Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Remembering Daniel Boone...!

Today is Western Wednesday, so I thought we would talk about Daniel Boone!

Everyone knows about Boone, I think! Certainly a person of interest in many ways! Funny we don't hear much about him like some of the others of his time. Wonder why that is?

Sep 26, 1820
The famous frontiersman Daniel Boone dies in Missouri


On this day in 1820 the great pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly in his sleep at his son's home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. The indefatigable voyager was 86.

Boone was born in 1734 to Quaker parents living in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Following a squabble with the Pennsylvania Quakers, Boone's family decided to head south and west for less crowded regions, and they eventually settled in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. There the young Daniel Boone began his life-long love for wilderness, spending long days exploring the still relatively unspoiled forests and mountains of the region. An indifferent student who never learned to write more than a crude sentence or two, Boone's passion was for the outdoors, and he quickly became a superb marksman, hunter and woodsman.

Never satisfied to stay put for very long, Boone soon began making ever longer and more ambitious journeys into the relatively unexplored lands to the west. In May of 1769, Boone and five companions crossed over the Cumberland Gap and explored along the south fork of the Kentucky River. Impressed by the fertility and relative emptiness of the land--although the native inhabitants hardly considered it to be empty--Boone returned in 1773 with his family, hoping to establish a permanent settlement. An Indian attack prevented that first attempt from succeeding, but Boone returned two years later to open the route that became known as Boone's Trace (or the Wilderness Road) between the Cumberland Gap and a new settlement along the Kentucky River called Fortress Boonesboro. After years of struggles against both Native Americans and British soldiers, Boonesboro eventually became one of the most important gateways for the early American settlement of the Trans-Appalachian West.

Made a legend in his own time by John Filson's "Boone Autobiography" and Lord Byron's depiction of him as the quintessential frontiersman in the book Don Juan, Boone became a symbol of the western pioneering spirit for many Americans. Ironically, though, Boone's fame and his success in opening the Trans-Appalachian West to large-scale settlement later came to haunt him. Having lost his Kentucky land holdings by failing to properly register them, Boone moved even further west in 1799, trying to escape the civilized regions he had been so instrumental in creating. Finally settling in Missouri--though he never stopped dreaming of continuing westward--he lived out the rest of his life doing what he loved best: hunting and trapping in a fertile wild land still largely untouched by the Anglo pioneers who had followed the path he blazed to the West.

Truly a legend that is still with us today, mostly in the stories that remind us of a few of his accomplishments!

Coffee on the patio this morning. Fresh cantaloupe on the side!

11 comments:

Phyllis (N/W Jersey) said...

Such a romantic figure in our history. It is a shame he didn't have the ability to keep a diary.
Coffee on the patio is fine - kinda warm up here today, too - 57 degrees.
Cantaloupe sounds great!

chinasyndrome said...

Boone and Crockett were two of my favorites growing up. The Boone's actually came through So Ind. My favorite was Danl boon kilt a Bar undr this tree!

China
III

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

I didn't know much about Boone, but seem to recall there was a TV show or maybe I have him confused with Davy Crockett as I do recall a catchy intro tune.

linda m said...

Daniel Boone was always a bigger than life figure to me. I watched theTV show and even wore a coonskin cap. Thanks for sharing this story with us.

Sixbears said...

I remember the show as a kid. Always wanted to run off into the wilderness and live like an Indian.

Coffee by the woodstove this morning.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Love the stories of the old wilderness tamers. I should have been born 200 years earlier. My type of life (I thought so when I was younger).

JO said...

Cool story. I knew some of it but not all. Thanks for sharing with us.

I'll have a refill thank you.

Bob Mc said...

If you want to know more about life in those times, read "Forty Four Years Of The Life Of A Hunter" by Meshach Browning. An American classic.

Judy said...

If you ever get the chance to visit Boone's home outside of Defiance, Mo, do it. The house is beautiful, each fireplace is different. Daniel Boone was also an accomplished woodworker.

I'll bring some honey dew as cantaloupe isn't one of my favorites.

HermitJim said...

Hey Phyllis...
It would have been nice to have his own diary to follow, but not being able to read was pretty common back then.

Thanks for the visit this morning!


Hey China...
We sure haqd some great heroes growing up, didn't we?

Didn't matter if most of what we knew was made up, at least we knew about them!

Thanks, buddy, for stopping in today!


Hey Beatrice...
You are probably thinking of Crockett! Easy to get the two confused sometimes.

Disney made the Davy Crockett theme song where it stuck in your mind!

Thanks for coming by this morning!


Hey Linda...
So many of our early heroes seemed larger than life!

Shame that we don't have that today!

Thanks for coming over!


Hey Sixbears...
I think a lot of us as kids wanted to do that!

I still do at times!

Thanks, my friend, for coming by today!


Hey Dizzy...
Just think of well your beard would have fit in back then!

Of course, it ain't bad now!

Thanks for coming by this morning!


Hey JoJo...
So many times we only get part of the story!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming over this morning!


HermitJim said...

Hey Bob...
Thanks for the suggestion of the book! I'll see if I can find it.

Thanks also for coming over today!


Hey Judy...
I'll have to see if I can find some pictures of his house to hold me over 'till I can visit in person!

So many of the old timers were very good wood workers. Guess you had to be back then.

Thanks, my long time friend, for coming over today!