Daniel Boone & Family
Portrait of Daniel Boone by Alonzo Chappel
Squire Boone, a skilled weaver and blacksmith, moved his family to the Oley Valley in 1730, purchasing 250 acres of land and building a one-room log cabin and spring house. There, Daniel Boone was born in 1734 and lived until moving to North Carolina in 1750.
Today Daniel Boone's indelible image in the minds of Americans is a mixture of fact and legend. But this mingling of the real and the fictional is not solely a result of the passage of time or of the liberties taken in movies and television; it occurred even while Boone was alive. In biographies, literature, and art, the frontiersman was subject to the whims and personal agendas of writers and artists, rendering it difficult to separate the man from the myth.
The myth, however, says much about Americans, in both the past and present, as it embodies the cherished American characteristics of rugged individualism and informality and the motif of the quest. These themes are prevalent in popular narratives and images of Boone that have appeared throughout the years.
Boone garnered international fame at age fifty, when his "autobiography" appeared in John Filson's The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke . . . to Which is Added an Appendix, Containing the Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon in 1784. The book sold well domestically and was hugely popular in Europe. The next year, John Trumbull of Connecticut published a shortened version of Filson's book that was widely read in America.
Boone considered his nephew Daniel Bryan's 1813 book-length poem, The Mountain Muse, a disaster of inaccuracy. The English romantic poet Lord Byron portrayed the frontiersman as an example of Rousseau's "natural man" in seven stanzas of the epic poem Don Juan in 1822. James Fenimore Cooper probably modeled his fictional backwoods hero Natty Bumppo on Boone; he certainly based some of the character's adventures on episodes and exploits in Boone's life. Other biographers variously depicted Boone as an instrument of God's plan for America, a rabid Indian hater, or the ideal Christian, depending on their own perspectives.
Daniel Boone's looks and mode of dress were brought to the public consciousness by Chester Harding's famous full-length portrait. When the painting deteriorated, the artist cut out the head and pasted it onto another background, so his original depiction of Boone's clothing was lost. Fortunately, James Otto Lewis had made an engraving based on Harding's portrait accurately representing the fringed hunting shirt, leggings, and moccasins Boone favored.
But what about the hat? Lewis Correctly shows Boone with a beaver hat, not a coonskin cap. Boone himself considered that style of headwear uncivilized. The misconception began when an actor who had helped Lewis sell the engravings was hired for a minstrel show called "The Hunters of Kentucky." Unable to find a beaver hat, he substituted a coonskin cap, and a myth was born.
Boone's presence in popular culture continued throughout the twentieth century. Daniel C. Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America, considered calling the group the Sons of Daniel Boone. The frontier hero was featured in films, radio programs, and comic strips.
The Boone myth reached a media peak in the 1960's with the NBC television adventure series Daniel Boone (1964 - 1970), Fess Parker, who starred as Davy Crockett in movies, played Boone. Although the theme song for the Boone show describes him as "the rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man the frontier ever knew," these characteristics are more appropriately associated with Davy Crockett than with frontiersman Daniel Boone.
Suggested Reading
Today Daniel Boone's indelible image in the minds of Americans is a mixture of fact and legend. But this mingling of the real and the fictional is not solely a result of the passage of time or of the liberties taken in movies and television; it occurred even while Boone was alive. In biographies, literature, and art, the frontiersman was subject to the whims and personal agendas of writers and artists, rendering it difficult to separate the man from the myth.
The myth, however, says much about Americans, in both the past and present, as it embodies the cherished American characteristics of rugged individualism and informality and the motif of the quest. These themes are prevalent in popular narratives and images of Boone that have appeared throughout the years.
Boone garnered international fame at age fifty, when his "autobiography" appeared in John Filson's The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke . . . to Which is Added an Appendix, Containing the Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon in 1784. The book sold well domestically and was hugely popular in Europe. The next year, John Trumbull of Connecticut published a shortened version of Filson's book that was widely read in America.
Boone considered his nephew Daniel Bryan's 1813 book-length poem, The Mountain Muse, a disaster of inaccuracy. The English romantic poet Lord Byron portrayed the frontiersman as an example of Rousseau's "natural man" in seven stanzas of the epic poem Don Juan in 1822. James Fenimore Cooper probably modeled his fictional backwoods hero Natty Bumppo on Boone; he certainly based some of the character's adventures on episodes and exploits in Boone's life. Other biographers variously depicted Boone as an instrument of God's plan for America, a rabid Indian hater, or the ideal Christian, depending on their own perspectives.
Daniel Boone's looks and mode of dress were brought to the public consciousness by Chester Harding's famous full-length portrait. When the painting deteriorated, the artist cut out the head and pasted it onto another background, so his original depiction of Boone's clothing was lost. Fortunately, James Otto Lewis had made an engraving based on Harding's portrait accurately representing the fringed hunting shirt, leggings, and moccasins Boone favored.
But what about the hat? Lewis Correctly shows Boone with a beaver hat, not a coonskin cap. Boone himself considered that style of headwear uncivilized. The misconception began when an actor who had helped Lewis sell the engravings was hired for a minstrel show called "The Hunters of Kentucky." Unable to find a beaver hat, he substituted a coonskin cap, and a myth was born.
Boone's presence in popular culture continued throughout the twentieth century. Daniel C. Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America, considered calling the group the Sons of Daniel Boone. The frontier hero was featured in films, radio programs, and comic strips.
The Boone myth reached a media peak in the 1960's with the NBC television adventure series Daniel Boone (1964 - 1970), Fess Parker, who starred as Davy Crockett in movies, played Boone. Although the theme song for the Boone show describes him as "the rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man the frontier ever knew," these characteristics are more appropriately associated with Davy Crockett than with frontiersman Daniel Boone.
Suggested Reading
| Chronology of Boone's Life | |
|---|---|
| 1734 | Daniel Boone is born on November 2 in Exeter Township, Berks County, PA |
| 1744 | Tends family's cattle; often wanders through the woods |
| 1747 | Boone is given his first gun |
| 1748 | Squire Boone is expelled from the Exeter Friends Meeting |
| 1750 | Boone family leaves Pennsylvania |
| 1755 | Family settles in North Carolina on the Yadkin River |
| 1755 | Boone serves in Braddock's army near Pittsburgh during the French and Indian War |
| 1756 | Boone marries Rebecca Bryan on August 14 |
| 1759 | Cherokee raids force the Boone family out of North Carolina. They move to Culpepper County, Virginia |
| 1760 | During a winter hunt, Boone crosses the Blue Ridge for the first time |
| 1761 | Boone participates in campaigns against the Cherokee |
| 1762 | Boone family returns to North Carolina |
| 1765 | Squire Boone dies; Boone explores Florida and rejects moving there |
| 1766 | Boone family moves up the Yadkin River |
| 1769 | Boone leaves for a long hunt on May 1 and is captured by the Shawnee on December 22 |
| 1771 | Boone returns home to North Carolina and plans to move to Kentucky |
| 1773 | Boone attempts to settle Kentucky; his son James is killed at the Cumberland Gap during an indian attack on October 9, forcing the settlers back to North Carolina |
| 1774 | Boone is sent by Virginia authorities to warn a Kentucky survey crew of an impending war with the Shawnee |
| 1775 | For the Transylvania Company, Boone leads a party to forge the Wilderness Road to Kentucky in March; Boone founds Boonesborough, Kentucky in May, and brings his family to Kentucky in September |
| 1776 | Boone leads a rescue of his daughter Jemima and Fanny and Betsy Callaway from the Shawnee in July |
| 1777 | Boone is wounded in the ankle during a Shawnee attack on Boonesborough in April |
| 1778 | Boone is captured by the Shawnee at Lower Blue Licks on February 8, adopted by Shawnee Chief Blackfish in March and escapes on June 16; Boone helps defend Boonesborough settlement against the Shawnee at the Siege of Boonesborough September 7-18 |
| 1779 | Boone leads settlers from North Carolina to Kentucky in September, and establishes Boone Station on December 25 |
| 1781 | Boone is appointed Fayette County Coroner on April 7 and represents Fayette County in the Virginia legislature; Boone is captured and released by British Rangers; Boone returns to Exeter Township, PA to visit relatives |
| 1782 | Boone's son Israel is killed in the Battle of Blue Licks on August 19 |
| 1784 | John Filson's biography of Daniel Boone is published |
| 1786 | Boone suffers lawsuits of land claims and joins the Ohio campaign against the Shawnee in October |
| 1787 | Boone mediates a prisoner exchange between Americans and Shawnee in August and joins the Virginia assembly in October |
| 1788 | Boone returns to PA to visit relatives and later relocates to present-day West Virginia |
| 1791 | Boone serves in Virginia legislature |
| 1792 | Kentucky becomes the fifteenth state on June 1 |
| 1794 | Boone testifies in land claims cases |
| 1795 | Boone family moves to present-day Nicholas County, Kentucky |
| 1796 | The Wilderness Road opens on October 15 |
| 1798 | Boone refuses to testify in a lawsuit over his Kentucky land claims, the sheriff of Mason County issues a warrant for his arrest, and much of his land is put up for sale |
| 1799 | Boone family moves to Femme Osage, Missouri |
| 1800 | Boone receives appointments from the Spanish governor of Femme Osage territory |
| 1802 | Boone is briefly captured by the Osage during a spring hunt |
| 1804 | Boone's Spanish land holdings are removed; Daniel and Rebecca move to their son Nathan's farm |
| 1807 | Boone is appointed justice of Femme Osage township by Meriwether Lewis, governor of the Louisiana Territory |
| 1809 | Boone petitions congress to reinstate his Spanish land titles |
| 1812 | At age 78 Boone volunteers for the War of 1812 but is denied |
| 1813 | Rebecca Boone dies on March 18 |
| 1815 | Boone explores upper Missouri |
| 1817 | Boone goes on his last long hunt |
| 1820 | Daniel Boone dies on September 26 at age 86 |