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The Boone Society, Inc., P. O. Box 988, Barbourville, KY (2026)

11/01/2024

The next Zoom Virtual Heritage Program will be Robert Crum, an outstanding Boone historian, portraying Daniel Boone himself on November 12th. Society members will be celebrating Ole Daniel's 290th birthday.

Members for whom we have an email address, approximately 70% of us, will receive a member only invitation providing access to the program and announcing the time of the next program. Future programs are being planned for 2025, part of the extra value of membership in the Boone Society.

If you did not receive an invitation to the September 17th event, it is because we do not have your email address. If you receive the Compass by postal mail, we probably DO NOT have your email address. We will be sending more communications via social media, so please let us know how to reach you.

May we ask all interested members who wish to view upcoming virtual programs to email your address to our membership chair at [email protected].

10/08/2024

If you are not a member of BooneSociety.org and want to participate in this program please join now.

Boone Society Launches Virtual Heritage Program for Members

This past September 17th, under the leadership of our new president Judy Smith, over 12% of our membership for whom we have email addresses, gathered virtually to view re-enactor Gary Hodges in full period costume portraying one of Gary's great grandfathers. That historic person is John Wilcoxson, husband of Sara Boone, a sister of Daniel Boone. For 25 minutes staying in character, Gary relayed the fascinating saga of the Boone family in frontier America from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and Kentucky.

The next Zoom Virtual Heritage Program will be Robert Crum, an outstanding Boone historian, portraying Daniel Boone himself on November 12th. Society members will be celebrating Ole Daniel's 290th birthday.

Members for whom we have an email address, approximately 70% of us, will receive a member only invitation providing access to the program and announcing the time of the next program. Future programs are being planned for 2025, part of the extra value of membership in the Boone Society.

If you did not receive an invitation to the September 17th event, it is because we do not have your email address. If you receive the Compass by postal mail, we probably DO NOT have your email address. We will be sending more communications via social media, so please let us know how to reach you.

May we ask all interested members who wish to view upcoming virtual programs to email your address to our membership chair at [email protected].

09/24/2024

While we're talking about old books, here's one that's been passed down through the family. Attached are photos of a first edition (1922) of "The Boone Family..." by Hazel Spraker that my mother gave me a couple of years prior to her passing. The book belonged to my grandfather's uncle, Henry Allen Boone, who was a second-great grandson of Daniel Boone, as was his brother and my great-grandfather, Van Daniel Boone. Henry's wife, Minnie (Speer) Boone, was quite the genealogist and wrote out the hand-written notes in the book, extending my great-grandfather's (Van Daniel's) family (who's in the book) down through my mother's (Deborah Kaye Boone's) generation. Henry and Minnie never had children, but my mother remembers them fondly in their kind acts toward her and her siblings and had frequent correspondence with them through the postal service until their passing. (They used to send her cotton balls from Missouri as Christmas presents as a child.) Henry's and Minnie's obituaries also point to their generosity.

Submitted by Russ Seidel
The Boone Society, Inc Secretary

09/22/2024

Who recognizes this book?
James Reavis found this book. Read his interesting story.

When growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s, I was like many other kids and followed the exploits of Davy Crockett as told by Walt Disney. I remember when my friend next door and I called his dad at the local radio to request our favorite song by Tennessee Ernie Ford - “The Ballad of Davy Crockett”! Davy was played by Fess Parker who would a few years later star in the television series about Daniel Boone.

And, yet it was my mother and my grandmother who brought history to life when they told me that Daniel Boone himself was a great uncle and Davy Crockett might be our cousin. Grandma Shaw would tell how wonderful her grandfather was, whose name was Daniel Boone Pennington.

And when my parents joined a book club, their stories came to life on the pages of books being offered by Landmark books from Random House.

But, on May 16th of this year a small tornadic storm hit our farm and took the roof off our barn. In that barn under tarps and moving blankets was our family’s collection of antique furniture, lamps, collectibles and books. Three dumpsters later we still have a mess. As we checked every box, some full of rainwater, some crushed by the falling roof, one old treasure was found, the one Landmark book I tried to keep was found dry, a few scuff marks but still together, “Daniel Boone, The Opening of the Wilderness”. Written by John Mason Brown and published in 1952 by Randon House, Inc. Yes, still there as I remembered the book. Now some 65 years later it reads just as good it did then, of man and his family’s quest for freedom in a new but dangerous world. And because they worshipped at times with the Friends, they were a people of character, preferring to understand not only the nature that surrounded them, but the native people who inhabited the land. Still a wonderful story for my grandchildren to read.

And, if they do read the book, maybe the oldest who just a week ago returned from an overnight canoe trip on the Colorado River in Texas, will suddenly and forever come to terms with her heritage, that she like her dad before her, my dad before me, that she has in fact carried on the traditions of her “Great” Uncle Daniel to seek peace and freedom even in the today’s Wilderness.

08/31/2024

Celebrate with Colonel Daniel Boone
During His Birthday Party on Zoom!
On November 12 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, The Boone Society will host a Zoom Event with Daniel Boone to celebrate his birthday. He was born in 1734, but was it on October 22 or November 2? Hear what Boone himself says, and for 30 minutes you’ll be able to watch and listen to him summarize his long life, since he died in 1820 just before his 86th birthday.

07/29/2024

Daniel Boone Defends Himself

An ongoing series on the life of Daniel Boone in chronological order.

General Edward Braddock’s defeat at Ft. Duquesne in 1755 was devastating for the settlers on the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers. Virginia territory included what became West Virginia, and land claimed by the colony extended almost to Lake Erie. It would take seven years until 1763 for the British army, navy, and American militias to crush the French in North America and damage Native American tribes to such an extent that the eastern Ohio River Valley opened to colonial settlement.
Daniel Boone survived the Ft. Duquesne battle, although many did not. As a teamster, perhaps he cut loose his two horses and rode one to safety. Many survivors of Braddock’s command retreated to Ft. Cumberland in Maryland.

Attached is a contemporary map of the Juniata River from the famed portage to the Susquehanna River just north of Harrisburg at Duncannon. Exeter is 113 miles east of Harrisburg. The map is courtesy of the Allegheny Ridge Corporation, Juniata Greenway Trail.

Decades later, Boone’s youngest son, Nathan, and his wife told the story that Daniel left the battle and walked several hundred miles to visit relatives in Exter, the home he had left behind in 1750. Why Daniel did not stay with his militia company is not known. Perhaps he asked for leave. Maybe he sought safety and just kept on riding and/or walking.
It does seem strange that he followed the Juniata because it required detouring many miles before reaching the headwaters of the Juniata, the major tributary of the Susquehanna River. Perhaps he canoed the 110 or so mile river. Along the way, crossing a Juniata River bridge, he encountered a drunken Native American who was swinging a knife above his head, shouting he intended to take Daniel’s scalp.
Thinking quickly, Daniel lowered his head and charged into the man, who stumbled off the bridge and onto the rocks below. Boone believed the man died but admitted later in his life he was not sure.
This story may have been misinterpreted through decades of family retelling. The details of Boone fighting with a Native American warrior are not challenged, but the confrontation may have occurred over the river’s edge rather than on a bridge. The Juniata River Valley had only legally become the Penn family's property in 1754 via the Treaty of Albany. At that time, the Juniata River Valley was largely devoid of European presence, and it is difficult to imagine even a swinging bridge.
Several generations passed before substantial bridges were constructed, although ferries were established by the late 1700s. This writer lives several hundred yards from the Juniata River near Newport, Pennsylvania. Newport, a canal town, did not have a bridge connecting the east and west banks until 1852.
There is no record of how long Boone stayed in Exeter or whether he rode or walked back to the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina. Perhaps he was hired as a wagon driver and traveled the Great Wagon Road again.
Once home, Daniel’s life took another significant turn. - GNH
Sources – Lyman C. Draper’s ‘The Life of Daniel Boone’ and Robert Morgan’s ‘Boone, a Biography’.

07/11/2024

Celebrate with Colonel Daniel Boone
During His Birthday Party on Zoom!

On November 12 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, The Boone Society will host a Zoom Event with Daniel Boone to celebrate his birthday. He was born in 1734, but was it on October 22 or November 2? Hear what Boone himself says, and for 30 minutes you’ll be able to watch and listen to him summarize his long life, since he died in 1820 just before his 86th birthday.

07/01/2024

Young Daniel Boone goes to War
An ongoing series of the life of Daniel Boone in chronological order.

In his long life, Daniel Boone participated in conflicts with Native Americans, the French and the British during the American Revolution. In the summer of 1755, aged 20, he served in the North Carolina militia under Captain Hugh Waddell, a company of approximately one hundred who would join British General Edward Braddock at Fort Cumberland, Maryland. From there Braddock would lead over 1,100 British regulars and plus colonial militias from Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The purpose was to expel the French from Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, PA. Both empires were contesting for control of western Pennsylvania and the Ohio River Valley.

Colonial officer George Washington in the blue uniform, would supervise the burial of the mortally wounded General Braddock. Note the Conestoga wagons fleeing the battlefield in disorder; one wagon would have been driven by Daniel Boone.
Although handy with a rifle, Boone served as a waggoner, a teamster, who had the fatiguing task of managing a team of horses and an unsteady vehicle. First there had to be the trek north on the Great Wagon Road from his Yadkin River home to Fort Cumberland. There he loaded a wagon with military supplies before heading northwest over rivers, creeks, rocks and untold ridges and mountains. The ‘road’ had to be ‘cleared’ by axe men hacking through brush and forests, to create a ‘tunnel’ through the wilderness. It took a week just to go the first thirty miles.
Braddock planned his supply train well, but he arrogantly disregarded advice from Benjamin Franklin and others who urged the English general to utilize friendly Indian scouts to probe left, right and ahead of his advancing regulars for the French and their numerous Native American allies. Braddock’s unfortunate statement that the Ohio Valley would belong only to Britain and would have no room for Native Americans helped solidify the aggrieved tribes to support the French.
A few miles short of Fort Duquesne the forward body was ambushed by over 200 French Canadians and six hundred members of the Shawnee, Delaware and other tribes. The British regulars dressed in highly visible red coats and trained in set piece European combat, fired wildly at the fuselage of fire coming from behind rocks and trees. They even fired on their own troops. It was a disaster, with casualties of over 65% for British soldiers and 75% of the officers. Braddock himself was killed.
One of his surviving officers, Virginia Colonel George Washington, only two years older than Boone, saw to Braddock’s quick burial and rolled wagon wheels over the grave to prevent the enemy from discovering and violating the body.
Panic ensued through the front lines enveloping Daniel and his fellow teamsters. The young North Carolinian, unhurt, quickly released his horses and fled with the rest.
The Native Americans, now unchecked, and seizing the chance to expel encroaching setters from their hunting grounds, spread fire and desolation among the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers. The French and Indian War, as it came to be called, would last until 1763. Daniel Boone would leave the battlefield with lessons learned on how warfare on the frontier should not be conducted. – GNH
Main sources, among others, for this article are Lyman C. Draper’s biography of Boone and William R. Polk’s ‘The Birth of America’.
For more info please visit our website https://boonesociety.org/

06/15/2024

Daniel Boone’s Early 1750s America

An ongoing series of articles in chronolocial order of the Daniel Boone and families story

The Frontier Line
1750s map of American Colonial settlement courtesy The Clever Teacher

By the early 1750s the Squire Boone (1696-1765) family had settled along the British Colonial American frontier line in northwest North Carolina. This map with orange and deep brown colors demonstrates that settlements at that time had crested against the physical barrier of the Appalachian Mountains, ridges and plateaus.

In the lighter brown western side of Appalachian chain were additional impediments to British Colonial America expansion. These barriers were numerous Native American tribes of whom many were entities pushed west by colonial acquisition of their eastern lands. Several tribes, especially in the north, were allied with the less intrusive and less populated New France of North America. Note the French military forts, especially Ft. Duquesne in what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This mountain chain was anchored in western New York by the strong Iroquois Confederation and in the Carolinas and Georgia largely by the Cherokee and Creek nations.
Population Disparities

Historians differ but several have estimated that by 1750 the British Colonies had a European population of 1.1 million plus 250,000 largely enslaved persons of African descent. This population would double in just a generation due to high birth rates and continued immigration. The population of the French settlements, largely in Canada, was very much less, approximately 50,000.

Native American population east of the Mississippi may have been as much as two million in 1500 although some scholars argue closer to 1 million. However, due to European diseases, loss of territory, and conflicts with Europeans and among themselves, all agree the numbers had dramatically decreased to approximately 250,000 or even fewer by the middle 18th century.

Destruction of Native American Societies

This was a devastating, catastrophic destruction of First Peoples societies and collapse of their cultures, whose ancestors had occupied eastern North America for over one hundred centuries. These eastern Native Americans were not nomads such as the Great Plains Indians of Hollywood depictions, but rather were largely nestled in villages where crops were grown, rivers fished and surrounded by forests that furnished protein from wild game.

Piercing the Appalachian Barrier

British Colonial America lasted from the 1607 settlement in Jamestown, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1776. In the generation prior to American independence from the British Empire, ambitious land acquisition companies in Pennsylvania, Virginia and later North Carolina sought to acquire ownership of territory west of the Appalachians.

There were two significant entrances through the mountains. One would be blazed by Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap in southwest Virginia. The other was at the formation of the Ohio River in what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ironically, Boone’s first effort to pierce the Appalachian barrier occurred in Pennsylvania and not through the Cumberland Gap. In 1755, he would be part of a failed military effort to drive the French and their allied Native Americans from Ft. Duquesne and western Pennsylvania. That conflict is known as the French and Indian War.

To be continued….Glenn N. Holliman, B.S. and M.A. in American history, M. Ed. and past president Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation. Sources which were utilized for this article and others in this series are Fred Anderson’s “The War that Made America”, Robert Morgan’s “Boone”, Lyman C. Draper’s “The Life of Daniel Boone”, William R. Polk’s “The Birth of America” and Jack M. Sosin “The Revolutionary Frontier, 1763-1783”.

The Boone Society
Readers are invited to join The Boone Society, Inc. established in 1996 to perpetuate the life and adventures of Daniel Boone, his families and their role in the establishment of the United States. The website is very informative and has a membership button. Please consider joining our heritage preservation organization.

06/15/2024

Daniel Boone’s Early 1750s America

An ongoing series of articles in chronolocial order of the Daniel Boone and families story

The Frontier Line

By the early 1750s the Squire Boone (1696-1765) family had settled along the British Colonial American frontier line in northwest North Carolina. This map with orange and deep brown colors demonstrates that settlements at that time had crested against the physical barrier of the Appalachian Mountains, ridges and plateaus.

In the lighter brown western side of Appalachian chain were additional impediments to British Colonial America expansion. These barriers were numerous Native American tribes of whom many were entities pushed west by colonial acquisition of their eastern lands. Several tribes, especially in the north, were allied with the less intrusive and less populated New France of North America. Note the French military forts, especially Ft. Duquesne in what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This mountain chain was anchored in western New York by the strong Iroquois Confederation and in the Carolinas and Georgia largely by the Cherokee and Creek nations.
Population Disparities

Historians differ but several have estimated that by 1750 the British Colonies had a European population of 1.1 million plus 250,000 largely enslaved persons of African descent. This population would double in just a generation due to high birth rates and continued immigration. The population of the French settlements, largely in Canada, was very much less, approximately 50,000.

Native American population east of the Mississippi may have been as much as two million in 1500 although some scholars argue closer to 1 million. However, due to European diseases, loss of territory, and conflicts with Europeans and among themselves, all agree the numbers had dramatically decreased to approximately 250,000 or even fewer by the middle 18th century.

Destruction of Native American Societies

This was a devastating, catastrophic destruction of First Peoples societies and collapse of their cultures, whose ancestors had occupied eastern North America for over one hundred centuries. These eastern Native Americans were not nomads such as the Great Plains Indians of Hollywood depictions, but rather were largely nestled in villages where crops were grown, rivers fished and surrounded by forests that furnished protein from wild game.

Piercing the Appalachian Barrier

British Colonial America lasted from the 1607 settlement in Jamestown, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1776. In the generation prior to American independence from the British Empire, ambitious land acquisition companies in Pennsylvania, Virginia and later North Carolina sought to acquire ownership of territory west of the Appalachians.

There were two significant entrances through the mountains. One would be blazed by Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap in southwest Virginia. The other was at the formation of the Ohio River in what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ironically, Boone’s first effort to pierce the Appalachian barrier occurred in Pennsylvania and not through the Cumberland Gap. In 1755, he would be part of a failed military effort to drive the French and their allied Native Americans from Ft. Duquesne and western Pennsylvania. That conflict is known as the French and Indian War.

To be continued….Glenn N. Holliman, B.S. and M.A. in American history, M. Ed. and past president Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation. Sources which were utilized for this article and others in this series are Fred Anderson’s “The War that Made America”, Robert Morgan’s “Boone”, Lyman C. Draper’s “The Life of Daniel Boone”, William R. Polk’s “The Birth of America” and Jack M. Sosin “The Revolutionary Frontier, 1763-1783”.

The Boone Society
Readers are invited to join The Boone Society, Inc. established in 1996 to perpetuate the life and adventures of Daniel Boone, his families and their role in the establishment of the United States. The website is very informative and has a membership button. Please consider joining our heritage preservation organization.

06/13/2024

Bob Adema and his daughter, Vicki visited the Boone, NC area yesterday, June 12th. Here they stand at Jesse Greer Jr’s grave in Banner Elk.

The Boone Society, Inc.

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