introduction

The history of pioneer days in America will always possess a unique and thrilling interest to the American who has not lost his admiration of men and women who dared and suffered beyond our thinking, or his love of freedom, or his gratitude to those who purchased it at the muzzle of the gun, and not seldom at cost of life. The forces that impelled a sturdy stock to plant their homes in the wild and perilous forests; the hard conditions under which they lived their lives from hour to hour; the new causes that drew some of them leagues further beyond the last settlements, there to become, all unconsciously it may be, the builders of commonwealths on the far frontier and our constant benefactors to this day, wrote history that stirs the blood to read.

A history of pioneer America would be Hamlet with Hamlet left out if by any possible oversight it failed to take account of Daniel Boone. Lover of the solitudes and the strange folk of the woods; blood-brother to perilous adventure and by that token a stranger to all fear; keen of eye, swift of judgment, quick of hand; restless, tireless, kindly: he stands in typical costume, the typical pioneer. His name is one to conjure with in Kentucky, where his wide fame was won and his lasting work achieved, and indeed, in all the Middle West; yet the more than thirty towns and villages named for him throughout the Union show that admiration of his exploits and services is by no means confined to even this wide territory.