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By Vernon Summerlin 

Early American history was frequently savage. Pioneers on the frontier ran the gauntlet between harsh nature and harassing natives. Daniel Boone, one of the best-known pioneers, settled the first charted town in Kentucky. To do so, he survived many hardships. Living an impressive 86 years, the man escaped death numerous times. 

Boone was born November 2, 1734, in a log farmhouse east of Reading in Berks County, Pennsylvania. His father, Squire, was an English Quaker from Devonshire, England. Boone was the sixth child of eleven born to Squire and Sarah. Little is known of his Pennsylvania years, except that he grew up in that state's backcountry. 

In 1750, Squire and Sarah joined the growing numbers of Pennsylvanians migrating south. They settled in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina when young Boone was 15 years old. He married Rebecca Bryan in 1756, hunting and farming in North Carolina to provide for his growing family--Rebecca gave birth to 10 children. 

John Findley, an old friend, visited Boone in 1769. Findley was looking for a route to Kentucky and wanted Boone to guide him. That same year, a party set out to discover a route to travel the wilderness. 

"It was on the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky, in company with John Findley, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, and William Cool," Boone described in his autobiography.

They found passage though the rugged Appalachian Mountains via the Cumberland Gap, discovering terrain filled with bison, deer, and turkey, and land ideal for farming. Boone felt this would be the perfect place to move his family.

He said, "We proceeded successfully, and after a long and fatiguing journey through a mountainous wilderness, in a westward direction, on the seventh day of June following we found ourselves on Red River, where John Findley had formerly been trading with the Indians, and, from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. 

"Soon after, I returned home to my family, with a determination to bring them as soon as possible to live in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second paradise, at the risk of my life and fortune," he continued.

Boone had a rocky first attempt to settle in Kentucky. In 1775, Boone and a company of 30 men improved the trails between the Carolinas and the west. Their "Wilderness Road" reached into the heart of Kentucky; along this road grew Boonesborough, a fort and village southeast of present day Lexington. Richard Henderson, Daniel Boone, and the Transylvania Company in Madison County founded the small community. 

The family's move was a success, with Boone's "wife and daughter being the first white women that ever stood on the banks of Kentucky River." With his family in their new home, more pioneers soon followed. Along with Boonesborough, some settled at McConnell Springs, later re-named Lexington after Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the opening battle of the Revolutionary War. 

Between 1775 and 1783, Boone led settlers to new parts of Kentucky, but resistance from Indians was strong. Boone lost two sons and a brother in the fighting. He had numerous near-death encounters with Indians, and Shawnee captured his daughter and two other girls. 

As Boone recounts, "On the fourteenth day of July 1776, two of Col. Callaway's daughters, and one of mine, were taken prisoners near the fort. I immediately pursued the Indians, with only eight men, and on the sixteenth overtook them, killed two of the party, and recovered the girls. The same day on which this attempt was made, the Indians divided themselves into different parties, and attacked several forts, which were shortly before this time erected, doing a great deal of mischief. 

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"This was extremely distressing to the new settlers. The innocent husbandman was shot down, while busy in cultivating the soil for his family's supply. Most of the cattle around the stations were destroyed. They continued their hostilities in this manner until the fifteenth of April 1777, when they attacked Boonesborough with a party of above one hundred in number, killed one man, and wounded four." 

In 1778, Boone was captured by another band of Shawnee. On learning that the tribe was planning to attack Boonesborough, he negotiated with Chief Blackfish to forestall the assault. Though he was adopted as a son of Blackfish, the chief soon planned another attack. Boone escaped to warn the people of Boonesborough; when the warriors attacked, they were repelled after nine days of fighting. 

Boone continues, "Thus we behold Kentucky, lately a howling wilderness, the habitation of savages and wild beasts, become a fruitful field; this region, so favorably distinguished by nature, now become the habitation of civilization, at a period unparalleled in history, in the midst of a raging war, and under all the disadvantages of emigration to a country so remote from the inhabited parts of the continent. 

"Here, where the hand of violence shed the blood of the innocent; where the horrid yells of savages, and the groans of the distressed, sounded in our ears, we now hear the praises and adorations of our Creator; where wretched wigwams stood, the miserable abode of savages, we behold the foundations of cities laid, that, in all probability, will equal the glory of the greatest upon earth. And we view Kentucky situated on the fertile banks of the great Ohio, rising from obscurity to shine with splendor, equal to any other of the states of the American hemisphere." 

Boone had to overcome many obstacles in this new land, and participated in many savage battles to settle this part of the new America. He lost many friends to Indian attacks; some of these attacks were under the British and French flags. 

Boone had to remove his family from Boonesborough for safety reasons, but returned in 1780, where they remained until 1792. They were a hardy race of people, according to Boone, and accustomed to overcoming hurdles. Severe winters caused great trouble for the new "Kaintucks, " and Indians destroyed their food; especially missed was corn, but they survived on bison. 

The land was precious to many, but only those who could withstand the slings and arrows from a harsh environment--and those who could prove clear title to it--were truly able to enjoy and prosper in this newfound territory. 

When Kentucky was admitted into the Union, lawsuits concerning land titles of settlers whirled like tornadoes through the courts. Boone was among many who lost their possessions because he had no clear title to his lands. He retired in 1795 to St. Charles County, Missouri, then under the jurisdiction of Spain. 

There, Boone was appointed commander of the Femme Osage district and was awarded a large tract of land for his services. Alas, he lost these lands, too, because he failed to have a clear title. Eventually, he lost his claim to yet another tract of land, but Congress returned it to him for his services to his country in 1812. 

On September 26, 1820, Boone was buried beside his wife, who had died March 18, 1813. In August 1845, the couple was removed for re-interment in the public cemetery at Frankfort. Citizens from all parts of Kentucky formed a procession more than a mile long to accompany the coffins to their last resting place. 

Daniel Boone will forever be synonymous with the saga of the American frontier. 

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Photos by Vernon Summerlin.
Copyright (c) 2000 by Vernon Summerlin. All rights reserved.