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Daniel Boone
By James Daugherty
Daniel Boone is one of the first American icons, a popular icon of frontier life and the early American spirit of exploration. The book, 'Daniel Boone' is a fictional biography of the famous frontiersman.
Daniel Boone was one of 11 children of English Quakers who went West looking for a better life. They settled upon the North Carolina frontier. Daniel learned to read, write, smith, and shoot at a young age, even working for future President George Washington. He married his childhood sweetheart and had kids.
Boone is noted as the discoverer of Kentucky because he was one of the first to travel through the Cumberland Gap, which leads into Kentucky from the east. He attempted to move to Kentucky in 1773. Forced to turn back by hostile Cherokees, Daniel lost his son James. In 1775, Boone and friends were asked to blaze a trail through the Cumberland Gap to establish Kentucky as the 14th state. The Wilderness Road, from Virginia to Kentucky, which Boone completed, opened up the West to further exploration and settlement.
The Wilderness Road allowed many new settlements to open up, including Boonesborough, where Boone and his family eventually moved. It was the first permanent settlement in Kentucky. Originally, Kentucky was claimed as part of Virginia rather than becoming it's own state.
Boonesborough comes under attack from Native Americans, and Daniel becomes a captain in the local militia defending Boonesborough. In 1778, Boone was captured by the Shawnee. The chief, Blackfish, admires Boone and adopts him. Boone escapes unharmed after five months and returns in time to warn the other Boonesborough residents of another attack. With his warning, they fend off the attackers.
Daniel Boone hunted and trapped along the Ohio River after the American Revolution, eventually following his son, Daniel Jr., westward to Missouri, where he continued to hunt and trap until he died in 1820.
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