Daniel Boone the Explorer for Kids ***

1: Daniel Boone was born on 2 November 1734 in Oley Valley, Pennsylvania. His father, Squire Boone, and mother, Sarah Morgan, were Quakers. Daniel Boone had only a meagre amount of formal education, however he was able to read and write.

2: At that time, families relied on hunting for the majority of their food so Daniel Boone was taught hunting skills at an early age. It is believed that he learned some of his skills from the local Lenape Indians.

3: Squire Boone was expelled from the Quakers in 1747 when he defended his eldest son who had married outside of the community. Earlier, in 1742, his eldest daughter had also married outside the community. His wife and younger children continued to attend the church.

4: Squire Boone sold his land in 1750 and settled, with his family, on the Yadkin River, North Carolina. Leaning toward the Christian religion, Daniel Boone no longer attended church.

5: Following the outbreak of the French and Indian War, a militia was called up by Matthew Rowan, the North Carolina Governor. Daniel Boone volunteered and served as a Wagoner.

6: Daniel Boone returned home from the war and, on 14 august 1756, he married Rebecca Ryan. She was a neighbour whose brother had married Daniel Boone’s sister. All ten of their children were baptised.

7: With a need to support his family, Daniel Boone turned to his hunting skills and set about hunting and trapping animals for their pelts.

8: In 1758 the Cherokee Indians raided the Yadkin River Valley. As a result, Daniel Boone moved his family north to Culpeper County, Virginia, and served in the North Carolina Militia. In 1762, after peace was made with the Cherokees, Boone and his family returned to the Yadkin River Valley.

9: In 1767 Daniel Boone entered Kentucky while on a long hunt with his brother Squire. While there he met up with John Findley, a Wagoner he had met in the North Carolina Militia when serving during the French and Indian War. Finley had previously told Boone how Kentucky was a fertile land with an abundance of game for hunting.

10: In May 1769 Daniel Boone headed to Kentucky on a hunting expedition. In June he and a companion were captured by Indians. After a week they managed to escape and returned to their camp. When they arrived they found that their pelts had been stolen and their other companions had gone. After a period of exploration, Daniel Boone returned home.

11: On 25 September 1773 Daniel Boone and his family, together with approximately fifty others, headed for Kentucky with the intention of establishing a settlement.

12: A number of the indigenous Indian tribes had signed a treaty with the British at Fort Stanwix that ceded Kentucky to the British. However, when a hunting party, led by Boone’s eldest son, left the main group, they were attacked and brutally killed by Indians opposed to the settlement. Following this action, Boone and the remainder of the group abandoned their plans.

13: This marked the beginning of hostilities between Virginia and the Indians (mainly the Shawnees) which became know as Dunmore’s War. In 1774 Daniel Boone and a companion covered over eight hundred miles of Kentucky warning colonials of the troubles.

14: Back in Virginia Daniel Boone gained promotion in the militia to Captain when he helped to defend Settlements against the Indians. Towards the end of 1774 the Shawnee Indians withdrew their claim on Kentucky.

15: When Dunmore’s War was over, Daniel Boone was hired to make and mark a trail through the Cumberland Gap to Central Kentucky. With approximately thirty workers, he took the trail to the Kentucky River and established Boonesborough. In 1775 Daniel Boone then returned to collect his family and other colonials to the new settlement.

16: Many Indians were unhappy at losing Kentucky and saw the outbreak of the American Revolution, in 1775, as an opportunity to eject the settlers. The constant attacks by the Indians led to many of the colonists abandoning their settlements, however three fortified settlements remained in place, one of which was Boonesborough.

17: On 14 July 1776 three girls, one of whom was Daniel Boone’s daughter, were kidnapped from outside Boonesborough by Shawnee Indians. Boone and a small party from Boonesborough gave chase, eventually ambushing them two days later when they stopped to eat. They rescued the girls and drove away the Indians.

18: In April 1777 Boonesborough was attacked by the Shawnee and their Chief, Blackfish. Daniel Boone, who was outside the fort at the time, was shot in the ankle and carried back inside. The Indians continued their attacks, killing the cattle and destroying the crops outside the fort.

19: In January 1778 Daniel Boone, now recovered, set off with a party of thirty men to get salt from the Licking River salt springs. The salt was required to preserve the low stock of meat that remained. While hunting to feed the party, Daniel Boone was captured by Blackfish and his Indians. With the Indians outnumbering his party of men, Boone returned with the Indians and persuaded his men to surrender without a fight.

20: Chief Blackfish wanted to take this opportunity to capture Boonesborough, however Daniel Boone managed to convince him to hold off by stating that Boonesborough would surrender in the spring. Boone managed to carry off this deception so convincingly that many of his party believed he had changed sides.

21: Blackfish forced Boone and his men to ‘run the gauntlet’ and adopted some of the men, including Boone, into their tribe. In June 1778, when he learned that Blackfish intended to attack Boonesborough, Boone escaped the tribe and managed to travel the one hundred and sixty miles back to Boonesborough in five days.

22: Upon his arrival, Daniel Boone discovered that his family, apart from his daughter Jemima, had assumed he was dead and gone back to North Carolina. Having made the salt collecting party surrender, and staying with the Shawnee for several months, Boone’s loyalty was called into question. Daniel Boone answered his critics by leading an attack on the Shawnee and taking part in a successful defence of Boonesborough against an attack led by Blackfish.

23: Daniel Boone faced a court martial for surrendering to, and staying with, the Shawnee. After the court heard his evidence, he was acquitted and given a promotion.

24: In 1779 Daniel Boone brought his family back to Kentucky, however rather than resettle in Boonesborough, he created the settlement of Boone’s Station nearby. He became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Fayette County Militia in 1780 and fought in several battles during the American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783).

25: By 1795 Daniel Boone had been involved in many business ventures, in both Kentucky and Virginia, which ultimately failed, however in 1798 Boone County was founded and named after him.

26: In 1799 Daniel Boone and his family left Kentucky and settled in Spanish held Louisiana, which would later become Missouri. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Missouri became part of the United States.

27: Daniel Boone remained in Missouri for the rest of his life, continuing to hunt and trap for as long as he was physically able. He died, of natural causes, on 26 September 1820 in the home of his son Nathan. He was buried next to his wife Rebecca who had died seven years earlier in 1813.