[Sidenote: =Boone born in Pennsylvania=]
=105. A Famous Frontier Hero.= Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania
in 1735. He was only three years younger than Washington. While yet a
boy he loved the woods, and often spent days deep in the forest with no
companion but his rifle and dog.
[Sidenote: =Moved to the Yadkin=]
Boone's parents moved to North Carolina, and settled on the Yadkin
River. There he married at the early age of twenty, and, pioneer-like,
moved farther into the forest, where people were scarcer and game more
plentiful. He built a log cabin for his bride, and made a "clearing"
for raising corn and vegetables. But his trusty rifle furnished their
table with all kinds of wild meat, such as bear, deer, squirrel, and
turkey.
[Sidenote: =Crossed the mountains in 1760=]
In 1760 Boone with a friend crossed the mountains to the Watauga in
east Tennessee, on a hunting expedition, where he killed a bear, and
cut the date of the event on a beech tree, which still stands on
Boone's Creek in east Tennessee.
[Illustration: BOONE AND HIS BEAR TREE]
[Sidenote: =News from across the Cumberland=]
One of Boone's hunter friends came back from a journey across the
Cumberland Mountains and told of the beauty of the land beyond--its
hills and valleys, its forests and canebrakes, full of game. Boone was
anxious to go. Too many people were settling near him. But Kentucky was
a dangerous country, even if beautiful. It was called "No-man's-land,"
because not even Indians lived there, and also the "dark and bloody
ground," because the tribes from the north and from the south met
there in deadly conflict.
[Sidenote: =Boone and companions go to Kentucky=]
=106. Boone Goes to the Land of Canebrakes and Blue Grass.= While the
people along the seacoast were disputing with the king, Boone and five
companions, after climbing over mountains, fording rivers, and making
their way through pathless forests, reached Kentucky, the land of salt
springs, canebrakes, and blue grass.
[Sidenote: =Danger from animals=]
They built a log camp and spent several months enjoying the wild life
so dear to the hunter. But it was full of danger. Sometimes it was a
battle with a father and a mother bear fighting for their little ones.
The sneaking panther or the lurking wildcat threatened their lives. Now
and then, hundreds of buffaloes came rushing through the canebrakes.
[Sidenote: =Danger from Indians ever present=]
But danger from the Indians was present every moment. Day and night,
sleeping in their camp or tramping through the woods, the hunters had
to be ready for the death grapple. One day Boone and a companion named
Stewart were off their guard. The Indians rushed upon them and captured
them.
[Sidenote: =Captured but escapes=]
Boone and his companion understood the ways of the Indians, and won
their confidence. One night, as the savages slept around the camp fire,
Boone arose and quietly awoke Stewart. They stole silently from the
camp and hastened by night and day back to their old camp, only to find
it destroyed and their comrades gone.
[Sidenote: =News from the old home=]
One day Daniel Boone saw his brother coming through the woods. What a
happy meeting five hundred miles from home! The brother brought good
news from kindred and friends.
[Sidenote: =His brother returns home for supplies=]
Stewart was shot by the Indians, but Boone and his brother remained all
winter in Kentucky. Powder, lead, and salt were growing scarce. What
should be done? Boone's brother returned home for supplies, but Daniel
remained without even a dog for a companion. He very seldom slept twice
in the same place for fear of the Indians.
[Illustration: BOONE FIGHTING OVER THE BODY OF HIS SON]
He wandered to the banks of the Ohio, and was charmed with all he saw.
He then decided that some day he would make Kentucky his home.
[Sidenote: =Brings supplies and both go home=]
Boone's brother returned in the spring, bringing supplies on two pack
horses. After further explorations the two brothers returned to their
home on the Yadkin and told their neighbors of the wonders of the new
land.
[Sidenote: =An Indian attack=]
In the fall of 1773 several families, with cattle and horses, bade
farewell to their friends and started for Kentucky, a "second
Paradise," as Boone called it. Before they reached the new land Indians
fell upon them and killed six. Among the killed was Boone's eldest son.
The party returned for a time to a settlement in Virginia.
[Sidenote: =Making the "Wilderness Road"=]
Richard Henderson, a rich planter, claimed a great tract of land
in Kentucky, and put Boone at the head of thirty brave men to cut
and blaze a road from the Holston River over the mountains, through
Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River. The result was the famous
"Wilderness Road," the first road across the mountains, and over which
hundreds of pack horses and thousands of settlers made their way.
[Illustration: FORT BOONESBORO IN WINTER
_After the plan by Colonel Henderson in Collins' "Historical
Collections of Kentucky"_]
[Sidenote: =Fort Boonesboro=]
When the road was finished to the banks of the Kentucky River, Daniel
Boone built Fort Boonesboro. The fort was about two hundred sixty feet
long, and one hundred fifty feet wide. At each corner of it stood a
two-story blockhouse with loopholes, through which the settlers could
shoot at Indians. Cabins with loopholes were built along the sides of
the fort. Between the cabins a high fence was made by sinking log posts
into the ground. Two heavy gates were built on opposite sides of the
fort. Every night the horses and cattle were driven inside the fort.
[Sidenote: =His family in the "second Paradise"=]
=107. Boone Takes His Family to Kentucky.= When the fort was finished
Boone brought his family, and several others, over the mountains to his
"second Paradise." Other settlers came, and Boonesboro began to grow.
Some of the bolder settlers built cabins outside of the fort, where
they cut away and burned the trees to raise corn and vegetables.
[Sidenote: =Three girl prisoners=]
To the Indian all this seemed to threaten his hunting ground. The red
men were anxious, therefore, to kill and scalp these brave pioneers.
One day Boone's daughter and two girl friends were out late in a boat
near the shore opposite the fort when the Indians suddenly seized the
girls and hastened away with them. The people heard their screams for
help, but too late to risk crossing the river.
[Illustration: BOONE AND HIS MEN TRAILING THE INDIANS]
[Sidenote: =The chase and the capture=]
What sorrow in the fort that night! Had the Indians scalped the girls,
or were they hastening to cross the Ohio with them? The next day Boone
with eight men seized their guns, found the Indian trail, and marched
with all speed. What if the Indians should see the white men first! On
the second day Boone's party came upon the Indians building a fire, and
fired before they were seen. Two of the Indians fell, and the others
ran away, leaving the girls behind, unharmed, but badly frightened.
[Sidenote: =Kentucky in the War of the Revolution=]
The War of the Revolution was already raging east of the mountains,
and the Indians were taking the side of the British. In April, 1777,
a small army of Indians crossed the Ohio and attacked Boonesboro. The
little fort made a bold fight. The Indians retreated, but returned on
the Fourth of July in large numbers, to destroy the fort and scalp the
settlers. For two days and nights the battle went on. The fierce war
cry of the Indians filled the woods around the fort. The white men
took deadly aim. The women aided by melting lead into bullets. The
Indians again failed, and finally retreated.
[Sidenote: =The prize prisoner=]
While making salt at the "Blue Licks," Boone and twenty-seven of his
men were captured by the Indians and marched all the way to Detroit,
the headquarters of the British army in the Northwest. The British
offered the Indians five hundred dollars for Boone, but the savages
were too proud of their great prisoner, and marched him back to their
towns in what is now Ohio.
[Sidenote: =Adopted by an Indian family=]
Here he was adopted by an Indian chief. They plucked out all of Boone's
hair except a "scalp lock," which they ornamented with feathers. They
painted and dressed him like an Indian. His new parents were quite
proud of their son. Sometimes he went hunting alone, but the Indians
counted his bullets and measured his powder. But Boone was too shrewd
for them. He cut the bullets in two, and used half charges of powder.
[Sidenote: =Steals away to Boonesboro=]
One day he saw four hundred fifty painted warriors getting ready to
march against Boonesboro. He went hunting that day, but he did not come
back. What excitement in that Indian town! Soon the woods were full of
Indians hunting for Boone. In five days--with but one meal--he reached
Boonesboro.
All hands fell to repairing the fort. The horses, cattle, and
provisions were brought inside the fort, and water was brought from the
river.
The Indians came, and Boone's Indian "father" called on him to
surrender. Boone asked for two days to think about it, but he used this
time in getting ready to fight. At the end of the two days Boone told
him that his men would fight to the last.
[Sidenote: =An Indian trick spoiled=]
The Indians then proposed that twelve from each side meet to make a
treaty of peace. Boone took his strongest men. While parleying, each
Indian suddenly seized a white man. The white men broke away, and ran
for the fort. Boone's riflemen were ready, and poured a hot fire into
the Indians.
[Sidenote: =The Indians cannot capture Boone's fort=]
The Indians climbed into trees to shoot down into the fort. They tried
to set the fort on fire, but failed. They then tried to dig a tunnel
under the fort, but failed in that also.
[Illustration: DANIEL BOONE
_From a portrait made in 1819 when Boone was 85 years old, painted by
Chester Harding, and now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, Boston, Massachusetts_]
After nine days of failure, and after losing many warriors, the Indians
gave up the fight and recrossed the Ohio. Although the settlers had to
keep a daily watch for Indians, and had to fight them in other parts of
Kentucky, they never attacked Boonesboro again.
[Sidenote: =Boone's reason for again moving west=]
During the Revolutionary War other brave men came as pioneers into
Kentucky, and built forts, and defended their settlements against the
Indians. As the settlements grew thicker, game grew scarcer. Boone
resolved once more to move farther west. When asked why, he replied:
"Too much crowded. I want more elbow room."
[Sidenote: =Moves to Missouri=]
At the age of sixty, while Washington was still president, and after he
had seen Kentucky become a state, Daniel Boone and his faithful wife
made the long journey to the region beyond the Mississippi, into what
is now Missouri. There he lived and hunted. He saw this region pass
from Spain to France, and from France to the United States (1803). He
was still a hunter at eighty-two, and saw Missouri preparing to enter
the Union as the twenty-fourth state.
[Sidenote: =Died in 1820=]
He died in 1820 at the age of eighty-six. Years afterward, remembering
the noble deeds of the great pioneer, Kentucky brought his body to the
capital city and buried it with great honors.
[Sidenote: =The Louisiana country and the French=]
=108. Life in the Mississippi Valley.= When Boone led his brave men
into Kentucky, white men had been living for years in the Mississippi
Valley, farther west. These were the French of Louisiana, as they
called their country. Their chief settlement was St. Louis.
These people came at first to dig lead from the old Indian mines of
southern Missouri and to trade for furs. They were a quiet people who
knew little and cared less about the rest of the world. They did not
work hard, and they loved good times. A traveler who visited them says
they were "the happiest people on the globe."