This incident served as a warning to the settlers on the Kentucky; the war had finally made its way to their lonely fort. Day after day they found the tracks of scouting parties all about in the forests; hostile shots began to ring in the distance. And then began the fights and sieges for which the sturdy stockade built by Boone and his companions became famous. Encompassed many times by hundreds of savages, with the arrows and bullets flying thick as hail about it, the fort stood strong and untaken. And through it all went Oliver and Eph Taylor and Sandy Campbell, through it all went the heroic Boone, ever leading, ever daring the wilderness and its crafty savages, always strong under reverses, always wise in victory.
And when the great war was done and liberty was achieved by the colonies, the settlers came in greatly increased numbers, drawn by the wonder stories of Kentucky and the magic name of Boone.
And as the commonwealth grows strong, its wilderness falls before the axe of the pioneer, its broad farms smile where the Shawnee once roamed, the whistles of steamboats sound upon the streams which knew only the prow of the bark canoe, the thoughts of its sons and daughters go back to the old days; and they know that the greatness of Kentucky is founded upon the bold spirit and the long rifle of Daniel Boone.
CHAPTER XIV
SKETCH OF BOONE’S LIFE
Daniel Boone’s ancestors were English, his grandfather, George Boone, coming to America in 1717. Squire Boone, son of George, was the father of Daniel.
The Boones purchased a tract of land in what is now Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Squire Boone, Daniel’s father, married Sarah Morgan; they had eleven children, Daniel being the fourth and coming into the world on July 14, 1732. This date is according to the family record kept by his father’s brother James, who was a schoolmaster. Some of the biographies give different dates; but it is likely that James Boone knew the facts as well as any one.
The county of Bucks was then to all intents a frontier settlement; the Boones lived in a log house; all about them were the woods, which were running with game, and in which hostile savages were often seen.
Even in his school days, Daniel was known as a hunter; his eye was of the best and his rifle seldom failed. His passion for the wilderness was shown in those early times when he’d wander away in the silent forest and be missing for days. Then they would hunt for him and find him encamped miles and miles away, perhaps cooking his supper at a fire of sticks and calmly planning the building of a hut which was to shelter him for days to come.
A story is told of him which proves his early skill as a hunter. With some other lads of his own age, he started off for a day’s hunting of small game. The shades of late afternoon were deepening in the woods, and the boys were on their way back to the settlement when suddenly one of them cried out: “Panther! Panther!” Now of all the beasts of the forests, the lurking panther was held to be the deadliest; and knowing him for such, the boys ran for their lives. But not so Boone. Steadily he held his ground, his eye searching for the animal. Yes, there it was; a panther sure enough, and a big one. Calmly his long rifle came to his shoulder and his keen eyes drew the “bead.” And with the ringing crack of the weapon, down fell the panther, shot through and through.
Boone was still a boy when his father concluded he’d get on better if he went to North Carolina. He took up his homestead on the Yadkin River; and in this section Daniel grew to manhood, married Rebecca Bryan, and became the father of nine children.