from a bear. “D. Boone cilled a bar on this tree in 1760” on a beech tree in Eastern Tennessee.
3. New Homes in the Wilderness—Nine years after killing the bear in Tennessee he went to Kentucky to find a new home. Wild game, deer, bear, buffaloes, wolves. Shelter of logs open on one side. “Dark and Bloody Ground.” Indian tricks, imitating turkeys and owls. “Killed” a “stump.” Captured by Indians. Escape after seven days. Alone in the wilderness, 500 miles from home. Forty new settlers from North Carolina. Capture of Boone’s daughter and two other girls by Indians and their rescue. Elizabeth Kane and the grapevine swing. Boone a prisoner in Detroit. Indians refuse $500 for him. His escape. Removal to Missouri. Death and burial at Frankfort.
4. A Frontier Home—Log cabin in a clearing near the fort. Ladder against wall for stairway and pegs in wall for clothing. Rough boards supported by four wooden pegs for dining table. Dirt floor.
5. Life of a Pioneer Boy—Taught to imitate notes and calls of birds and wild animals, to set traps and to shoot the rifle. At 12 he became a fort soldier, with a porthole assigned to him. Taught to follow an Indian trail and to conceal his own when on the warpath.
6. Suggested Topics for Other Lessons:
(1) The Story of James Robertson.
(2) The Story of John Sevier.
(3) The Story of George Rogers Clark.
(4) Stories of the French in America and the Struggle for the Mississippi Valley.
7. Bibliography—Gordy’s “American Leaders and Heroes” (Charles Scribner’s Sons); McMurry’s “Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley” and Hart’s “Source Reader in American History,” No. 3, and Eggleston’s “Stories of Great Americans” and “First Book in American History” (A. B. Co.); Catherwood’s “Heroes of the Middle West,” and Blaisdell and Ball’s “Hero Stories from American History” (Ginn & Co.); Aunt Charlotte’s “Stories of American History” (D. Appleton & Co.).