Colonel Boone receives a large grant of land from the Spanish
Government of Upper Louisiana--He subsequently loses it by
neglecting to secure the formal title--His law suits in his
new home--Character of the people--Sketch of the history of
Missouri--Colonel Boone's hunting--He pays his debts by the
sale of furs--Hunting excursions continued--In danger from the
Indians--Taken sick in his hunting camp--His relatives settled in
his neighborhood--Colonel Boone applies to Congress to recover his
land--The Legislature of Kentucky supports his claim--Death of
Mrs. Boone--Results of the application to Congress--He receives
one-eleventh part of his just claim--He ceases to hunt--Occupations
of his declining years--Mr. Harding paints his portrait.
In consideration of his official services as Syndic, ten thousand
arpents[58] of excellent land were given to Colonel Boone by the
Government. Under the special law, in order to make his title good, he
should have obtained a confirmation of his grant from the immediate
representative of the Crown, then residing in New Orleans. But his
friend, the Commandant at St. Louis, undertook to dispense with his
residence on the land which was another condition to a sound title, and
Boone probably supposed that "all would be right" without attending to
any of the formalities, and neglected to take the necessary steps for
holding his land securely.
It is probable that he foresaw that Missouri would soon become a part of
the United States, and expected justice from that quarter. But in this
he was disappointed, for when that event took place, the commissioners
of the United States appointed to decide on confirmed claims felt
constrained by their instructions and rejected Colonel Boone's claims
for want of legal formalities.
Thus was the noble pioneer a second time deprived of the recompense
of his inestimable services by his inattention to the precautions
necessary for securing his rights. This second misfortune came upon
him some time after the period of which we are now writing.
Meantime Colonel Boone found his residence in Missouri agreeable, and in
every respect congenial to his habits and tastes. His duties as Syndic
were light; and he was allowed ample time for the cultivation of his
land, and for occasional tours of hunting, in which he so greatly
delighted. Trapping beaver was another of his favorite pursuits, and
in this new country he found abundance of this as well as other species
of game.
A greater part of the people of Missouri were emigrants from the
United States, pioneers of the West, who had already resisted Indian
aggressions, and were welcomed by the French and Spanish settlers as
a clear accession to their military strength,
A brief notice of the history of this State, showing how the different
kinds of population came there, will be not inappropriate in this place.
Though the French were the first settlers, and for a long time the
principal inhabitants of Missouri, yet a very small portion of her
present population is of that descent. A fort was built by that people
as early as 1719, near the site of the present capital, called Fort
Orleans, and its lead mines worked to some extent the next year. St.
Genevieve, the oldest town in the State, was settled in 1755, and St.
Louis in 1764. At the treaty of 1763 it was assigned, with all the
territory west of the Mississippi, to Spain. "In 1780, St. Louis was
besieged and attacked by a body of British troops and Indians, fifteen
hundred and forty strong." During the siege, sixty of the French were
killed. The siege was raised by Colonel George Rogers Clark, who came
with five hundred men to the relief of the place. At the close of the
American Revolution, the territory west of the Mississippi remained with
Spain till it was ceded to France, in 1801. In 1803, at the purchase of
Louisiana, it came into the possession of the United States, and formed
part of the territory of Louisiana, until the formation of the State
of that name in 1812, when the remainder of the territory was named
Missouri, from which (after a stormy debate in Congress as to the
admission of slavery) was separated the present State of Missouri in
1721.[59]
The office of Syndic, to which Colonel Boone had been appointed, is
similar to that of justice of the peace under our own government: but it
is more extensive, as combining military with civil powers. Its exercise
in Colonel Boone's district did not by any means occupy the whole of
his time and attention. On the contrary, he found sufficient time for
hunting in the winter months--the regular hunting season. At first he
was not very successful in obtaining valuable furs; but after two or
three seasons, he was able to secure a sufficient quantity to enable
him, by the proceeds of their sale, to discharge some outstanding debts
in Kentucky; and he made a journey thither for that purpose. When he had
seen each creditor, and paid him all he demanded, he returned home to
Missouri, and on his arrival he had but half a dollar remaining. "To his
family," says Mr. Peck, "and a circle of friends who had called to see
him, he said, 'Now I am ready and willing to die. I am relieved from a
burden that has long oppressed me. I have paid all my debts, and no one
will say, when I am gone, 'Boone was a dishonest man.' I am perfectly
willing to die.'"[60]
Boone still continued his hunting excursions, attended sometimes by some
friend: but most frequently by a black servant boy. On one of these
occasions these two had to resist an attack of Osage Indians, whom they
speedily put to flight. At another time, when he was entirely alone, a
large encampment of Indians made its appearance in his neighborhood;
and he was compelled to secrete himself for twenty days in his camp,
cooking his food only in the middle of the night, so that the smoke of
his fire would not be seen. At the end of this long period of inaction
the Indians went off.
At another time, while in his hunting camp, with only a negro boy for
his attendant, he fell sick and lay a long time unable to go out. When
sufficiently recovered to walk out, he pointed out to the boy a place
where he wished to be buried if he should die in camp, and also gave
the boy very exact directions about his burial, and the disposal of his
rifle, blankets and peltry.[61]
Among the relations of Colonel Boone, who were settled in his
neighborhood, were Daniel Morgan Boone, his eldest son then living, who
had gone out before his father; Nattra, with his wife, who had followed
in 1800; and Flanders Callaway, his son-in-law, who had come out about
the time that Missouri, then Upper Louisiana, became a part of the
United States territory.[62]
We have already stated that the land granted to Colonel Boone, in
consideration of his performing the duties of Syndic, was lost by his
omission to comply with the legal formalities necessary to secure his
title.
In addition to the ten thousand arpents of land thus lost, he had been
entitled as a citizen to one thousand arpents of land according to the
usage in other cases; but he appears not to have complied with the
condition of actual residence on this land, and it was lost in
consequence.
In 1812, Colonel Boone sent a petition to Congress, praying for a
confirmation of his original claims. In order to give greater weight
to his application, he presented a memorial to the General Assembly of
Kentucky, on the thirteenth of January, 1812, soliciting the aid of that
body in obtaining from Congress the confirmation of his claims.
The Legislature, by a unanimous vote, passed the following preamble and
resolutions.
"The Legislature of Kentucky, taking into view the many eminent services
rendered by Col. Boone, in exploring and settling the western country,
from which great advantages have resulted, not only to this State, but
to his country in general; and that from circumstances over which he had
no control, he is now reduced to poverty, not having, so far as appears,
an acre of land out of the vast territory he has been a great instrument
in peopling; believing, also, that it is as unjust as it is impolitic,
that useful enterprise and eminent services should go unrewarded by a
government where merit confers the only distinction; and having
sufficient reason to believe that a grant of ten thousand acres of land,
which he claims in Upper Louisiana, would have been confirmed by the
Spanish government, had not said territory passed, by cession, into the
hands of the general government: wherefore.
"Resolved, by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of
Kentucky,--That our Senators in Congress be requested to make use of
their exertions to procure a grant of land in said territory to said
Boone, either the ten thousand acres to which he appears to have an
equitable claim, from the grounds set forth to this Legislature, by way
of confirmation, or to such quantity in such place as shall be deemed
most advisable, by way of donation."
Notwithstanding this action of the Legislature of Kentucky, Colonel
Boone's appeal, like many other just and reasonable claims presented to
Congress, was neglected for some time. During this period of anxious
suspense, Mrs. Boone, the faithful and affectionate wife of the
venerable pioneer, who had shared his toils and anxieties, and cheered
his home for so many years, was taken from his side. She died in March,
1813, at the age of seventy-six. The venerable pioneer was now to miss
her cheerful companionship for the remainder of his life; and to a man
of his affectionate disposition this must have been a severe privation.
Colonel Boone's memorial to Congress received the earnest and active
support of Judge Coburn, Joseph Vance, Judge Burnett, and other
distinguished men belonging to the Western country. But it was not till
the 24th of December, 1813, that the Committee on Public Lands made a
report on the subject.
The report certainly is a very inconsistent one, as it fully admits the
justice of his claim to eleven thousand arpents of land, and recommends
Congress to give him the miserable pittance of one thousand arpents, to
which he was entitled in common with all the other emigrants to Upper
Louisiana! The act for the confirmation of the title passed on the 10th
of February, 1814.
For ten years before his decease, Colonel Boone gave up his favorite
pursuit of hunting. The infirmities of age rendered it imprudent for him
to venture alone in the woods.
The closing years of Colonel Boone's life were passed in a manner
entirely characteristic of the man. He appears to have considered love
to mankind, reverence to the Supreme Being, delight in his works and
constant usefulness, as the legitimate ends of life. After the decease
of Mrs. Boone, he divided his time among the different members of his
family, making his home with his eldest daughter, Mrs. Callaway,
visiting his other children, and especially his youngest son, Major
Nathan Boone, for longer or shorter periods, according to his
inclination and convenience. He was greatly beloved by all his
descendants, some of whom were of the fifth generation; and he took
great delight in their society.
"His time at home," says Mr. Peck, "was usually occupied in some useful
manner. He made powder-horns for his grandchildren, neighbors, and
friends, many of which were carved and ornamented with much taste. He
repaired rifles, and performed various descriptions of handicraft with
neatness and finish." Making powder-horns--repairing rifles--employments
in pleasing unison with old pursuits, and by the associations thus
raised in his mind, always recalling the pleasures of the chase, the
stilly whispering hum of the pines, the fragrance of wild flowers, and
the deep solitude of the primeval forest.
In the summer of 1820, Chester Harding, who of American artists is one
of the most celebrated for the accuracy of his likenesses, paid a visit
to Colonel Boone for the purpose of taking his portrait. The Colonel was
quite feeble, and had to be supported by a friend, the Rev. J.E. Welsh,
while sitting to the artist.[63]
This portrait is the original from which most of the engravings of Boone
have been executed. It represents him in his hunting-dress, with his
large hunting-knife in his belt. The face is very thin and pale, and
the hair perfectly white; the eyes of a bright blue color, and the
expression of the countenance mild and pleasing.
[Footnote 58: An arpent of land is eighty-five-hundredths of an acre.]
[Footnote 59: Lippincott's Gazetteer.]
[Footnote 60: The owners of the money of which he was robbed on his
journey to Virginia, as already related, had voluntarily relinquished
all claims on him. This was a simple act of justice.]
[Footnote 61: Peck.]
[Footnote 62: Ibid.]
[Footnote 63: Peck. Life of Boone.]