Here's Where It Gets Interesting - 175. Daniel Boone: Finding Facts in the Folklore

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

So far, we’ve been concentrating on a fairly small geographical area of the United States, and even though much of the political action was happening in the East, Americans were beginning to spread out. They began to move Westward. So let’s talk about one of these early pioneers; a man whose exploration of Kentucky paved the way for new European settlements: His name was Daniel Boone. He just may be one of the most misremembered figures in American history, so together, let’s sort out the tall tales from the true details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends. Welcome. Welcome to another episode in our series about first ladies and the people who define their times. So far, we've been concentrating on a fairly small geographical area in the United States. And even though that is where a lot of the political action was happening, Americans were beginning to spread out. They began to move westward. So let's talk about one of those pioneers, a man whose life has been reduced to more fiction than fact. And together, we'll sort out the tall tales from the true details. Stick around, because here's where it gets interesting. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast.

In the mid-20th century, American families were enjoying the golden age of television. Television sets were affordable and programming was expanding to appeal to audiences of all ages. It was the era of fast-paced action-adventure shows and westerns like Bonanza and The Lone Ranger. They were wildly popular. They glorified the idea of the frontiersman, a brave live-off-the-land ranger who defeated his foes, whether they were mountain lions or a band of robbers. But of course, those shows took plenty of liberties with the facts of real frontier life for the sake of a sensational plot. Television star Fess Parker played two famous early pioneers who were already historical

legends by the 1960s, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Their TV characters were eerily similar. Both wore coonskin caps and leather fringe jackets, and they carried their trusty rifles with them, ready to protect innocent bystanders at a moment's notice. But I want to talk to you today about the true life of one of those men, Daniel Boone. He just may be one of the most misremembered figures in American history. So let's start by clearing up one myth. He definitely never wore a coonskin cap. He was born in the fall of 1734 in Pennsylvania. His parents were Squire and Sarah Boone. They were Quakers who had fled religious persecution in England and Wales and then settled on the edge of the woods in rural America. They built a one-room

log cabin just down the dirt path from a large family of settlers with the last name of Lincoln. As neighbors, the Boones and Lincolns would have been pretty well equated, and Daniel's younger cousin Anne went on to marry President Abraham Lincoln's great-grandfather, who was also named Abraham Lincoln. It was through this marriage that President Lincoln was technically correct when he claimed that his ancestors were Pennsylvania Quakers, although Anne would likely have been told she had to leave the Society of Friends when she married into the Lincoln family because they were not members of the faith. Daniel was the sixth of 11 children, and if you're the middle child

in a large homesteading family in Pennsylvania in the 1730s, you're probably going to spend a lot of time looking after your own self. There were no moms setting up elaborate rainy day crafts for their 11 children in the 1730s America. So as a boy, Daniel loved wandering through the woods around his house. He often took his family's cattle out to graze through the grassy tree-lined paths of southeastern Pennsylvania. The Quaker settlement in the area maintained a good relationship with the native Lenape people, and they helped teach the restless, outdoorsy Daniel how to hunt. He got his first rifle around the age of 12 and was soon regularly providing meat that helped feed the large Boone family. And it's here where we start to see the folklore of Daniel's life start to emerge. Daniel was recorded as having a good

reputation as a skilled hunter in his teens, but it's probably untrue that he once shot a prowling panther straight through the heart just as it was about to leap at him, which is a tale about him that's been long repeated. Although he preferred to spend his time outdoors hunting and exploring, he attended a local schoolhouse on and off and stuck with his education long enough to learn how to read and write. Later in life, when he was scouting with other frontiersmen, he'd often be the only literate person and would read to everyone as they settled around a campfire. In 1750, Squire Boone moved the entire family to North Carolina, where they settled in the

Yadkin River Valley. It was an area that was on the edges of an unexplored frontier. that was on the edges of an unexplored frontier. When the French and Indian War began in 1754, the governor of North Carolina called for a militia to assemble. Daniel, who was then 20, volunteered despite the fact that his Quaker upbringing would have most certainly included the religious belief in pacifism. He served under Edward Braddock, who led the militia on a march to attack a French military post about 10 miles outside of Pittsburgh. The attempted attack was a bit of a disaster, though, and the militia had to retreat from the battle. Daniel worked as a wagoner, which meant that he drove a wagon full of supplies at the rear of the marching men. When he saw the retreating troops ahead of him, he turned around, never even engaging in the conflict. Daniel Boone made two interesting acquaintances during his time with the militia.

The first was a man, maybe you've heard of him, his name was George Washington. of him. His name was George Washington, who at the time was a young colonial militia leader at the start of his career. Daniel also met and befriended a trader named John Findley. Findley had experienced trading with different groups of indigenous Americans and had traveled into Kentucky, which had no permanent European settlements at that point. He told Daniel that the hunting was off the charts good. And I'm sure he said it exactly like that. It was off the charts good. There were bears, turkeys, deer, buffalo, you name it, Kentucky had it. We don't really associate Kentucky with buffalo, you name it, Kentucky had it. We don't really associate Kentucky with Buffalo,

but they lived there in that time period. Daniel was very intrigued, but he was also a young man who had made a promise, made a promise to a young girl back home in North Carolina. In August of 1756, he married the tall, dark-haired Rebecca Bryan, the daughter of a neighbor in Quaker family, and the couple settled in a cabin on the Boone family land. Rebecca, like her mother and mother-in-law, spent the next several years of her life pregnant and nursing babies. She gave birth to 10 children, nine of whom grew up healthy and strong. But Daniel was often away from his young family. strong. But Daniel was often away from his young family. In 1758, he served in the militia during the Anglo-Cherokee War, and after that, he began making his living by hunting and trapping. He sold his pelts in the fur trade, and each fall, he would go on long hunts, which were months-long

expeditions into the Appalachian wilderness to collect hundreds of beaver or deerskins at a time. Sometimes he would go alone, taking only provisions and a hunting dog. And sometimes he would travel with a small group of fellow traders. There are several places in the trails of Appalachia where you can see one of Daniel Boone's carvings or his initials. And one tree has carved into it, D. Boone killed a bar on tree in the year 1760. And it says bar like B-A-R, not bear. It actually spelled bar. Another one said, It actually spelled bar.

Another one said, D. Boone Kiltabar, 1803, Kilt, K-I-L-T. Because we're sticking with the facts, I have to tell you that these inscriptions could have been made by Daniel, or they could be phonies carved by somebody else after he became famous. We don't know. At the time, they did not have the technology to be able to tell those kinds of things. as we don't know. At the time, they did not have the technology to be able to tell those kinds of things. But in 1768, Daniel caught up with his old friend, John Findlay. Daniel had been growing restless in the Yadkin River Valley, which had grown in population as more European settlers traveled away from cities. Game was getting harder to hunt, and he and Rebecca had six children at this point. That's a lot of mouths to feed.

So Finley asked him again to come to Kentucky. And Daniel packed his bags real quick. He would later say, It was the first of May in the year 1769 that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time and left my family to wander through the wilderness of America in quest of the country of Kentucky. And I can't help but think about how Rebecca had to feel with six hungry mouths to feed. And he was like, listen, I got to wander in the woods. And note that Daniel Boone used the word country. He didn't mean rural dirt roads and cornfields. He meant that Kentucky was its own land outside of European control. The French had tried to stake out an early claim on

the region, but it was lost after the French and Indian War, and the British were making a move on the area, but several independent Native nations were not going to just hand it over. I think sometimes Americans think that all of North America, or at least a good portion of North America, has always belonged to us. And that was not the case. Westward expansion happened over time. And until that land was claimed to be a treaty or other means, that land was not part of the United States. And by the way, it wasn't even the United States yet at this point, they were still colonies. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We are best friends. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! Ah!

It is my girl in the studio! Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from The Office and our friendship with brand new guests, and we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes

every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink! You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. Boone and Finley, along with four other people, began a two-year hunting expedition in Kentucky. Daniel's recount of their first sighting of the Bluegrass region from the top pilot knob became wildly popular. People were eager to hear of his explorations into the mysterious regions

beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. He said, we proceeded successfully, and after a long, fatiguing journey through a mountainous wilderness in a westward direction, on the seventh day of June following, we found ourselves on Red River, where John Finley had formerly been trading with the Indians, and from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. The trip was not without its challenges. The Shawnee people captured Daniel and his group. They took their pelts and skins and told the men to leave and not return. The Shawnee used the Kentucky land as their hunting grounds and were frustrated with hunters and trappers like Daniel Boone. They considered them poachers who stole game that didn't belong to them.

And when the group persisted in their journey, they narrowly avoided a second capture. Daniel Boone shot and killed a native Shawnee man. So he returned to North Carolina and his family, but not for long, because two years later, the Boones, Daniel, Rebecca, and their now eight children, set out for Kentucky once again. This time, they traveled with around 50 other men, women, and children, the enslaved servants they had with the goal to pass through the rugged mountainous Cumberland Gap and settle in the Kentucky Valley on the other side. But tragedy struck the expedition. Several native tribes frustrated with the influx of European settlers decided to work together to hold them off. When a smaller group

broke off from the main party, they were attacked, and Daniel and Rebecca's oldest son, 16-year-old James, was captured and killed, along with five other men. The rest of the party abandoned the expedition. This became a violent war, called Lord Dunmore's War, in which the governor and colony of Virginia ultimately forced the majority of the Shawnee and Mingo tribes to move off of their lands, expanding European control over the areas of West Virginia and Kentucky. Boone was celebrated during this time as an instrumental defender of European settlements along the river that bordered the land the Virginians took by force. Afterward, Daniel was commissioned to lead a group of men and widen the Cumberland Gap in an effort to make it easier for settlers to move through the mountains and populate the new areas they

took from the Shawnee. The group took torches and burned away the brush and undergrowth, meaning Daniel Boone was literally a trailblazer. They called the new path Wilderness Road. Kentucky was still populated by pockets of remaining Native American tribes. Some, like the Cherokee, signed away parts of their land in treaties, often for promises that were never made good on. their land in treaties, often for promises that were never made good on. And others like the Shawnee stood firm and attacked settlers who began to move into their land. It wasn't a safe time or place for anyone, and yet Daniel Boone decided to finally settle his whole family in Kentucky. Daniel founded a new settlement and set about fortifying it. He called it Boonesboro.

founded a new settlement and set about fortifying it. He called it Boonesboro. Maybe not the most original name, but it's easy to remember. Even though Kentucky was far removed from the bulk of the big battles during the Revolutionary War, they weren't entirely unaffected. Many Shawnees allied with the British and mounted attacks against the settlers in Boonesboro and other Kentucky settlements. On July 14th of 1776, not long after the Declaration of Independence was signed, Boone's daughter Jemima and two other girls were captured by a war party of Native Americans as they canoed outside of Boonesboro. The party carried the girls north towards Shawnee Towns, while Daniel and a group of men from Boonesboro followed in pursuit, catching up with them two days later. Boone and his men ambushed the party, rescuing the girls and driving off their captors. This incident became the most celebrated event of Boone's life and went on to be immortalized

by author James Fenimore Cooper, who fictionalized the event in the novel The Last of the Mohicans. Less than two years after Daniel rescued his daughter Jemima and her friends, the British Allied Shawnees, led by Chief Blackfish, mounted a siege against Boonesboro. led by Chief Blackfish, mounted a siege against Boonesboro. Daniel Boone was shot in the ankle, and amid a flurry of bullets, he was carried back inside to safety, where he was able to recover. But the attacks didn't stop. The Shawnee killed Boonesboro's cattle and set fire to their crops. Daniel felt he had to do something before the families inside the walls of the town starved. They had enough meat, but it needed to be preserved so it would last the community longer than a few days.

In January of 1778, Daniel led a party of about 30 men to the salt springs of the Licking River. There they were captured by the Shawnee. Daniel convinced everyone to surrender in an effort to try to keep them safe, and they were taken to Chief Blackfish, who had plans to capture Boonesboro now that he had 30 of its defenders as his prisoners. Daniel was able to bargain with Chief Blackfish, telling him that the women and children inside the fortified town would not survive the trek to the camp during the chilly winter weather. He convinced them to wait until spring. He was bluffing, but he was so convincing that some of his own men even believed him. Ultimately, Chief Blackfish agreed to postpone his assault on Boonesboro, but he took Daniel and his men to a Shawnee town where many of them were adopted into Shawnee families, as was customary

to their people when they lost their own fallen warriors. It afforded the men some small bits of freedom. Boone lived among the Shawnee for about four months and was given the name Big Turtle by his adoptive Shawnee family. In June, when the weather grew more temperate, he overheard Blackfish's plans to return to Boonesboro with a large force and take the town. Daniel, stealing off on horseback, raced the 160 miles back to his family. When the horse gave out before reaching Boonesboro, Daniel continued on foot, reaching safety in record time. Biographer Robert Morgan calls Boone's escape and return one of the greatest legends of frontier history. and return. One of the greatest legends of frontier history. But the men who were left to run the town after his capture were not so sure what to think of Daniel's return and intentions.

They didn't like that he had been living freely and seemingly happily among the Shawnee, who were their enemies, for months. Even after Daniel led a preemptive strike against the Shawnee and successfully kept the town safe against Chief Blackfish's 10-day siege, they were suspicious of his motives and had him court-martialed for working with the British-backed Shawnee. He was found not guilty after he was given the right to explain his story, and even though the charges were dropped, Boone felt humiliated that he would be accused of being a traitor. It was a part of his story he would not often speak about. Chief Blackfish sustained a fatal wound during the unsuccessful siege of Boonesboro and died a few days later. Once the dust settled, Daniel set off for North Carolina because Rebecca, assuming Daniel had died,

moved her children back to Yadkin Valley where she had family. So let's take a little moment here and give a shout out to Rebecca as a frontierswoman. She was often without her husband, sometimes for years, years at a time, running a home on her own and helping to take care of her grandchildren alongside her own youngest children. In her 40s, Rebecca adopted the six children of her widowed brother. She brought them into the fold without a second thought and she loved and cared for them as if they were her own rebecca didn't have a formal education like most of the first ladies we've been talking about but she was an incredibly skilled and resilient woman gave birth to 10

children of her own raised nine of them to adulthood and then adopted six more and then somehow found a way to keep them fed, even though her husband was gone for months or sometimes years at a time, and sometimes she believed that he was probably dead. She had her own celebrated reputation, outshadowed by her husband's, of course, but she was known to be an experienced community midwife, a leather tanner, a sharpshooter, an experienced community midwife, a leather tanner, a sharpshooter, and a linen maker. She was as resourceful and independent as they come, despite an incredibly isolated geographical location. She knew it was up to her to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in her care. So she must have felt surprise and probably relief when Daniel

reached them, not dead, as she had thought. I mean, it would be a little bit like somebody returning from the dead. Spend months probably mourning his death, and then he showed up again one day. But maybe she also felt frustration and stress, because shortly after their reunion, Daniel said, okay, everybody moved back to Kentucky. But I mean, even today, moving an entire household between states is a huge undertaking, right? I mean, huge. Imagine trekking for days through a crude mountain pass with a whole football team's worth of children and all your worldly possessions, only to go right back again a few months later. Joining them on their return to Kentucky in 1779 was a large group of new settlers, including the now married Anne and Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln would

be born in LaRue County, Kentucky, 30 years later in 1809. Instead of returning to Boonesboro, Daniel decided to start a new settlement, and he named it Boones Station. But he was again away often fighting the British during the second half of the Revolutionary War and serving the growing settler population of Kentucky in a number of public positions. He was elected as both a representative to the Virginia General Assembly and as the sheriff of Fayette County. When the war ended, Daniel and his family again relocated, this time in the more populated area of Limestone, Kentucky, which was quickly becoming a successful port town on the Ohio River. He kept a tavern and worked as a land surveyor and even a horse trader.

Here, he was fairly prosperous, and it's recorded that he purchased and owned around seven enslaved people. This is notable because it was both rare for people of Quaker faith to keep enslaved people, and because Kentucky settlements were still pretty rough around the edges. Many homesteads did not yet rely on the work of enslaved people the way a large Virginia plantation would have. During this time, Boone was transformed from a well-known Kentucky man into an international sensation when his story was included in a book called The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky. Kentucky was spelled with just an E at the end. It was published in 1784 when Daniel was around 50. The author, a man named John Filson, had been a Pennsylvania school teacher who became a Kentucky land speculator.

The book was sensationalized as an effort to convince more settlers to move to Kentucky. more settlers to move to Kentucky. Filson interviewed Boone but embellished his words to convey a sense of daring greatness and non-stop adventure. The book was immediately popular in both America and Europe where readers were captivated by Boone's story. Dozens of similar stories were written about Boone, furthering the folklore of his adventuring in the wild woods of Kentucky. Lord Byron even wrote about Boone in his poem, Dawn One, in 1819, the year before Daniel's death. The stanza says, the General Boone, backwoods man of Kentucky, the happiest among mortals anywhere, for killing nothing but a bear or a buck. He enjoyed the lonely, vigorous, harmless days of his old age in wilds of deepest maze. Crime came not near him. Unfortunately for Daniel, his new fame did not come with riches.

Fortunately for Daniel, his new fame did not come with riches. By 1798, he had lost all of his land due to a disputed land claim and to pass to debt. To provide for his family, he returned to what he knew best, hunting and trapping. Needing a fresh start yet again, the Boones set out on one last frontier adventure, traveling out of the United States and into the Spanish-owned region of Upper Louisiana. They settled into an area that is now eastern Missouri, and Spain, who was eager to promote more settlement in the giant chunk of wilderness they owned, gifted the infamous Daniel Boone 850 acres of premium farmland. But Spain's claim to the area didn't last long. While Daniel and his family

lived there, the land was controlled by Spain, then France, then the United States. But President James Madison honored Spain's agreement with Daniel Boone and signed off on his ownership of the 850 acres, making it official. After Boone's death in 1820, his legend continued to grow. The bestselling book, The Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone, the first settler of Kentucky, was published in 1833, 13 years after his death, and it was the most sensationalized account of Boone's life yet. While the author Timothy Flint claimed in the foreword to present a faithful picture of the singular man, the book portrayed Daniel as a fantastical woodsman who engaged in hand-to-hand combat and swung on vines to elude capture. Kentucky was not a jungle, okay? But perhaps, if you had never been there, you might believe it was.

It's a caricature of Daniel Boone that really persists even in pop culture today. As is often the case, the real story has much more nuance. Boone was certainly a talented outdoorsman who helped settle Kentucky, that is absolutely true. But a lot of folklore paints him as a vine-swinging hero and the Shawnee as a savage people. It's a story written by European Americans, by those who explored and colonized the land. And sometimes when the facts are complicated, it's easier to stick with the story that sounds more exciting,

even if it's not accurate. Daniel Boone had courage, but he also had flaws. And it's important to learn the whole story. Before I leave you, I want to recommend a book that you might find interesting if you found The Kidnap of Jemima Boone a fascinating part of this tale. The book is called The Taking of Jemima Boone, Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap that Shaped America. It's written by Matthew Pearl. I hope you learned something new today.

Thank you so much for joining me. I'll see you soon. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. This podcast was written and researched by Sharon McMahon and Heather Jackson. It was produced by Heather Jackson, edited and mixed by our audio producer, Jenny Snyder, and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon.

I'll see you next time.