The life and times of Colonel Daniel Boone

Preface

The subject of tlie "following biography, tte celebrated Colonel Daniel Boone, is one of tlie most remarkable men wbicli this country has produced. His character is marked with originality, and his actions were important and influential in one of the most interesting periods of our history — ^that of the early settlement of Kentucky. Boone is generally acknowledged as the founder of that State. His having explored it alone to a considerable extent ; his leading the earliest bands of settlers; his founding Boonesborough, the nucleus of the future State ; his having defended this and other stations successfully against the attacks of the Indians ; and the prominent part which he took in military

affairs at this period of distress and peril, ceriii iv ^ PREFACE.

tainly render his claims to the distinguished honor of founding Kentucky very strong.

But Boone, personally, reaped very little benefit from his patriotic and disinterested exertions. The lands which he had first cultivated and defended, were taken from him by the chicanery of the law ; other lands granted to him by the Spanish government were lost by his inattention to legal forms ; and in his old age he was without an acre of land which he could call his o^vn. A few years before his death a small tract, such as any other settler in Missouri was entitled to, was granted him by Congress. But he has left to his numerous posterity a nobler inheritance — that of an imperishable fame in the annals of his country !

Contents

CHAPTEE I.

PAGE

The family of Daniel Boone — His grandfather emigrates to America, and settles in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — Family of Daniel Boone's father — Account of Exeter, the birthplace of Boone — Birth of Daniel Boone — Religion of his family — Boone's boyhood — Goes to School — Anecdote — Summary termination of his schooling 1

Chapter I

The family of Daniel Boone — His grandfather emigrates to America, and settles in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — Family of Daniel Boone's father — Account of Exeter, the birthplace of Boone — Birth of Daniel Boone — Religion of his family — Boone's boyhood — Goes to School — Anecdote — Summary termination of his schooling.

The immediate ancestors and near relations of the American Boone family, resided at Bradwincli about eight miles from Exeter, England. George Boone, the grandfather of Daniel, emigrated to America and arrived, with Mary his wife, at Philadelphia, on the 10th of October, 1717. They brought with them eleven children, two daughters and nine sons. The names

of three of the sons have come down to us.

Jolm, James, and Squire. The last of these, Squire Boone, was the father of Daniel.

George Boone, immediately after his arrival in America, purchased a large tract of land in what is now Bucks County, which he settled, and called it Exeter, after the city near which he was born. The records distinguish it only as the township of Exeter, without any county. He purchased also various other tracts in Maryland and Virginia; and our tradition says, among others, the ground on which Georgetown, District of Columbia, now stands, and that he laid the town out, and gave it his own name. His sons John and James lived and died on the Exeter purchase.*

Daniel Boone's father. Squire Boone, had seven sons and four daughters, viz. : James,f Samuel, Jonathan, Daniel, George, Squire, Edward, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Hannah.

Exeter Township is situated in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and now has a population of over

* " Pittsburg Gazette," quoted by Peck.

f The eldest, James, was killed by the Indians in 1773, and his son Israel was killed at the battle of Blue Licks, August 19th, 1782.

two thousand. Here Daniel Boone was bom, on the 11 til of February, 1735 *

Tlie maiden name of Boone's mother was Sarah Morgan. Some dispute has arisen respecting the religious persuasion of the Boone family. It would appear, on a re^dew of the whole controversy, that before their removal to this country, the Boones were Episcopalians ; but during their residence in Pennsylvania they permitted themselves to be considered Quakers. What sort of a Quaker Daniel Boone himself was, will be apparent in the course of our narrative.

Exeter, the native place of Daniel Boone, was at this period a small frontier settlement, consisting of log-houses, surrounded with woods, which abounded with game of various kinds and were occasionally infested with hostile Indians. It is not surprising that Daniel, passing the period of his boyhood in such a place,

* Bogant gives 11th of February, 1735. Peck, February, 1735. Another account gives 1746 as the year of his birth, and Bucks County as his birthplace. The family record, in the handwriting of Daniel Boone's uncle, James, who was aschoolmaster, gives the 14th of July, 1732.

should have acquired at an early age the accomplisliments of a hunter and woodsman. From a mere child it was his chief delight to roam in the woods, to observe the wild haunts of Nature, and to pursue the wild animals which were then so abundant.

Of the boyhood of Daniel Boone, one of his biographers gives the following account. Speaking of the residence of the family at Exeter, he says : *

" Here they lived for ten years ; and it was during this time that their son Daniel began to show his passion for hunting. He was scarcely able to carry a gun when he was shooting all the squiiTels, raccoons, and even wild cats (it is said), that he could find in that region. As he grew older, his courage increased, and then we find him amusing himself with higher game. Other lads in the neighborhood were soon taught by him the use of the rifie, and were then able to join him in his adventures. On one occasion, they all started out for a. hunt,

* '* Adventures of Daniel Boone, the Kentucky Rifleman.' By the author of *' Uncle Philip's Conversations.'* and, after amusing themselves till it was almost dark, were returning homeward, when suddenly a wild cry was heard in the woods. The boys screamed out, ' A panther ! A panther ! ' and ran off as fast as they could. Boone stood firmly, looking around for the animal. It was a panther indeed. His eye lighted upon him just in the act of springing toward him; in an instant he leveled his rifle, and shot him through the heart.

" But this sort of sport was not enough for him. He seemed resolved to go away from men, and live in the forests with these animals. One morning he started off as usual, with his rifle and dog. Night came on, but Daniel did not retarn to his home. Another day and night passed away, and still the boy did not make his appearance. His parents were now greatly alarmed. The neighbors joined them in making search for the lad. After wandering about a great while, they at leDgth saw smoke rising from a cabin in the distance. Upon reaching it, they found the boy. The floor of the cabin was covered with the skins of sucli animals as lie had slain, and pieces of meat were roasting before tlie fire for Ms supper. Here, at a distance of three miles from any settlement, he had built his cabin of sods and branches and sheltered himself in the wilderness.

" It was while his father was living on the headwaters of the Schuylkill that young Boone received, so far as we know, all his education. Short indeed were his schoolboy days. It happened that an Irish schoolmaster strolled into the settlement, and, by the advice of Mr. Boone and other parents, opened a school in the neighborhood. It was not then as it is now. Good schoolhouses were not scattered over the land ; nor were schoolmasters always able to teach their pupils. The schoolhouse where the boys of this settlement went was a log-cabin, built in the midst of the woods. The schoolmaster was a strange man ; sometimes good-humored, and then indulging the lads ; sometimes surly and ill-natured, and then beating them severely. It was his usual custom, after hearing the first lessons of the morning, to allow the children to be out for a half hour at play, during which time he strolled ofl: to refresh himself from his labors. He always walked in the same direction, and the boys thought that after his retura, when they were called in, he was generally more cruel than ever. They were whipped more severely, and oftentimes without any cause. They observed this, but did not know the meaning of it. One morning young Boone asked that he might go out, and had scarcely left the schoolroom when he saw a squirrel running over the trunk of a fallen tree. True to his natm^e, he instantly gave chase, until at last the squirrel darted into a bower of vines and branches. Boone thrust his hand in, and, to his surprise, laid hold of a bottle of whisky. This was in the direction of his master's morning walks, and he thought now that he understood the secret of much of his ill-nature. He returned to the schoolroom; but, when they were dismissed for that day, he told some of the larger boys of his discovery. Their plan was soon arranged Early the next morning a bottle of wliisky, having tartar emetic in it, was placed in tlie bower and tlie other bottle thrown away. At the usual hour, the lads were sent out to play, and the master started on his walk. But their play was to come afterward ; they longed for the master to retui-n. At length they were called in, and in a little time saw the success of their experiment. The master began to look pale and sick, yet still went on with his work. Several boys were called up, one after the other, to recite lessons, and all whipped soundly, whether right or wrong. At last young Boone was called out to answer questions in arithmetic. He came forward with his slate and pencil, and the master began. " If you subtract six from nine what remains ? " said he. " Three, sir," said Boone. " Very good," said the master, "now let us come to fractions. If you take three-quarters from a whole number what remains?" The whole, sir," answered Boone. " You blockhead ! " cried the master, beating him ; " you stupid little fool, how can you show that ? " " If I take one bottle of whisky," said Boone, " and put in its place another in which

I have mixed an emetic, the whole will remain if nobody drinks it!" The Irishman, dreadfully sick, was now doubly enraged. He seized Boone, and commenced beating him ; the children shouted and roared ; the scuffle continued until Boone knocked the master down upon the floor, and rushed out of the room. It was a day of freedom now for the lads. The story soon ran through the neighborhood ; Boone was rebuked by his parents, but the schoolmaster was dismissed, and thus ended the boy's education.

Thus freed from school, he now returned more ardently than ever to his favorite pursuit. His dog and rifle were his constant companions, and day after day he started from home, only to roam through the forests. Hunting seemed to be the only business of his life ; and he was never so happy as when at night he came home laden with game. He was an untiring wanderer."

Perhaps it was not a very serious misfortune for Daniel Boone that his school instruction was so scanty, for, " in another kind of education,"

says Mr. Peck,"^ " not unfrequent in tlie wilds of the West, he was an adept. No Indian could poise the rifle, find his way through the pathless forest, or search out the retreats of game, more readily than Daniel Boone. In all that related to Indian sagacity, border life, or the tactics of the skillful hunter, he excelled. The successful training of a hunter, or woodsman, is a kind of education of mental discipline, diifeiing from that of the schoolroom, but not less effective in giving vigor to the mind, quickness of apprehension, and habits of close observation. Boone was regularly trained in all that made him a successful backwoodsman. Indolence and imbecility never produced a Simon Kenton, a Tecumthe, or a Daniel Boone. To gain the sMll of an accomplished hunter requires talents, patience, perseverance, sagacity, and habits of thinking. Amongst other qualifications, knowledge of human nature, and especially of Indian character is indispensable to the pioneer of a wilderness. Add to these, seK-possession, selfcontrol, and promptness in execution. Persons

* " Life of Daniel Boone " By John M. Peck,

LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. H

who are unaccustomed to a frontier residence know not how much, in the preservation of life, and in obtaining subsistence, depends on such characteristics ! "

In the woods surrounding the little settlement of Exeter, Boone had ample opportunity for perfecting himself in this species of mental discipline, and of gaining that physical training of the limbs and muscles so necessary in the pursuits of the active hunter and pioneer. We have no record of his ever having encountered the Indians during his residence in Pennsylvania. His knowledge of their peculiar modes of hunting and war was to be attained not less thoroughly at a somewhat later period of life.

CHAPTER n.

Removal of Boone's father and family to North Carolina- Location on the Yadkin River— Character of the country and the people — Byron's description of the backwoodsman-— Daniel Boone marries Rebecca Bryan— His farmer life in North Carolina — State of the country — Political troubles foreshadowed— Illegal fees and taxes — Probable effect of this state of things on Boone's mind — Signs of movement.

When Daniel Boone was still a youth, Ms father emigrated to North Carolina. The precise date of this removal of the family residence is not known. Mr. Peck, an excellent authority, says it took place when Daniel was about eighteen years old. This would make it about the year 1752.

The new residence of Squire Boone, Daniel'^ father, was near Holman's Ford, on the Yadkin River, about eight miles from Wilkesboro'. The fact of the great backwoodsman having passed many years of his life there is still remembered with pride by the inhabitants of that

region. The capital of Watauga County which 12 was formed in 1849, is named Boone, in honor of Daniel Boone. The historian of North Carolina * is disposed to claim him as a son of the State. He says: ^'In North Carolina Daniel Boone was reared. Here his youthful days were spent ; and here that bold spirit was trained, which so fearlessly encountered the perils through which he passed in after life. His fame is part of her property, and she has inscribed his name on a town in the region where his youth was spent."

" The character of Boone is so peculiar," says Mr. Wheeler, " that it marks the age in which he lived and his name is celebrated in the verses of the immortal Byron :

Of all men-

Who passes for in life and death most lucky, Of the great names which in our faces stare. Is Daniel Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky,

Crime came not near him — she is not the child Of Solitude. Health shrank not from him, for Her home is in the rarely-trodden wild.

And tall and strong and swift of foot are they. Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions,

■ John H. Wheeler. •' Historical Sketches of North Carolina.

Because their thoughts had never been the prey Of care or gain ; the green woods were their portions. No sinking spirits told them they grew gray, No fashions made them apes of her distortions. Simple they were, not savage ; and their rifles, Though very true, were not yet used for trifles.

Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers, And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil. Not yet too many nor too few their numbers; Corruption could not make their hearts her soil ; The lust which stings, the splendor which encumbers, With the free foresters divide no spoil ; Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes Of this unsighing people of the woods.* "

We quote these beautiful lines, because they so aptly and forcibly describe the peculiar character of Boone ; and to a certain extent, as Mr. Wheeler intimates, his character was that of his times and of his associates.

It was during the residence of the family on the banks of the Yadkin, that Boone formed the acquaintance of Bebecca Bryan, whom he married.* The marriage appears, by compari*

* The children by this marriage were nine in number. Sons: James, born in 1756, Israel, Jesse, Daniel, and Nathan. Daughters : Susan, Jemima, Lavinia, and Rebecca.

The eldest, James, was killed, as will appear in our subsequent narrative, by the Indians, in 1773 ; and Israel fell in tho battle of Blue Licks, May 17th, 1782. In 1846, Nathan, a captain in the United States service, was the only fiurviying son.

LITE OF DANIEL BOONE. 15

son of dates, to tave taken place in tlie year 1755. " One almost regrets," says Mr. Peck, " to spoil so beautiful a romance, as that whicli has had such extensive circulation in the various "Lives of Boone," and which represents him as mistaking the bright eyes of this young lady, in the dai*k, for those of a deer ; a mistake that nearly proved fatal from the unerring rifle of the young hunter. Yet in truth, we are bound to say, that no such mistake ever happened. Our backwoods swains never make such mistakes."

The next ^ve years after his marriage, Daniel Boone passed in the quiet pursuits of a farmer's life, varied occasionally by hunting excursions in the woods. The most quiet and careless of the citizens of North Carolina were not unobservant, however, of the political aspect of the times. During this period the people, by their representatives in the Legislature, began that opposition to the Royal authority, which was in after years to signalize North Carolina as one of the leading Colonies in the Revolutionary struggle.

The newly-appointed Eoyal Governor, Arthur Dobbs, arrived at Newbern in the autumn of 1754. " Governor Dobbs' administration of ten years," says the historian Wheeler, '' was a continued contest between himself and the Legislature, on matters frivolous and unimportant. A high-toned temper for Koyal prerogatives on his part, and an indomitable resistance of the Colonists. * ^ * * The people were much oppressed by Lord Grenville's agents. They seized Corbin, his agent, who lived below Edenton, and brought him to Enfield, where he was compelled to give bond and security to produce his books and disgorge his illegal fees."

This matter of illegal fees was part of a system of oppression, kindred to the famous Stamp Act — a system which was destined to grow more and more intolerable under Governor Tryon's administration, and to lead to the formation of the famous company of Regulators, whose resistance of taxation and tyranny was soon to convulse the whole State.

We are by no means to suppose that Daniel

Boone was an unobservant spectator of what was passing even at the time we are speaking of, nor that the doings of the tax-gatherers had nothing to do with his subsequent movements. He not only hated oppression, but he hated also strife and disturbance ; and already began to long for a new migration into the distant woods and quiet intervales, where politics and the tax-gatherer should not intrude.

The population in his neighborhood was increasing, and new settlements were being formed along the Yadkin and its tributary streams, and explorations were made to the northwest on the banks of the Holston and Clinch rivers. The times were already beginning to exhibit symptoms of restlessness and stir among the people, which was soon to result in the formation of new States and the settlement of the far West.

Chapter III

The Seven Years' War — Cherokee war — Period of Boone's first long excursions to the West — Extract from Wheeler's History of Tennessee — Indian accounts of the western country — Indian traders — Their reports — Western travelers — Doherty — Adair — Proceedings of the traders — Hunters — Scotch traders — Hunters accompany the traders to the West — Their reports concerning the country — Other adventurers — Dr. Walker's expedition — Settlements in Southwestern Virginia — Indian hostilities — Pendleton purchase — Dr. Walker's second expedition — Hunting company of Walker and others — Boone travels with them — Curious monument left by him.

The reader will recollect that tlie period referred to in tlie last chapter comprehended the latter years of the celebrated Seven Years' War. During the chief portion of this period, the neighboring Colony of Virginia suffered all the horrors of Indian war on its western frontier — horrors from which even the ability, courage, and patriotism of Washington were for a long time unable to protect them. The war was

virtually terminated by the campaign of 1759^ 18 when Quebec was taken. The next year Canada was ceded to England ; and a Cherokee war, which had disturbed the border settlers of North Carolina, was terminated. Daniel Boone's biographers all agree that it was about this time when he first began to make long excursions toward the West ; but it is difficult to fix exactly the date of his first long joiu*ney through the woods in this direction. It is generally dated in 1771 or 1772. We now make a quotation from Eamsay's Annals of Tennessee, which shows, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that he hunted on the Wataga River in 1760, and renders it probable that he was in the West at an earlier date. Our readers will excuse the length of this quotation, as the first part of it gives so graphic a picture of the hunter and pioneer life of the times of Daniel Boone, and also shows what had been done by others in western explorations before Boone's expeditions commenced.

" The Colonists of the Carolinas and of Virginia had been steadily advancing to the West, and we have traced their approaches in the direction of our eastern boundaiy,"^" to tlie base of the great Appalachian range.

" Of the country beyond it, little was positively known or accurately understood. A wandering Indian would imperfectly delineate upon the sand, a feeble outline of its more prominent physical features — its magnificent rivers, with their numerous tributaries — its lofty mountains, its dark forests, its extended plains and its vast extent. A voyage in a canoe, from the source of the Hogohegee f to the Wabash, J required for its performance, in their figurative language, " two paddles, two warriors, three moons." The Ohio itself was but a tributary of a still larger river, of whose source, size and direction, no intelligible account could be communicated or understood. The Muscle Shoals and the obstructions in the river above them, were represented as mighty cataracts and fearful whirlpools, and the Suck, as an awful vortex. The wild beasts with which the illimitable forests

* That is, the eastern boundary of Tennessee, which was then a part of North Carolina. f Holston.

X The Ohio was known many years by this name.

abounded, were numbered by pointing to the leaves upon the trees, or the stars in a cloudless sky.

"These glowing descriptions of the West seemed rather to stimulate than to satisfy the intense curiosity of the approaching settlers. Information more reliable, and more minute, was, from time to time, furnished from other sources. In the Atlantic cities accounts had been received from French and Spanish traders, of the unparalleled beauty and fertility of the western interior. These reports, highly colored and amplified, were soon received and known upon the frontier. Besides, persons engaged in the interior traffic with the south-western Indian tribes had, in times of peace, penetrated their territories — traded with and resided amongst the natives — and upon their return to the white settlements, confirmed what had been previously reported in favor of the distant countries they had seen. As early as 1690, Doherty, a trader from Virginia, had visited the Cherokees and afterward lived among them a number of years. In 1730, Adair, from South Carolina, had traveled, not only tlirough the towns of this tribe, but had extended his tour to most of the nations south and west of them. He was not only an enterprising trader but an intelligent tourist. To his observations upon the several tribes which he visited, we are indebted for most that is known of their earlier history. They were published in London in 1775.

" In 1740 other traders went among the Cherokees from Virginia. They employed Mr. Vaughan as a packman, to transport their goods. West of Amelia County, the country was then thinly inhabited ; the last hunter's cabin that he saw was on Otter River, a branch of the Staunton, now in Bedford County, Va. The route pursued was along the Great Path to the center of the Cherokee nation. The traders and packmen generally confined themselves to this path till it crossed the Little Tennessee River, then spreading themselves out among the several Cherokee villages west of the mountain, continued their traffic as low down the Great Tennessee as the Indian settlements upon Occochappo or Bear Creek, below the Muscle

LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 2S

Shoals, and there encountered the competition of other traders, who were supplied from New Orleans and Mobile. They returned, heavily laden with peltries, to Charleston, or the more northern markets, where they were sold at highly remunerating prices. A hatchet, a pocket looking-glass, a piece of scarlet cloth, a trinket, and other articles of little value, which at Williamsburg could be bought for a few shillings, would command from an Indian hunter on the Hiwasse or Tennessee peltries amounting in value to double the number of pounds sterling. Exchanges were necessarily slow, but the profits realized from the operation were immensely large. In times of peace this traffic attracted the attention of many adventurous traders. It became mutually advantageous to the Indian not less than to the white man. The trap and the rifle, thus bartered for, procured, in one day, more game to the Cherokee hunter than his bow and arrow and his dead-fall would have secured during a month of toilsome hunting. Other advantages resulted from it to the whites. They became thus acquainted with the great avenues leading througli the hunting grounds and to the occupied country of the neighboring tribes — an important circumstance in the condition of either war or peace. Further, the traders were an exact thermometer of the pacific or hostile intention and feelings of the Indians with whom they traded. Generally, they were foreigners, most frequently Scotchmen, who had not been long in the country, or upon the frontier, who, having experienced none of the cruelties, depredations or aggressions of the Indians, cherished none of the resentment and spirit of retaliation born with, and everywhere manifested by, the Ameiican settler. Thus, free from animosity against the aborigines, the trader was allowed to remain in the village where he traded unmolested, even when its wamors were singing the war song or brandishing the war club, preparatory to an invasion or massacre of the whites. Timely warning was thus often given, by a returning packman to a feeble and unsuspecting settlement, of the perfidy and cruelty meditated against it.

" This gainful commerce was, for a time, engrossed by tlie traders ; but the monopoly was not allowed to continue long. Their rapid accumulations soon excited the cupidity of another class of adventurers ; and the hunter, in his turn, became a co-pioneer with the trader, in the march of civilization to the wilds of the West. As the agricultural population approached the eastern base of the AUeghanies, the game became scarce, and was to be found by severe toil in almost inaccessible recesses and coves of the mountain. Packmen, returning from their trading expeditions, carried with them evidences, not only of the abundance of game across the mountains, but of the facility with which it was procured. Hunters began to accompany the traders to the Indian towns ; but, unable to brook the tedious delay of procuring peltries by traffic, and impatient of restraint, they struck boldly into the wilderness and western-like, to use a western phrase, set up for themselves. The reports of their return, and of their successful enterprise, stimulated other adventurers to a similar undertaking. 'As early as 1748

36 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONB.

Doctor Thomas Walker, of Vii'ginia, in company with Colonels Wood, Patton and Buchanan, and Captain Charles Campbell, and a number of hunters, made an exploring tour upon the westem waters. Passing Powell's valley, he gave the name of " Cumberland " to the lofty range of mountains on the west. Tracing this range in a southwestern direction, he came to a remarkable depression in the chain : thi'ough this he passed, calling it " Cumberland Gap." On the western side of the range he found a beautiful mountain stream, which he named " Cumberland River," all in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, then prime minister of England.' * These names have ever since been retained, and, with Loudon, are believed to be the only names in Tennessee of English origin.

" Although Fort Loudon was erected as early as 1756 upon the Tennessee, yet it was in advance of any white settlements nearly one hundred and fifty miles, and was destroyed in 1760. The fort, too, at Long Island, within the bound-