xt7rjd4pkp10 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7rjd4pkp10/data/mets.xml Bogart, W. H. (William Henry), 1810-1888. 1854  books b92-72-27213853 English Miller, Orton & Mulligan, : Auburn, [N.Y.] ; Buffalo : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Boone, Daniel, 1734-1820. Daniel Boone and the hunters of Kentucky  / by W.H. Bogart. text Daniel Boone and the hunters of Kentucky  / by W.H. Bogart. 1854 2002 true xt7rjd4pkp10 section xt7rjd4pkp10 





   DANIEL BOONE,



                AND THE




HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY.



      BY W. H. BOGART,






  Where rose the mountains, there to him were frends:
  The desert-forest-cavern -
  Were unto him companionahip.-Childe Harold.






     AUBURN AND BUFFALO:
MILLER, ORTON  MULLIGAN.
             1854.


 



































Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and
                             fifty-four, by

              MILLER, ORTON  MULLIGAN,
 In the Clerk's Off1ce of the District Court of the Northern District of New York.



     TMZOTP=D BY
MILLZR, OBTON AND MULIGEAN,
         AUBURN.


 














                   PREFACE.




  INTERWOVEN with the history of the entrr nee of the Great
West into the family of civilized nations, is the career of
Daniel Boone. It has been the object of the compiler of this
volume to present the narrative of that carear in fidelity, and
in such light as would rescue the memory of this great man
from the common judgment passed upon him, of being only
an Indian fighter and a bold hunter.
  To Daniel Boone, the Great Pioneer of the West-having
ever a purpose and a destiny before him-this volume in-
vites the reader.
  The compiler has been greatly aided by the admirable
work of Mr. Peck-so accurate and impa rtial-preserved
in the collection of American Biographies by Jared Sparks;
by McClung's Sketches of Western Adventure; by the ex-
cellent local Histories of Kentucky, collated with such indus-
try and care by Mr. Lewis Collins; and by the admirable
Address of Gov. Morehead, delivered at B onesborough.
  If the perusal of this volume shall elicit a deeper and a


 





IV                  PREFACE.

more diffused gratitude for the memory of the Man who,
when he was master of a vast territory committed no op-
pression, and when he was deprived of every acre uttered
no murmur-who fought only to defend, and subdued only
to yield up to his country-it will have accomplished the
object of its compiler.




 














                  CONTENTS.





                      CHAPTER I.
                                                      PAGIL
Introduetion.-Ancestry of Daniel Boone the pioneer.-Home
  of his ancestors-Emigration of George Boone from England
  and settlement in Pennsylvania.-Birth of DanieL-Lineage.
  -School-boy days.-His love for forest life.-The boy
  hunter.-Removal of Squire Boone, the father of Daniel,
  to North Carolina ....................................  18


                      CHAPTER IL.

New home in the old North State.-Marriage of Daniel
  Boone to Rebecca Bryan.-Boone, with his bride crosses
  the valley of the Yadkin, and builds his cabin.-Other
  settlers.-Boone shuns society.-Determined to remove
  west of the mountains.-De Soto-Indian tribes.-Prevail-
  ing ignorance of the country west of the mountains.-
  Character of Boone.-An incident of his old age.-The
  Colonial system.-Its results ......... .................  27



                     CHAPTER 1IL

John Finley's visit to Tennessee in 1767.-Dr. Walker's ex-
pedition.-Boone's visit to the Holston River.-Boone and
five others move west of the Cumberland Mountains.-


 







                                                        PAGE
  Boone's wife.-Filson's life of Boone.-Boone and Stewart
  taken prisoners by the Indians.-Escape.-They find their
  companions gon, .-Boone and Stewart remain alone.-The
  narrative.-Indi .n treaties.-Fate of Finley.-Squire Boone
  arrives.-Death of Stewart.-Boone and his brother pass
  the winter alone in the woods.-Squire Boone returns to
  North Carolina 'or supplies ...........................  44




                      CHAPTER IV.

Boone alone in th., wilderness.-Deprivation.-His own nar-
  rative.-His brother returns with supplies and horses-
  News from his family.-Extract from Governor Morehead's
  address.-The two brothers explore the country, and de-
  termine to locate upon the Kentucky River.-They return
  home.-Wonder of his neighbors at seeing Daniel.-They
  are deterred from emigrating by fear of the Indians.-
  Daniel and Squire Boone, with their families, remove to
  Kentucky ...........................................  70




                      CHAPTER V.

The journey.-Five families and forty men join the Boones
  at Powell's Valley.-A party of the emigrants are attacked
  by Indians.-Boone's son and five others killed.-The com-
  pany turn back to the settlements on the Clinch River.-
  The Long Hunters.-Virginia grants land in Kentucky to
  the soldiers of -he French War.-They learn the charac-
  ter of the land fi-om Boone.-Lord Dunmore orders a sur-
  vey.-The expcC.tion.-Boone's reports confirmed.-Herds
  of buffalo.-Surveyors reach the present location of Har-
  rodsburg and Le uisville.-Lord Dunmore sends for Boone.
  -Rescue of the surveyors ............................  87



VI



0O1NSi.


 






CONTEDN.



                      CHAPTER VI.
                                                       P1AG.
Boone and Stoner penetrate the wilderness eight hundred
  miles, to the Falls of the Ohio.-They find the party of
  James Harrod, and warn them of Indian hostilities.-Lord
  Dunmore assigns Boone to a military command.-Battle of
  Point Pleasant.-Boone returns to his family.-Fertility
  and beauty of the West.-Richard Henderson.-His project
  of a colony.-Boone is sent on a mission to the Indians by
  Lord Dunmore.-His success.-Boone employed to open a
  road from the Holston to the Kentucky River.-Hostility
  of the Indians.-Letter to Colonel Henderson ..... .....  105



                     CHAPTER VII.

Boone and his company build a fort.-He removes his fam-
  ily to it.-Other families remove to the fort.-Arrival of
  Henderson.-Boonesborough.-Transylvania Land Com-
  pany.-Other settlements.-The first Legislature.-Boone
  a Delegate.-John Floyd.-Henderson's address.-Boone as
  a Legislator.-Divine service.-Colonel Callaway's family
  arrives.-The Indians capture three girls.-The pursuit and
  the rescue.-The Indians attack other posts.-Indian mode
  of warfare.-The war with Great Britain.-Alarm of the
  settlers.-Return of many of them .   ....................  122


                    CHAPTER VIII.

The revolutionary war.-Harassed by the Indians.-General
  Clarke's journal.-Military force of the settlements.-Hen-
  derson's land titles.-The compromise.-The settlers' peti-
  tion to be taken under the protection of Virginia.-The In-
  dians attack Boonesborough fort and are repulsed.-Attack
  renewed by greater numbers.-The whites again success-
  ful.-Reinforcements ari'ive.-News arrives of Washing-
  ton's victory  over Howe .....................- .........  145



vn


 





CONTENTS.



                      CHAPTER IX.
                                                        PAGLG
General George R. Clarke.-Virginia grants powder to the
  Colony.-The British garrisons at Detroit, Vincennes and
  Kaskaskia.-General Clarke secures the aid of Boone.-
  Simon Kenton.-His captivity and cruel treatment by the
  Indians-His rescue.-The anticipated reunion of the sur-
  vivors.-The old age of Kenton.-An Indian attack.-
  Boone is wounded and narrowly escapes.-Boone's daring,
  and services to the emigrants.-Boone, with thirty men,
  plans an expedition to the Blue Licks ..................  160



                      CHAPTER X.

The Blue Licks.-The expedition.-Boone's adventure with
  two Indians.-The Indians plan an attack.-Boone is taken
  prisoner while hunting.-His party surrender and are
  spared through his influence.-Boone is afterwards tried
  by a court-martial and honorably acquitted.-Boone and
  his companions are taken to Old Chillicothe.-Thence to
  Detroit.-Regard of the English for Boone.-The Indians
  refuse a large ransom.-They return to Old Chillicothe
  with Boone alone.-They adopt him into their tribe.-
  They set him to making salt, and permit him to hunt, ....  176



                     CHAPTER XL.

Affairs at Boonesborough.-Boone's wife returns to North
  Carolina.-Boone returns from the Salt Licks to Chillico-
  the.-He finds the Indians preparing an expedition against
  Boonesborough.-Boone makes his escape, and arrives at
  the fort.-He hastily repairs the fort.-Boone's expedition
  to Paint Creek.-Defeat of the Indians.-Return of the
  party.-Arrival of a large body of Indians, led by Captain
  Du Quesne.-The garrison summoned to surrender .......  195


 




CONTENTS.



                     CHAPTER XII.
                                                       PAGL.
Boone obtains two days to consider the summons to surren-
  der.-He refuses to surrender.-Further negotiations out-
  side the fort.-Treachery of the Indians.-Squire Boone
  wounded.-Nine days' siege commences.-The Indians
  retreat.-Boone's great shot.-His daughter.-The siege
  and the defence.-Cause of Kenton's absence.-Boone is
  tried by a court-martial, and honorably acquitted ........  214


                     CHAPTER XIII.

Results of the war.-A retrospect.-Boone visits his family
  in North Carolina.-Emigration to the West increases.-
  Land office established.-Commissioners to settle soldiers'
  land claims.-Governor Shelby.-Great activity in the sur-
  veying of land.-Boone is robbed of a large sum of money.
  -Its effect on Boone.-The land law ...................  2832


                    CHAPTER XIV.

Boone returns to Boonesborough with his family.-The Bri-
  tish and Indians contemplate a bold attack on Kentucky.
  -Anecdote of Randolph.-Governor Morehead's history
  of Boonesborough-Boone and his brother go to the Blue
  Licks.-His brother is shot by Indians.-Boone is pursued
  and escapes.-The cold winter of 1780.-Organization of
  counties.-Indian hostilities renewed.-The British Gov-
  ernment and the Indians.-The renegades Girty and Mc-
  Kee.-Constant alarms of the settlers.-The confederated
  Indians.-Boone again afflicted in the death of Bryant,..  245


                    CHAPTER XV.

The attack on Bryant's Station.-The retreat of the Indians.
-Rally of the settlers.-The council.-The pursuit.-The


 





x



OONTF0 .



                                                        PAGN.
  ambuscade.-Battle of the Blue Licks.-Terrible slaughter
  and retreat of the settlers-Another of Boone's sons slain.
  -Todd, Trigg, Harlan, and sixty-seven others slain.-
  Boone's account.-A thrilling incident.-Boone's report of
  the battle.-CoL Thomas Marshall and Girty's brother,....  271



                    CHAPTER XVI.

General Clarke.-His campaign against the Indians at Old
  Chillicothe.-Narrative of Boone's escape from four In-
  dians.-The paper currency.-Courts of law instituted.-
  Boone establishes himself on a farm.-The return of peace.
  -Increase of emigration.-The Indians-Their love for
  rum.-Their petition.-The Indians at the presecit day,...  293



                    CHAPTER XVII.

Indian hostilities renewed.-The numerous Conventions rela-
  tive to the formation of a State.-John Marshall-Ken-
  tucky admitted into the Union as a State in 1791.-Boone's
  difficulties relative to the title to his lands.-He loses his
  farm.-Narrative of the escape of Downing and Yates from
  the Indians.-The brave Kentuckians.-Escape of Mr.
  Rowan and family.-Boone's visit to his birth-place.-His
  hardships in the loss of his lands, ......................  812



                   CHAPTER XVIII.

Boone's influence over the Indians.-Services in procuring an
exchange of prisonern-He removes to Virginia.-Resumes
hunting.-His habits.-His residence in Virginia-He con-
templates removing to Upper Louisiana.-Gen. Wayne's
victories over the Indians.-Boone looks to the West, ....  834


 





CONTEINT.



                     CHAPTER XIX.r
                                                       PAQl
Boone emigrates with his family to Missouri.-The journey.
  -Spanish possession of the territory.-Injustice to Boone's
  social character.-Boone is welcomed to Missouri by the
  Lieutenant Governor.-Arrival at St. Louis of Laclede and
  Choteau.-Boone receives an appointment from the author-
  ities.-HIe is presented with a large tract of land by the
  Lieutenant Governor.-He neglects to go to New Orleans
  to get his grant confirmed .............................  846


                     CHAPTER XX.

The vicissitudes of Boone's life.-Sale of Louisiana to the
  United States.-Boone revisits Kentucky.-He pays off
  his creditors.-Returns home.-The solitary hunter.-Ex-
  posure to danger as a trapper.-His hunting excursion to
  the Osage River.-He is again deprived of his land by land
  commissioners.-His education.-His children . . .........  959


                    CHAPTER XX1.

Kentucky as a Commonwealth.-Boone's memorial to the
  Legislature and to Congress.-The just response of Ken-
  tucky.-Death of Mrs. Boone.-Boone's treatment at the
  hands of Congress.-General Lafayette's reception.-The
  contrast.-Thc old age of Boone.-His children.-Boone a
  hunter at eighty-two.-Anecdote.-flarding's portrait-
  Sickness of Boone.-His death-A retrospect, ..... .....  871


                    CHAPTER XXI.

Kentucky then and now.-Washington, Lafayette, Boone,
  and Harrison.-The Legislature of Kentucky cause the re-
  mains of Boone to be removed to Frankfort.-The public
  honors.-John J. Crittenden.-Conclusion .  ..............  384



xl


 
This page in the original text is blank.


 











     LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE.




                 CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION - ANCESTRY OF DANIEL BOONE, THE PIONEER -HOME OF HIS
ANCESTORS -EMIGRATION OF GEORGE BOONE FROM ENGLAND, AND SET-
TLEMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA - BIRTH OF DANIEL - LINEAGE - SCHOOL-BOY
DAYS - HIS LOVE FOR FOREST LIFE - THE BOY-HUNTER - REMOVAL OF
SQUIRE BOONE, THE FATHER OF DANIEL, TO NORTH CAROLINA.

  IF it be fame, that in the progress of a great empire,
one name above all others shall be associated with
its deliverance from the dominion of the savage -
with the first step of enterprise-with the grasp of
civilization upon the domain before it -then this in-
heritance is that of the subject of this memoir-
DAsNnL BooNiE. It was his to lead a nation to its
place of power, and the memories of that nation can-
not find more grateful use, than in the treasuring to-
gether of the incidents of his career. He knew no
tame or commonplace existence, but lived on, in a
series of wild and vivid experiences. His life is in
the annals of the forest chivalry that only America
has placed before the observation of mankind,- and
in all the stirring records of the bold and daring-


 




LIFE OF DANIEL ItONE.



the determined and the adventurous, the first place is
his by the consent of the historian.
  It is ever to those who seek to illustrate the career
of such men, a thought of regret, that themselves
were careless of their own biography - not dreaming,
while they performed great deeds, that to the world
that was to come after them, every incident would be,
in all its detail, of value. They were more solicitous
to make the present a distinct and determined reality,
than to take care of the future - and thus they deem-
ed the deed done in its own doing, and cared not who
heard, or admired, or recorded.
  Especially is this true of men of the Border. They
took the powder horn and left the ink horn at home -
and like all men of true courage, they cared not to be
the historians of their own exploits. It is such charac-
teristics of the western rover -above all of Daniel
Boone -that imposes upon their annalist the most
difficult, as it must be the most discriminating of du-
ties, in weaving a narrative of facts and not of fancies.
  The home of his immediate ancestor was in one of
the fairest and pleasantest of the gentle garden-lands
of England. Devonshire, in its richness of cultiva-
tion, its crowded population, its immediate contiguity
to the comforts and advantages of an old society - in
its peaceful exemption from the sound or alarm of
war - was in singular contrast to the scenes to which
the emigration from Bradninch, near Exeter, of George



14


 




SEMLEMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA.



Boone was to introduce his descendants. It was a
school, of all others, least adapted to furnish material
for the formation of character of the adventurous
borderer; and when the gentle slopes and rich pas-
tures and quiet and cultured farms and fields of Dev-
onshire sent to America this group of emigrants, the
keenest prophet of future destiny could not have
imagined a change more extraordinary than was to
be wrought in the future of this family.
  Arriving in this country, he selected as his home,
that part of Pennsylvania which is now the county
of Berks, and became a large landholder. The honors
of the possession of a great area of territory, which
in his own country he could not acquire, the circum-
stances of the new land to which he had come, made
it easy, and he availed himself of the position, by pur-
chasing a large estate in the locality where he bad
settled, and in the neighboring States of Maryland
and Virginia. He had need of all these possessions,
for he brought with him from Devonshire a family
of nine sons and ten daughters.
  There was a touch of the character of his famous
grandson about him, in considering England too
crowded for the comfort of such a family as that
which clustered about him. In that day, 1717, the
colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland and Virginia
were a field with space and verge enough for all those
who sought to give their children a capacious home.



18


 



LIFE OF DANIL BOONE.



   One of the children of George Boone bore the very
American name of "Squire," so often affixed in the
progress of judicial honor, but seldom, even in the
fanciful variety of our nomenclature, finding its way
to the baptismal font. He settled in Bucks county
in the same State, and married Sarah Morgan. Like
his father, he raised a very large family; and it is
curious to observe that it was not till he had, in Israel
and Jonathan, and Samuel and Daniel, and George
and Edward, drawn extensively upon the scriptural
and fanciful designations of mankind, that he invest-
ed his seventh and last son with his own quaint title
of Squire.
  He became a resident of Bucks county. The vi-
cinity of the Delaware was attractive to the emigrant,
who had that richest country " all before him where
to choose." It had been selected by Penn as one of
the great avenues to the ocean, on which enterprise
must be successful. The observation of each hour in
this day shows how true was the sagacity of those
fathers of the country, who distinctly felt that the homes
they secured would soon be surrounded by busy men.
  Daniel Boone was born 11th February, 1735, while
his father resided near Bristol, on the right bank of
the Delaware, about twenty miles from Philadelphia
-inheriting from his parents that, in comparison
with which all other inheritances are faint and feeble
in worth - a constitution insuring longevity, a frame



16


 





fitted for the long career of toil and exertion and des-
perate adventure, and sad suffering which awaited it.
And that this physical good was a characteristic of
this remarkable family, it is a record of value to ob-
serve that while Boone's father attained the age of sev-
enty-six years, the united ages of his six brothers and
sisters amounted to the great aggregate of five hundred
and sixteen years. Three years the junior of George
Washington, his destiny, in the formation of a country
for the future development of free institutions, had
kindred features.
  When he was at the age of three, his father re-
moved to Reading, in Berks county. It is difficult
to realize that the important and flourishing city, the
centre of one of the richest and most thickly settled
counties of the great Commonwealth, was at a period
which is yet imperfectly passing into history, a frontier
border settlement, where the watchfulness and vigil-
ance of the inhabitants were keenly exercised in
guarding their homes against the attacks of the ma-
rauding Indian. It was a revelation to the boy Boone,
of the future of his life. The conversations of his
childhood were the strategy of the savage -and the
development of his mind was formed into the pattern
in which its boldest pursuit was moulded. It is doubt-
less literally true, that the Indian and his incidents
were the household words his tongue earliest formed.
  Concerning his lineage, whether he was of descent



17



LINEAGE.


 




LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE.



from the Boones who were of the Society of Friends.
an ingenious and able genealogical controversy has
been had; and the arguments on either side have been
so clear, so fortified with array of name and date,
that it has been most difficult to decide.  It is very
singular that of one almost contemporaneous with the
seniors of this generation, so much doubt should ex-
ist. It arises from the complete seclusion and obscu-
rity in which his earlier years, from youth to manhood,
were passed, and from the cause that he was utterly
unconscious, except at last, of the value of his own
biography. One of the most elaborate reviews of
this question has been made by John F. Watson, of
Philadelphia, whose contributions to the historical
annals of Pennsylvania and New-York have been
very valuable.   A note from him    is subjoined.     It

 At a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, held
at Philadelphia on the 6th instant, Mr. Thomas Biddle, Jr., the Sec-
retary, read a letter in relation to the Boone family. Tie stated
that a number of early records of that family recently came into
Lis hands, one of which gives an account of the Boone family. It
states they left a town eight miles from Exeter, England, in 1717.
It names Squire Boone as a son of the immigrant, and father of Daniel.
The letter of Mr. Biddle further states, that it is an entire mistake
that the family originally belonged to the Society of Friends; that
the papers prove they were Episcopalians; that he (Mr. B.) learned
verbally from his half-sister, Miss Boone, who died in 1846, aged
'5, that George Boone, on his arrival in 1717, purchased and settled
in what was then Berks county, and laid out a town, naming it
Exeter. Ile also purchased land in different places, some as far south
as North Carolina, and that he purchased and laid out Georgetown,



is


 





may well be, judging from the tone of calmness and
placidity which were so marked in the character of
Boone, that he, by association or education, bad known
the peaceful associations of the domestic life of the
Friends.  He may have found these traits of the ut-
most service. Indeed, though this is anticipating, it
will most impress the close student of the simple an-
nals of the great man, that in the midst of a border
life of commingling in and exposure to scenes of pred-
atory warfare, he seemed to have possessed no desire
whatever to stir up strife or provoke a contest. The
subjoined extract throws light on it:

  " The first of the family of the Boone's were Friends, en-
rolled and recorded in the record of the monthly meetings
at Gwynne meeting,- then called North Wales, in Mont-
gomery Co., Penn., to wit, 1717, 31st of 10th mo., George
Boone, senior, (the grandfather of Col. Daniel Boone) pro-
duced a certificate of his good life and conversation, from the
monthly meeting in Great Britain, ' which was read and well
received.' He was born in 1666. George 2d, son of the
above George, had one son and four daughters, born and re-
corded from 1714 to '22. 'Squire Boone,' on the 23d of
7th mo. 1720, (was soil of the 1st George Boone,) was uni-
ted in marriage to Sarah Morgan, and the records of the

D. C. Mr. Biddle, looking over the papers one day, remarked that
"these Boones all appeared to have been Episcopalians." "Oh, yes,"
replied Miss Boone, "they were all High Church people," adding
that "most of them became Quakers out of compliment to Penn
and his successors."



19



LINEAGE.


 




LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE.



meeting show, that they had the following children, to wit:
Sarah, born 1724, Israel in 1726, Samuel in 1728, Jonathan
in 1730, Elizabeth in 1732, Daniel, the 22d of 8th mo., 1734.
Mary, born in 1736, George in 1739, and Edward in 1740.
These last alone are taken from the records of monthly
meetings at Exeter in Berks Co., about 9 miles south from
Reading, Penn. The above Daniel, is the Col. Daniel.
James Boone was a distinguished mathematician, about the
year 1770, as some of his professional papers still show.
He wrote some family pedigree, which is now with that last
son in Missouri. Richard, a large iron master, (and his
brother Samuel) now live near Reading, and their sister
Sally lives in Exeter. Ruppe's History of Berks and Leb-
anon, says several families of Friends settled in this town-
ship, (Oley) as early as 1713 or 1715, and that George
Boone, a native of England, took out a warrant of 400 acres
of land in 1718 in this township, (meaning Oley.) The re-
cords of Friends concerning Boone, stop with the year 1748,
as being about that time pretty much out of meeting.
In 1747, Israel Boone, eldest son of Squire Boone, was dis-
owned for marrying out of meeting, and on 26th of 3d mo.,
1748, Squire Boone himself is disowned for countenancing
such marriage. About this time he must have emigrated
with his family to Holomant Ford, on the Yadkin River,
North Carolina; because the North Carolinian history of
Boone Co., talks of Daniel as coming there a child, but I
infer rather a lad of 13 or 14 years. The name ' Squire'
is in all plices given in place of baptismal name, and I saw
nothing to indicate him as in the magistracy."

  The evidence from the compositions of the Forest
Statesman, when he had occasion to resort to the


 



SCHOOL-BOY DAYS.



written language, in which to communicate his ideas
to his fellow-men, is that his education, in the techni-
cal and school sense of the term, was very simple
and incomplete. Grammar and orthography were
not his household deities. He expressed his meaning,
taking his road to it over every obstacle of spelling
or sentence that chanced in his way. The school was
just such an one as the frontier settlements would be
likely to possess. Logs were the material most avail-
able for dwelling, fort, or school, and the order of ar-
chitecture was severe in its simplicity. It was but
one of the seven lamps of architecture that blazed in
the forest.  The right-angle was to the settler pos-
sessed of the beauty which Hogarth ascribed to the
curve, for it had simplicity, convenience and strength.
The school-house at which Daniel Boone was an at-
tendant was of the square form - the windows, a mere
hole cut in the logs to admit the light - a chimney,
huge in utter disproportion, on one side, and the art
of the rude mason evinced only in the alternate lay-
ers of log and clay. No luxury of cushions, or pa-
tent seats, or easy-angled desks, favored the children
of that time. Their minds were taught in the midst
of privation; and to submit to the roughness and in-
convenience of life was the discipline which prepared
those who attended them to go out and " make the
rough places smooth." All that education set before
its guests, were the great dishes of the feast of learn-



21


 



22LIFE (iOF DANIEL BOONE.



ing -but the artist had no skill in their preparation.
The school was to be passed through as an ordeal, ra-
ther than lingered in as a privilege.
   To read was taught, but it was more as the mechan-
 ical utterance of the words - to write, but with char-
 acters whose size, more than grace, was consulted-
 to cypher, the problems as simple as for which a ru-
 ral trade could furnish the example. But they who
 graduated at such chairs, went thence to write with
 glittering axe and sword their names and history and
 purposes in forests-to read the emotions and pas-
 sions and will of crafty and dangerous foes, or the
 true destinies of an advancing country-to use their
 arithmetic in estimating the resources of arms, the
 chances of battle, the results of harvest. The schol-
 ar and the merchant were always behind them, wait-
 ing the time of safe adventure.
 But among the brief library of that school, their
 text books were few indeed. There was one in which,
 in all probability, as it was part of the routine of
 study, Boone was taught, whose lessons came to him
 in the mighty solitudes of his after years. A lonely
 man - a companion of the stately trees - away from
 home and the vices of the race, the heavens above
 him seemed nearer than to us,' who are forever at-
 tracted by the crowd around us; and the promptings
 of admiration, of veneration, and of simple faith,
may have come up to his memory from the teachings



22


 


SCHOOL-BOY DAYS.



of the simple lessons of the school-house, with cheer-
ing and consoling power. Boone's " schooling" was
soon over. The times left astute scholarship to the
far-off cities of the Old World. The frontier men
had other and bolder pursuits.
  Around the school-house was the material for learn-
ing to an illimitable extent. The woods opened their
recesses to the hunter, in which he could acquire all
the mysteries of forest craft; and Boone found in
these scenes pursuits most congenial. Pennsylvania,
in the policy pursued by its founder, had not fought
its dominion inch by inch, from the savage; but his
doctrines had not- quite as successfully reached the
frontier, as they had been prevalent at the seat of
government. The Indian was regarded, even by the
most sensible and best judging of the settlers, as an
incumbrance-as of a class of men who occupied
-land, the value of which they did not realize, and of
which they made most imperfect use. But those who
looked thus upon them were the few. The many con-
sidered the Indian as a foe - as treacherous - never
to be trusted, and ready to destroy whenever oppor-
tunity offered; and thus a fitting subject for the
prowess and might of the white man. The woods
were common ground to each. As the Indian either
could not or would not acquire the habit of the set-
tler, the latter applied himself to acquire the cun-
ning and the strategy of the forest men. The settler



23


 



LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE.



watched the movements of the savages, to learn the
means by which such accurate knowledge of pathway
and retreat, and fastness and cave and glen - of the
most minute habits of the wild beast - of all that
pertained to forest life, was obtained; -and in this
school, Daniel Boone sprung at once to superior schol-
arship. The rifle was, in his hand, unerring as the
bow of Robin Hood. He learned lessons of the snow
and the leaves and the moss, and to detect, with quick
eye, the tread of foot -to rival the sagacity of the
hound, or what was as intense in its accuracy-the
cunning of the Indian warrior.
  It has been professed by some who have written of
the bold Boone, to invest his childhood and school
days with incidents of strange interest. It would be
gratifying to be able, with a regard to that without
which a biography is but a fable, so to do. But
Boone's heroic character was made by circumstances.
The strong workings of after life developed the man.
The training for that life began in the rough expe-
riences of the border. Above all, the life of the wood-
mnan taught the boy self-reliance. It gave him to
know what a treasure he held in his own energies,
and showed him that when he had a work to do, him-
self was, of all others, the best craftsman. A better
school, a more varied learning, would have been in-
consistent with the pioneer destiny that was in store
for him. He was to see the State, while as yet it had



24


 
THE BOY-HUNTEIR.



but the physical material of its greatness, and he had
to do with the realities of life, unaffected and uncol-
ored by such impulses as law and civilization were to
bring. The mighty hunter has been the founder of a
great city. The power of using to the best advantage
all that is around us, can be brouight into use, not
alone for the things of every-day life, but for the pro-
duction of the strong features of the incidents of ex-
i