Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Daniel BOONE
Boone, Daniel US frontiersman and settler; participated in Edward Braddock's attack on Fort Duquesne 1755; made brief initial visit to Kentucky wilderness 1767; returned to Kentucky 1769-1771 for hunting, trapping, and extensive exploration; leader of party of settlers establishing permanent residence in Kentucky 1775; built fort on site of present-day Boonesboro 1775; blazed extension of Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap, allowing large-scale migration of settlers through Allegheny Mountains; kidnapped by Shawnees 1778 but escaped; member of Virginia legislature 1781-1787; settled in Spanish-controlled Missouri 1799 after land claims in Kentucky failed to receive legal validation; subject of purportedly autobiographical narrative "The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon" in John Filson's "Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky" 1784
The name Daniel Boone will forever be synonymous with the saga of the American frontier. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Boone was the inveterate wayfarer who achieved lasting fame guiding land-hungry settlers to the Kentucky frontier and fighting to defend them against Indian attack.
Boone was born November 2, 1734 (some sources say October 22), in the log farmhouse that evolved into - and was replaced by - the main house of the Daniel Boone Homestead, situated east of Reading in Berks County.
Daniel's father, Squire Boone, was an English Quaker born in Devonshire in 1696. While still a youth, Squire, his brother George and sister Sarah embarked for Philadelphia to appraise the possibilities of settlement for their father's family, who immigrated finally in 1717.
Squire settled first in Abington, and then moved to Gwynedd, where he met Sarah Morgan, born in 1700 to Welsh Quakers. Married in 1720, they lived first near Gwynedd, then in Chalfont, Bucks County, before purchasing 250 acres of the Homestead in 1730. Squire's father and brothers also lived in the area and became prominent in business, local government and the Friends Meeting.
Daniel was the sixth child, one of eleven, born to Squire and Sarah. Although little is known of Daniel's Pennsylvania years, he undoubtedly helped his father as farmer, weaver and blacksmith and had the usual experiences of a boy growing up in the back country.
In 1750, Squire and Sarah joined the growing southward movement of Pennsylvanians, and concluded their long trek in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. While their principal motive may have been economic, it is also a fact that Squire had been "read out of Meeting" by the Exeter Friends in 1748 for his un-repentance in allowing his son Israel to marry a non-Quaker.
Daniel was then only 15 1/2 years old, but ahead was a life filled with the rigors of the American frontier. In 1756 he married Rebecca Bryan and with her - when he was home - raised ten children. In 1773, he failed in his first attempt to settle Kentucky, but in 1775, he succeeded in establishing Boonesborough. Between 1775 and 1783 Daniel Boone was a leader among settlers in opening new parts of Kentucky and in resisting Indian raids. Although Boone lost two sons and a brother in the fighting, he was merciful and compassionate toward his native adversaries.
Twice, Boone returned to visit his boyhood home - in 1781 and in 1788 - a hero and legend in his day. Though his legend grew, his finances languished. Beset by creditors and personal disillusion, Boone finally left Kentucky in 1799 for Missouri, where he died near St. Louis on September 26, 1820.
In Pennsylvania, Daniel's boyhood home changed to reflect the growth, prosperity and cultural diversity of eastern Berks County. William Maugridge purchased the property from Squire in 1750. An Englishman who was related to the Boones (though not himself a Quaker), he served Berks County as a judge from its establishment in 1752 until his death in 1766. In 1770 John de Turk, a Pennsylvania German, purchased the property and prospered there until he died in 1808.
Since 1938, the Daniel Boone Homestead has been a state-owned historic site, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. It includes 579 acres of land, seven eighteenth-century structures, a lake, picnic areas and other recreational facilities. The site interprets the lives of the Boone, Maugridge and de Turk families through exhibits, programs, tours and publications. The site also serves as a wildlife refuge, where visitors may enjoy numerou
s species of animals and birds.
Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1
DANIEL BOONE AND THE BOONE TREE
page 56
[p.56] In 1760, Doctor Walker made another exploring trip, crossing the Clinch River and Powell's River and penetrated into Kentucky. In the next year a company was formed composed of Wallen, Scaggs, Blevins, Cox and fifteen others who came into what was later known as Carter's Valley in Hawkins County. They hunted for eighteen months, principally upon Clinch and Powell rivers. Wallen's (or Walden's) Ridge and Wallen's (Walden's) Creek received their names from the leader of the enterprise. From the great length of time they were absent from their homes these, and others, were called "long hunters."
At the head of one of these hunting companies was Daniel Boone “from the Yadkin, in North Carolina, and traveled with them as low as the place where Abingdon now stands, and there left them.
This is the first historical mention of the coming of this famous hunter and colonizer into the western wilds, but there is virtually no doubt that he had hunted in the Watauga region at an earlier date; for, on a beech tree in this section was, until 1916, when the tree was blown down, an inscription supposed to have been made by Daniel Boone. According to Miss Myrtle Leonard of Jonesboro, who painted the picture of the Boone tree found opposite page 20 of the third volume of Heiskell's "Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History," the Boone Tree is on the old stage road leading from Jonesboro to Blountville. It is about eight miles northeast of Jonesboro, and nine miles from Johnson City. It is about four miles from where Duncan, the first white man, was buried in Tennessee, and only two miles from where William Bean built his cabin. Then just a mile from this tree, on Boone's Creek, is the Boone Falls. It is said that Boone safely escaped from the Indians by hiding under the rocks over which the water falls.
After the tree fell, Mr. Heiskell secured from E. W. Hughes, of Piney Flats, Tenn., four gavels made from the Boone tree. One of these he presented to the Tennessee Historical Society and one to the Tennessee Historical Committee.
In connection with the Boone tree Mr. Hughes wrote the following letter:
Piney Flats, Tenn., Aug. 23, 1921.
Mr. S. G. Heiskell,
Knoxville, Tenn.
Dear Sir:
About ten miles North of Jonesboro, Tenn., in Washington County, East Tennessee, on the waters of Boone Creek, there stood until a few years ago a giant beech tree that was the most famous tree in the State of Tennessee, or probably in the United States. Thousands of people from the state and near-by states have journeyed to see the historical inscription that was carved on its smooth bark. The inscription was plain to read until about eighteen years ago, but since, visitors and curious people have obliterated this inscription which reads, ‘D Boon, ‘Cilled A Bar ‘In Year 176
This tree stood on the land now owned by Mr. LaFayette Isley, in a magnificent forest of beech and hickory. It was 29 inches across the stump and about 70 feet high. It leaned sharply to the west, probably 20 degrees, in which direction it fell about 1916. I believe the scene around this spot [p.57] has changed very little since D. Boon passed that way over 150 years ago. The stately trees have never been disturbed and the only work of man that can be seen is a stone marker standing in eight feet of the spot on which the Boone Tree stood. These markers were erected a few years ago by the Tennessee Daughters of the Revolution and are placed a few miles apart, designating his trail through Tennessee from North Carolina to Kentucky. Mr. Isley cut off some logs from this tree and it was the writer's privilege to make some library tables and other souvenirs for its owner. Three or four gavels were sent to Mr. S. G. Heiskell, of Knoxville, with the request to place them where they would be preserved to the people of the state. It is a curious fact that in the operation of making these tables, a leaden bullet was sawn through its middle and each half adhered to its wooden bed all through the operation of manufacture and finish, and shows in the table today. The bullet was about five inches in from the bark toward the heart. The painting was made by Miss Myrtle Leonard, of Jonesboro, and loaned for this picture.
Very respectfully,
E. W. HUGHES.
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