Social Disturbances in North Carolina--Eve of the American
Revolution--Boone's Excursions to the West--Inscription on a
Tree--Employed by Henderson and Company--The "Regulators" of North
Carolina--Dispersed by Governor Tryon--John Finley--Resolution to
go West.
The early part of Daniel Boone's married life was uneventful, and the
years glided by without bringing any incident, event or experience to
him worthy the pen of the historian. He toiled faithfully to support
his growing family, and spent a goodly portion of his time in the
woods, with his rifle and dog, sometimes camping on the bank of the
lonely Yadkin, or floating down its smooth waters in the stillness of
the delightful afternoon, or through the solemn quiet of the night,
when nothing but the stars were to be seen twinkling overhead.
But Daniel Boone was living in stirring times, and there were signs
in the political heavens of tremendous changes approaching. There was
war between England and France; there was strife along the frontier,
where the Indian fought fiercely against the advancing army of
civilization, and the spirit of resistance to the tyranny of the mother
country was growing rapidly among the sturdy colonists. North Carolina
began, through her representatives in legislature, those measures of
opposition to the authority of Great Britain, which forecast the active
part the Old Pine Tree State was to take in the revolutionary struggle
for liberty and independence.
During the few years that followed there was constant quarreling
between the royal governor and the legislators, and it assumed such
proportions that the State was kept in continual ferment. This unrest
and disturbance were anything but pleasing to Boone, who saw the
country settling rapidly around him, and who began to look toward
the West with the longing which comes over the bird when it gazes
yearningly out from the bars of its cage at the green fields, cool
woods, and enchanting landscapes in which its companions are singing
and reveling with delight.
Boone took long hunting excursions toward the West, though nothing
is known with exact certainty as to the date when he began them.
The Cherokee war which had caused much trouble along the Carolina
frontier was ended, and he and others must have turned their thoughts
many a time to the boundless forests which stretched for hundreds and
thousands of miles towards the setting sun, in which roamed countless
multitudes of wild animals and still wilder beings, who were ready to
dispute every foot of advance made by the white settlers.
Such a vast field could not but possess an irresistible attraction to a
consummate hunter like Boone, and the glimpses which the North Carolina
woods gave of the possibilities awaiting him, and the growth of empire
in the West, were sure to produce the result that came when he had been
married some fifteen or more years and was in the prime of life.
Previous to this date, the well known abundance of game in Tennessee
led many hunters to make incursions into the territory. They sometimes
formed large companies, uniting for the prospect of gain and greater
protection against the ever-present danger from Indians.
It is mentioned by good authority, that among the parties thus
venturing over the Carolina border into the wilderness, was one at the
head of which was "Daniel Boone from the Yadkin, in North Carolina, who
traveled with them as low as the place where Abingdon now stands, and
there left them."
Some years ago the following description could be deciphered upon an
old beech-tree standing between Jonesboro and Blountsville:
D. BOON
CILLED A. BAR ON
IN THE TREE
YEAR 1760.
This inscription is generally considered as proof that Boone made
hunting excursions to that region at that early date, though the
evidence can hardly be accepted as positive on the point.
It was scarcely a year after the date named, however, that Boone,
who was still living on the Yadkin, entered the same section of the
country, having been sent thither by Henderson & Company for the
purposes of exploration. He was accompanied by Samuel Callaway, a
relative, and the ancestor of many of the Callaways of Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Missouri. The latter was at the side of Boone when,
approaching a spur of the Cumberland mountains, upon whose slopes
they saw multitudes of bisons grazing, the great pioneer paused, and
surveying the scene for a moment, exclaimed, with kindling eyes:
"I am richer than He who owned the cattle on a thousand hills, for I
own the wild beasts of a thousand valleys."
The sight was indeed one which might have stirred the heart of a hunter
who could grasp the possibilities of the future of those favored
regions.
Daniel Boone may be considered as having undergone a preliminary
training from his earliest boyhood for the work which has identified
his name indissolubly with the history of Kentucky. He was what may be
called a born pioneer, but there were causes at work in North Carolina
which led to his departure for the Kentucky wilderness, of which the
general reader is apt to lose sight in studying his character.
The approach of the American Revolution in the former State, as in
many others, was marked by social disturbances frequently amounting
to anarchy. There were many Scotch traders, who had accumulated
considerable wealth without having gone through the labor and perils
which the natives underwent in providing for their families.
These foreigners adopted an expensive and showy style of living,
altogether out of keeping with the severe simplicity that marked that
of the colonists.
Nothing was more natural than that this assumption of superiority in
the way of social position should roil and excite resentment among
those less favored by fortune.
They were not alone in this offensive course: the officers and agents
of the Royal Government were equally ostentatious in display and manner
of living, and the exasperating snobbishness spread to the magistrates,
lawyers, clerks of court, and tax gatherers, who demanded exorbitant
fees for their services. The clergymen of the Established Church became
oppressive in their exactions, and, as we have stated, society itself
was threatened with revolution before the rattle of musketry at Bunker
Hill "was heard around the world."
Petitions were sent to the Legislature for relief by the suffering
citizens, who were in much the same distressing situation in which
Ireland has been many a time since. These prayers were treated with
indifference or open contempt, for there are none more reckless and
blind than those who are traveling close to the edge of the political
volcano rumbling at their feet.
There is a limit beyond which it is always dangerous to tempt the
endurance of a people, who now began meeting together, and formed
themselves into associations for correcting the evils around them.
It was these people who received the name of "Regulators," and who
helped to increase the disturbances in that particular section of the
country. They deliberately decided "to pay only such taxes as were
agreeable to law, and applied to the purpose therein named, and to pay
no officer more than his legal fees."
The history of the State records many acts of violence which were
inevitable from this condition of affairs. The final collision between
the "Regulators" and a strong force of the royal governor Tryon at
Alamanance, in which the rebels were badly defeated, occurred in May,
1771, but the disturbances continued with more or less violence until
the breaking out of the Revolution, when the mills of God ground so
"exceeding fine," that the grievances were removed forever.
It was in such a community as this that Daniel Boone lived, and he
and his family were sufferers. What more natural than that he should
cast his eyes longingly toward the West, where, though there might be
wild beasts and wild men, he and his loved ones could be free from the
exasperating annoyances which were all around them?
The perils from Indians were much less alarming to them than were those
of the tax-gatherer. Indeed, in all probability, it lent an additional
attractiveness to the vast expanse of virgin wilderness, with its
splashing streams, its rich soil, its abundance of game and all that
is so enchanting to the real sportsman, who finds an additional charm
in the knowledge that the pleasure upon which he proposes to enter is
spiced with personal danger.
One day a visitor dropped in upon Boone. He was John Finley, who led a
party of hunters to the region adjoining the Louisa River in Kentucky
in the winter of 1767, where they spent the season in hunting and
trapping. The hunter called upon Boone to tell him about that land in
which he knew his friend was so much interested.
We can imagine the young man, with his rifle suspended on the
deer-prongs over the fire, with his wife busy about her household
duties and his children at play, sitting in his cabin and listening to
the glowing narrative of one who knew whereof he was speaking.
Finley told him of the innumerable game, the deer and bison, the
myriads of wild turkeys, and everything so highly prized by the
sportsman; he pictured the vast stretches of forest in which the hunter
could wander for hours and days without striking a clearing; of the
numerous streams, some large, some small, and all lovely to the eye,
and it needed no very far-seeing vision to forecast the magnificent
future which lay before this highly favored region.
It must have been a winsome picture drawn by Finley--aided as it was by
the repelling coloring of the scene of his actual surroundings--made
so hateful by the oppressive agents of the foreign government which
claimed the colonies as her own.
When Finley was through, and he had answered all of his friend's
questions, and told him of his many hunting adventures in Kentucky,
Boone announced that he would go with him when he should make his next
visit. He had already been drawn strongly toward the region, and he
wished to see with his own eyes the favored land, before removing his
family thither.
The acquisition of such a person was so desirable, that he was sure
to be appreciated by those who knew him best, and whether appointed
to that position or not, his own matchless resources and natural
powers were certain to fix upon him as the leader of the adventurous
characters who had decided to explore the dangerous wilderness of
Kentucky.