Time for another hero!

Daniel Boone

This is another hero who has been relegated to a footnote. Daniel Boone was an American pioneer who spent much of his life in the wilds of the American frontier - at the time, that would have been the Kentucky area. At one time, Daniel Boone was the quintessential American for Europeans, while to most Americans he was a prime example of what a man should be.

He was born around 1734 near Reading, Pennsylvania. He had little, if any, formal education, but by the age of twelve he was an accomplished hunter. When he was around 16 or so, the family relocated to North Carolina in search of better prospects. He worked as a teamster and blacksmith for the British during the French and Indian War. He participated in the Battle of teh Wilderness.

Boone married and started a family - eventually having ten children. He explored a good deal of Kentucky and was a prisoner of the Shawnee for a while. He helped cut the road (called the Wilderness Road) that later settlers would use to enter the territory through the Cumberland Gap. He moved his family to Kentucky, and spent several years guarding Kentucky, Virginia, and other western areas from the British and their allies. He is often regarded as the (or at least "a") founder of Kentucky.

Boone fought in the American War for Independence, as well as skirmishes with the Shawnee. One major example happened after his daughter and two other girls were captured by a Shawnee war party. He and a group of Kentuckians tracked and rescued the girls by ambushing the party when they stopped to eat. Later Boone himself was captured and tortured by the Shawnee for information on the fort at Boonesborough. He used his time as a prisoner to gather information before escaping to warn the fort. The folks at Boonesborough doubted his loyalty, curious as to how he had handled his imprisonment so well. He was even court-martialed for disloyalty - he was found innocent. (Boone considered the incident an insult for the rest of his life.) After the war, Boone spent much of his time exploring and hunting. He apparently traveled as far west as Wyoming in his seventies with an official report having him in Kansas in 1816 when he was 82.

Daniel Boone was often described as honest, sincere, physically strong, with a quiet demeanor. He paid his debts - at one point he returned to Kentucky to pay his debts and was left with only fifteen cents to his name. Despite a great deal of suffering and hardship, Boone persevered in living a full and rich (though never materially) life. He was a man in a man's age - not a pampered pretty boy. If we only had that unconquerable, enterprising spirit!

A wonderful quote from Daniel Boone: “Situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced.... Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things.”

Recommended reading:

The American Democrat by James Fenimore Cooper

The Adventures of Daniel Boone & the Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky by John Filson

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Real American Heroes by Brion McClanahan (main source)