DANIEL BOONE, THE HUNTER AND PIONEER OF KENTUCKY
Boone born in Pennsylvania
105. A Famous Frontier Hero. Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania in 1735. He was only three years younger than Washington. While yet a boy he loved the woods, and often spent days deep in the forest with no companion but his rifle and dog.
Moved to the Yadkin
Boone's parents moved to North Carolina, and settled on the Yadkin River. There he married at the early age of twenty, and, pioneer-like, moved farther into the forest, where people were scarcer and game more plentiful. He built a log cabin for his bride, and made a "clearing" for raising corn and vegetables. But his trusty rifle furnished their table with all kinds of wild meat, such as bear, deer, squirrel, and turkey.
Crossed the mountains in 1760
In 1760 Boone with a friend crossed the mountains to the Watauga in east Tennessee, on a hunting expedition, where he killed a bear, and cut the date of the event on a beech tree, which still stands on Boone's Creek in east Tennessee.
BOONE AND HIS BEAR TREE
News from across the Cumberland
One of Boone's hunter friends came back from a journey across the Cumberland Mountains and told of the beauty of the land beyond—its hills and valleys, its forests and canebrakes, full of game. Boone was anxious to go. Too many people were settling near him. But Kentucky was a dangerous country, even if beautiful. It was called "No-man's-land," because not even Indians lived there, and also the "dark and bloody ground," because the tribes from the north and from the south met there in deadly conflict.
Boone and companions go to Kentucky
106. Boone Goes to the Land of Canebrakes and Blue Grass. While the people along the seacoast were disputing with the king, Boone and five companions, after climbing over mountains, fording rivers, and making their way through pathless forests, reached Kentucky, the land of salt springs, canebrakes, and blue grass.
Danger from animals
They built a log camp and spent several months enjoying the wild life so dear to the hunter. But it was full of danger. Sometimes it was a battle with a father and a mother bear fighting for their little ones. The sneaking panther or the lurking wildcat threatened their lives. Now and then, hundreds of buffaloes came rushing through the canebrakes.
Danger from Indians ever present
But danger from the Indians was present every moment. Day and night, sleeping in their camp or tramping through the woods, the hunters had to be ready for the death grapple. One day Boone and a companion named Stewart were off their guard. The Indians rushed upon them and captured them.
Captured but escapes
Boone and his companion understood the ways of the Indians, and won their confidence. One night, as the savages slept around the camp fire, Boone arose and quietly awoke Stewart. They stole silently from the camp and hastened by night and day back to their old camp, only to find it destroyed and their comrades gone.
News from the old home
One day Daniel Boone saw his brother coming through the woods. What a happy meeting five hundred miles from home! The brother brought good news from kindred and friends.
BOONE FIGHTING OVER THE BODY OF HIS SON
His brother returns home for supplies
Stewart was shot by the Indians, but Boone and his brother remained all winter in Kentucky. Powder, lead, and salt were growing scarce. What should be done? Boone's brother returned home for supplies, but Daniel remained without even a dog for a companion. He very seldom slept twice in the same place for fear of the Indians.
He wandered to the banks of the Ohio, and was charmed with all he saw. He then decided that some day he would make Kentucky his home.
Brings supplies and both go home
Boone's brother returned in the spring, bringing supplies on two pack horses. After further explorations the two brothers returned to their home on the Yadkin and told their neighbors of the wonders of the new land.
An Indian attack
In the fall of 1773 several families, with cattle and horses, bade farewell to their friends and started for Kentucky, a "second Paradise," as Boone called it. Before they reached the new land Indians fell upon them and killed six. Among the killed was Boone's eldest son. The party returned for a time to a settlement in Virginia.
Making the "Wilderness Road"
Richard Henderson, a rich planter, claimed a great tract of land in Kentucky, and put Boone at the head of thirty brave men to cut and blaze a road from the Holston River over the mountains, through Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River. The result was the famous "Wilderness Road," the first road across the mountains, and over which hundreds of pack horses and thousands of settlers made their way.
FORT BOONESBORO IN WINTER
After the plan by Colonel Henderson in Collins' "Historical Collections of Kentucky"
Fort Boonesboro
When the road was finished to the banks of the Kentucky River, Daniel Boone built Fort Boonesboro. The fort was about two hundred sixty feet long, and one hundred fifty feet wide. At each corner of it stood a two-story blockhouse with loopholes, through which the settlers could shoot at Indians. Cabins with loopholes were built along the sides of the fort. Between the cabins a high fence was made by sinking log posts into the ground. Two heavy gates were built on opposite sides of the fort. Every night the horses and cattle were driven inside the fort.
His family in the "second Paradise"
107. Boone Takes His Family to Kentucky. When the fort was finished Boone brought his family, and several others, over the mountains to his "second Paradise." Other settlers came, and Boonesboro began to grow. Some of the bolder settlers built cabins outside of the fort, where they cut away and burned the trees to raise corn and vegetables.
Three girl prisoners
To the Indian all this seemed to threaten his hunting ground. The red men were anxious, therefore, to kill and scalp these brave pioneers. One day Boone's daughter and two girl friends were out late in a boat near the shore opposite the fort when the Indians suddenly seized the girls and hastened away with them. The people heard their screams for help, but too late to risk crossing the river.
The chase and the capture
What sorrow in the fort that night! Had the Indians scalped the girls, or were they hastening to cross the Ohio with them? The next day Boone with eight men seized their guns, found the Indian trail, and marched with all speed. What if the Indians should see the white men first! On the second day Boone's party came upon the Indians building a fire, and fired before they were seen. Two of the Indians fell, and the others ran away, leaving the girls behind, unharmed, but badly frightened.
BOONE AND HIS MEN TRAILING THE INDIANS
Kentucky in the War of the Revolution
The War of the Revolution was already raging east of the mountains, and the Indians were taking the side of the British. In April, 1777, a small army of Indians crossed the Ohio and attacked Boonesboro. The little fort made a bold fight. The Indians retreated, but returned on the Fourth of July in large numbers, to destroy the fort and scalp the settlers. For two days and nights the battle went on. The fierce war cry of the Indians filled the woods around the fort. The white men took deadly aim. The women aided by melting lead into bullets. The Indians again failed, and finally retreated.
The prize prisoner
While making salt at the "Blue Licks," Boone and twenty-seven of his men were captured by the Indians and marched all the way to Detroit, the headquarters of the British army in the Northwest. The British offered the Indians five hundred dollars for Boone, but the savages were too proud of their great prisoner, and marched him back to their towns in what is now Ohio.
Adopted by an Indian family
Here he was adopted by an Indian chief. They plucked out all of Boone's hair except a "scalp lock," which they ornamented with feathers. They painted and dressed him like an Indian. His new parents were quite proud of their son. Sometimes he went hunting alone, but the Indians counted his bullets and measured his powder. But Boone was too shrewd for them. He cut the bullets in two, and used half charges of powder.
Steals away to Boonesboro
One day he saw four hundred fifty painted warriors getting ready to march against Boonesboro. He went hunting that day, but he did not come back. What excitement in that Indian town! Soon the woods were full of Indians hunting for Boone. In five days—with but one meal—he reached Boonesboro.
All hands fell to repairing the fort. The horses, cattle, and provisions were brought inside the fort, and water was brought from the river.
The Indians came, and Boone's Indian "father" called on him to surrender. Boone asked for two days to think about it, but he used this time in getting ready to fight. At the end of the two days Boone told him that his men would fight to the last.
DANIEL BOONE
From a portrait made in 1819 when Boone was 85 years old, painted by Chester Harding, and now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts
An Indian trick spoiled
The Indians then proposed that twelve from each side meet to make a treaty of peace. Boone took his strongest men. While parleying, each Indian suddenly seized a white man. The white men broke away, and ran for the fort. Boone's riflemen were ready, and poured a hot fire into the Indians.
The Indians cannot capture Boone's fort
The Indians climbed into trees to shoot down into the fort. They tried to set the fort on fire, but failed. They then tried to dig a tunnel under the fort, but failed in that also.
After nine days of failure, and after losing many warriors, the Indians gave up the fight and recrossed the Ohio. Although the settlers had to keep a daily watch for Indians, and had to fight them in other parts of Kentucky, they never attacked Boonesboro again.
Boone's reason for again moving west
During the Revolutionary War other brave men came as pioneers into Kentucky, and built forts, and defended their settlements against the Indians. As the settlements grew thicker, game grew scarcer. Boone resolved once more to move farther west. When asked why, he replied: "Too much crowded. I want more elbow room."
Moves to Missouri
At the age of sixty, while Washington was still president, and after he had seen Kentucky become a state, Daniel Boone and his faithful wife made the long journey to the region beyond the Mississippi, into what is now Missouri. There he lived and hunted. He saw this region pass from Spain to France, and from France to the United States (1803). He was still a hunter at eighty-two, and saw Missouri preparing to enter the Union as the twenty-fourth state.
Died in 1820
He died in 1820 at the age of eighty-six. Years afterward, remembering the noble deeds of the great pioneer, Kentucky brought his body to the capital city and buried it with great honors.
The Louisiana country and the French
108. Life in the Mississippi Valley. When Boone led his brave men into Kentucky, white men had been living for years in the Mississippi Valley, farther west. These were the French of Louisiana, as they called their country. Their chief settlement was St. Louis.
These people came at first to dig lead from the old Indian mines of southern Missouri and to trade for furs. They were a quiet people who knew little and cared less about the rest of the world. They did not work hard, and they loved good times. A traveler who visited them says they were "the happiest people on the globe."