Who Was Daniel Boone? Book

I just recently went to a program at my library where a speaker gave a presentation about Daniel Boon and said the 200th anniversary was approaching. So I thought it would be a good time to read this to commemorate the anniversary. I've been interested in Daniel Boone for most of my life because he's a figure with a history in my state of NC and there is an inn and restaurant and gardens and a play about him. I saw the play featuring his story several years ago.

I liked the boxes with the sayings on the back of the book, about who he was, a boy who hated being inside, a father who rescued his daughter, and the Great Pathfinder.

I was surprised the author wrote that buffalo roamed the area, because it's widely known now that buffalo don't exist in America; they're called bison.

She wrote that he loved this untamed land, that the frontier was wild and dangerous. He blazed trails by foot and horseback for others to follow. He was a great hunter and woodsman.

From the program, I'd learned that he was born in Pennsylvania and his family were Quakers. And that when he was a boy his job was to take care of the cows nearby. He spoke about the Quakers having a problem with 2 of Squire's children marrying outside the faith. And Daniel drove a supply wagon in the war. Also that he'd gone to Florida and wanted to live there. I had learned about his trip to Kentucky and getting his hides stolen and his friend John disappearing and then being found dead years later. I had heard the story of Daniel coming home to Rebecca at a party and he looked so different that she turned down his offer to dance with her, until he said she'd danced with him before and she realized it was him. That's such a sweet story!

I could not believe the crazy story about Daniel and one of his sisters purposely going out and trying to catch smallpox; it's insane! It was going around and his parents had them all stay inside so they wouldn't catch it, but he couldn't stand it and he knew if you got it then you would never get it again, so he and a sister went to a boy's house who had small pox and got in bed with him. They both caught it and they were lucky they survived. What a tale!

I didn't know where she got her details that he was scrappy and tough and if something bad happened, he always bounced back. What exactly bad happened and how did he bounce back?

I liked that he was fiercely independent, and even though he had friends he liked being alone and stayed a little apart from them.

I didn't know that he had interaction with Indians when he was a boy. I've never heard of that and wondered how true this was. The Delaware were friendly to Quakers and he hunted with braves. They taught him how to stay warm in the snow and how to cook fresh meat. How do you do this things??

Daniel grew his hair out and wore buckskin like the Indians. When he was around 13 his dad gave him a long rifle. When he was a teenager he could hunt and trap on his own. He would wake up at sunrise and stay gone for a few days. He even hunted by moonlight.

There was no hunting for sports, only food. Animal skins made clothing, blankets, and rugs for warmth in the winter. His family relied on his hunting skills. In that time people shared meat and skins with those who didn't have any, so others relied on him too. He was known throughout Pennsylvania for his sharpshooting skills. His dad also taught him to fix broken guns, shoe horses, repair tools, and wagons. He could build a house. He didn't have time for school and probably never went. His dad said to let the girls do the spelling and Dan could do the shooting.

One of his bother's wives taught him how to read and write. He loved reading and would bring books on hunting trips, and at night he even read by campfire.

I didn't care for the speculating lines that no sound escaped him in the woods and all the tacks were familiar, and he rarely got lost because it was like the trees helped him find his way. You are completely making that up and can't pass that along to impressionable children who might take that literally.

She also said Daniel was his mom's favorite child. He killed his first bear at age 15. And he guided his family on their move to Virginia. Once there they allowed him to go on a long hunt, a hunting trip that lasted all fall and part of winter. Daniel would go on a long hunt every year of his life.

In 1751 his family moved to the Yadkin Valley in NC. He sold enough skins for his family to buy almost 1,300 acres. Someone said he could shoot a tick off a bear's nose 300 ft away and so Daniel called his long rifle Ticklicker.

He won local sharpshooting contests, sometimes with one hand. I liked learning that Daniel and Rebecca were both shy and independent.

Some of the info directly contrasted what I'd learned from the author of Daniel Boone books, like she didn't mention that Daniel became the guardian of his nephews when his brother was killed. And she said they had to wait to marry because of the war.

It's cool that the Indians called what is now Kentucky "Kanta-ke," meaning meadows.

It's sweet that Daniel called Rebecca his little girl.
He missed the woods and she knew he could make more money hunting than farming. He'd have to travel far away to find game and she would be alone with no help. She wasn't afraid and knew they'd have to be apart often. Daniel would be in danger and he could have an accident or an Indian attack. He missed the births of many of his children.
Rebecca had to make clothing, every meal, cook, sew, spin, weave, fetch water, chop wood, churn butter, mold candles, clean, garden, care for livestock, plant and tend field, care for the kids, and hunt.

He wore a deerskin shirt to mid-thigh, with a leather belt around the waist, a breechclout, cloth about 3 feet long around his legs like pants, moccasins to allow for walking almost silently, a belt with a knife, tomahawk, and animal horn hanging on it. The horn held gunpowder and kept it dry. He carried deerskin pouches with food and supplies. He carried a blanket roll and bullet pouch.

Mar 27 33 Much of the info I recently heard at a library program so that's all still fresh. Some is contradicting what I've learned and the author seems to be making a lot of things up, using conjecture, and assuming and generalizing things and filling in the blanks. I wonder at the sources of some details and I'm thinking they're just stories and not known facts. But I love him as an historical figure and his lifestyle is so cool and impressive.

In his time a good hunter was an honored leader in the community.
She set straight that he never wore a coonskin hat. Indians called him "wide mouth" because of his large, thin lips. He would build a lean-to wherever he went, and build a fire outside, cooking elk liver or wild turkey, his favorite meals. He often traveled just with his dog and horse. He would dry his sweaty moccasins by the fire at night. He always kept his gun at his side.

It was his friend John Findley who told Daniel about Kentucky, and the Great Warrior's Path, an Indian pass, and the secret door into the mountains. I loved to see the map showing that it's in NC! I would love to go to that location.

Daniel went through the Warrior's Path, the Cumberland Gap, and he and his brother in law and other men hunted, and brought 15 horses to carry their things. They followed buffalo traces, or trails, that they had stomped out. They ate the meat and tongues and bone marrow. The hides made clothing, blankets, and tents. They could take the hides because they were too heavy to carry.

I liked hearing what the chief told Daniel when he let him and John go after taking their animal skins. He called them brothers and said to go home and stay there because this was Indian hunting ground, and if they were foolish enough to come back they'd be stung severely. Daniel stayed on after John disappeared, talking to himself and singing to his dogs, and enjoyed himself the most in his life.

It sounded terrible that Daniel knew about the treaty that said Kentucky was off-limits to settlers but he felt that if he cleared land and grew crops then the land would belong to him. That's some white entitlement for you...disappointed he felt that way.

A man bought up thousands of acres and agreed to sell Daniel 2,000 if he built a road to the man's land and guided a group of settlers there to build a town. The man gave Indians clothing, knives, guns, and liquor, a few thousand dollars worth of goods, for 200,000 acres. Some braves were angry and told Daniel he was getting fair land but there's a cloud over it and he would find it dark and chilling.

Daniel and 30 men widened the path for wagons to come through and this was called the Wilderness Road. He would mark the trail for the men every day, leave them to clear it, and hunt for the night's meal. They built a settlement and for the first year everyone lived there, but they wanted to move out on their own. They named it Boonesborough which I learned from the History Channel Men of the West.

This is when I get irritated with historical accounts because different authors and sources tell the same stories in different ways, vastly different ways: and it leads me to believe that no one really knows what happened, and people have made details up over time. When a story gets told two different ways I no longer know who to believe. The speaker said when Daniel's daughter was stolen a boy at the fort heard the screams and brought the canoe back, and went to tell the men. In here she said Daniel heard the girls and ran out after them.

Shawnees didn't hurt female captives.

The British urged Indians to kill Americans and rewarded them for each scalp. This made settlers hate and fear Indians even more and so they killed even the Indians who wanted peace.

It sounded terrible that Daniel wanted their land for himself and other settlers. He helped take their land from them. That made him sound like a villain and not a hero and I hated that. But at least he didn't hate Indians; he learned to respect others from his Quaker parents and he didn't like taking lives and avoided it when he could.

Daniel led the fort in the first Indian attack. He was a natural leader, shy and sometimes distant, but calm, quiet, even-tempered, and honest. People believed in him, respected his decency and know-how.

On his journey to get salt for the fort, that I saw on the show, he was captured by Shawnee and had to agree to get the men to join the Shawnee tribe to replace the men they lost. The braves took a vote where a club was passed around, if they passed it on it meant they wanted mercy for the whites, if they threw it down it meant they wanted to kill them. He had to run the gauntlet though since he was shown mercy. He made it through and was cheered for and made an honorary brave. The women took him to the river and tried to wash away the whit see of his soul and they plucked out all his hair except a forelock. He was adopted as Black Fish's son and given a name, Big Turtle. His men called him a traitor because they were captives while he wasn't.

He escaped to warn the village that the Indians were going to attack. I hated to hear that he ran a horse so hard that it died.

The show had said that Daniel's wife and children all moved away, except for Jemima. But in here the cat was the only one left. Come on! And everyone had heard he was a traitor and didn't welcome him.

Mar 28 Pg 86 Enjoying reading the stories I already knew, but I'm really frustrated that they're told differently than I've learned. Idk what to believe.

It's a shame that Daniel was changed with treason after the attack on Boonesborough and was court martialed, and even though he was found innocent, it was shameful for him. His youngest son and grandkids didn't even know about it.

He went to NC to get Rebecca and his family and they moved back to Kentucky, founded Boone Station. It was terrible that he lost his land claim and owned no land, while rich whites sold off land to other settlers. I was shocked that Rebecca opened a tavern and they owned slaves. He became a surveyor but wasn't good at it and was sued constantly in court.

It's cool that the book The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone made him a legend in America and Europe, but sad that it didn't help him financially and he had to leave Kentucky because he was poor and it was too settled. They moved to Missouri and he would hunt and spend time with the Shawnee, who had captured him before. They would tell the story of kidnapping him and his grandchildren would listen.

It's so sad the hard life he had. He finally owned land, but then lost it again. More children died and then Rebecca died at 74 and he stayed in a field for weeks holding his gun. I was shocked that he knew he was going to die so he had a coffin made, would polish and sleep in it. Whoa! He died at 84 in 1820.

The author didn't cut any corners that Daniel was a part of taking land away from Indians, but he was a part of opening Kentucky to pioneers, and the wide West. The United States grew in part thanks to him. He respected Indians but thought he had a right to the land too. Daniel is considered America's first frontier hero, and its most important pioneer.

His life was a lot rougher than I thought and he had a lot of bad luck, so the end was pretty sad.

The ends of these books all have timelines of the events in the person's life, as well as a timeline of America to show what major events took place during the person's lifetime.