A Businessman He Wasn't

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Daniel Boone was instrumental in organizing the defense of Kentucky's scattered settlements.  In 1778, he was captured by a band of Shawnee while
exploring salt at Blue Lick.  He persuaded the Indians to hold him and his men as hostages to postpone their planned raid on Boonesborough, thus saving defenseless women and children.


Boone was adopted into the Shawnee tribe and taken north of the Ohio River.  While pretending enthusiasm for the tribe, he squirreled away guns, ammunition and dried meat.  Waiting for the right moment, he slipped away, arriving in Boonesborough in time to defend it against a large Indian force sent by the British.

By the end of the Revolution, Boone owned title to 10,000 acres.  Much of it was lost to improper registration, the rest went to satisfy claims of creditors.  The legend, you see, was a very poor businessman.

In 1788 he left Kentucky and in 1799 he settled in Missouri where he was appointed district magistrate by the Spanish.  Once again, he was rewarded with a huge chunk of land and once again he lost it when the Louisiana Purchase became part of the US in 1803. 

Boone remained active and hardy, hunting and trapping well into his 80s.  Near the end of his life, he returned to Kentucky to pay off the last of his creditors..  He died in Missouri in 1820.  His body was later returned to Kentucky in 1845 and buried with full honors.

Next time...another Kentucky Legend
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Today in Pioneer History: On September 24, 1789, the Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices who were to serve on the court until death or retirement.

The Man of Legend

Famed as a hunter, wilderness explorer, Indian fighter, surveyor, negotiator, strategist, state legislator, magistrate and land speculator, folk tradition has attributed countless mythical feats to Daniel Boone.
The facts are remarkable enough...

Born November 2, 1734 to Quaker parents on a frontier farm near present day Reading, Pennsylvania, Daniel learned to read and write legibly, but never mastered grammar nor spelling.  In the woods, however, he was a master.  Indians taught Boone the art of spotting and tracking game and how to live in the wilderness. 

Boone stood 5'9", but he had an unusual strength, agility and presence of mind.  Although not the first white man in Kentucky, he was the foremost explorer.  In 1769 he explored most of central and eastern Kentucky.  In 1775 he negotiated a huge tract of land from the Cherokee along with a North Carolina land speculator, Judge Richard Henderson. 

With a company of 30 ax men, Boone cleared the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River and founded Boonesborough at the end of the road.

In 1776, the Indians captured Boone's daughter, Jemima, and two of her companions while they were boating on the Kentucky River.  Boone and a small party followed a trail of broken twigs and cloth the girls had left behind (taught no doubt by Boone), and rescued all safely. 

Boone wrote of his trip to Kentucky in 1769:
"In the midst of dangers and inconveniences, it was impossible to be melancholy.  Nothing could afford such pleasure in my mind as the beauties of nature I found here...a second paradise."

Next time...the Legend Part 2
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Today in Pioneer History: On September 21, 1779,  the Louisiana governor and Spanish military officer Bernardo de Galvez, with the aide of American troops and militia volunteers, captures the British post and garrison at Baton Rouge, located in what was then British-controlled West Florida.

Boonslick Country

Central Missouri in the early 1800s was known as Boonslick Country, named after none other than Daniel Boone and the area's most famous resident.  He discovered a large valuable salt lick in central Missouri and decided it was a great place to set up home.

Boone himself, however, felt unappreciated and didn't welcome newcomers who took property he felt was rightfully his as a pioneer.  He left the state and settled on the Missouri River in 1799 when Joe Walker was a mere infant.

Franklin, Missouri was the capital of Boonslick Country and where Joseph Walker took the steamboat ride to.  1000 people strong, it was the largest settlement west of St. Louis.  The town boasted 125 cabins, six warehouses, four taverns, two billiard parlors, a steamboat landing, and $300 courthouse, two story jail, a race track, a brothel, a barber, and banker and the only newspaper published in the Mississippi Valley at that time.

As early frontier towns go, Franklin was quite a place!

Next time - Walkers go off the beaten path...