USA > Texas > Border fights & fighters; stories of the pioneers between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi and in the Texan republic > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
He was desperately lonely and homesick for the sight of his wife and children. Impelled by this loneliness to action he made a long detour of exploration in the south- west along the Salt and Green Rivers. He saw frequent signs of Indians and was often forced to hide himself in the cane brakes without fire to escape their observation.
On the 27th of July, 1770, his brother returned and they met at the old camp on the Red River. His brother brought with him ammunition and necessaries and two horses, perhaps the first horses ever ridden by a white man in Kentucky. The two men explored the country
122
Border Fights and Fighters
between the Cumberland and Green Rivers thoroughly during the year until March, 1771, when they turned northwest to the Kentucky River, where they decided to form their permanent settlement. Packing as much of their skins as their horses could carry they returned to the settlement on the Yadkin.
There is a story that the two men fell in with another body of hunters called, from the duration of their stay in Kentucky, the Long Hunters, and that the party be- guiled the long hours of the evenings in the camp by reading aloud " Gulliver's Travels," which, with the pos- sible exception of the Bible, was the first English book read in the territory. Some of the names in the book still obtain in the state, as for instance, "Lulbegrud " Creek !
Daniel Boone had been absent over two years, during which time he had tasted neither bread nor salt nor seen any white men other than his travelling companions, who had all perished, except his brother, and the Indians. Meanwhile other parties of hunters had been exploring different portions of the country, mostly in the valley of the Cumberland, and at the same time Robertson and his North Carolinians were making the first settlement on the Watauga in the mountains of Tennessee.
IV. The Settlement of Kentucky
On the 25th of September, 1773, Boone, having dis- posed of all his earthly goods save what could be loaded upon pack-horses, accompanied by his family and that of his brother Squire and several other families amount- ing in all to some fifty persons, set forth for Kentucky. It was a small humble cavalcade, a petty insignificant
The Greatest of the Pioneers 123
migration, yet it marks a momentous date in history, for it was the inauguration of " a movement for the annihi- lation of savagery, the extinction of the Latin and the supremacy of the Teutonic civilization in North America, parallel to that rolling westward from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, at the same time."
It, with the settlement of Robertson on the Watauga, was the beginning of that great drama of our history which has been described in poetic language as "the winning of the west." Many people played a prominent part in it, but certainly Daniel Boone must stand more nearly as the Columbus of the movement than any other man. But it was to be some years before he established himself and family in that promised land. As they ap- proached the mountains a party of Indians fell upon their rear guard and killed six young men, among whom was Boone's eldest son. Alas, it was only the beginning of tragedies that dogged his family, for the Indians at one time or another made sad havoc among his kith and kin .*
The unfortunate incident so discouraged the pioneers that, in spite of Boone's urging, they gave over the at- tempt and settled on the Clinch River in Virginia. Boone's heart was in Kentucky, however, and he made several visits there, one to bring back a party of surveyors who had gone there by the order of Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia.
Boone was commissioned a captain in the royal service in Dunmore's War and had command of three frontier forts, where he did good service. He always carefully preserved his British commission thereafter, and it is
*Two sons, a brother, two brothers-in-law, and other relatives were killed by Indians at different times,
I24
Border Fights and Fighters
alleged frequently saved his life when he was captured by the Indians, who were the allies of the British, by exhibiting it as proof of his loyalty, a perfectly justifiable stratagem, of course.
In 1775 he was sent by Colonel Richard Henderson of North Carolina, who had formed a proprietary com- pany and purchased a vast tract of land between the Ken- tucky and Cumberland Rivers, which he called Transyl- vania, to survey a road to the Kentucky River and estab- lish a fort there which should be the head-quarters of the company. At the head of a small party of some twenty men, Boone again entered the promised land.
It speaks well for the natural skill of the man as a road builder when we learn that the path he marked out over the mountains and up through the valleys remains a great highway to-day, and that subsequent generations spent thousands of dollars under the direction of skilled engi- neers on that very " Wilderness Road, " which for loca- tion they found could hardly be improved upon. Here is a letter written twenty one years after to General Shelby about that same road :
Feburey the 11th, 1796.
Sir :
After my Best Respts to your Excelancy and famyly I wish to inform you that I have sum intention of under- taking this New Rode that is to be Cut through the wil- derness and I think My Self intitled to the ofer of the Bisness as I first Marked out that Rode in March 1775 and Never Re'd anything for my trubel and Sepose I am no Statesman I am a Woodsman and think My Self as Capable of Marking and Cutting that Rode as any other man. Sir if you think with Me I would thank you to write mee a Line by the post the first oportuneaty and he Will Lodge it at Mr. John Milerson hinkston
The Greatest of the Pioneers 125
fork as I wish to know Where and When it is to be Laet (let) So that I may atend at the time
I am Deer Sir your very umble sarvent DANIEL BOONE
To his Excelancy governor Shelby
This interesting document proves conclusively that Boone was more familiar with the rifle than the pen.
The party fought its way up through the Indians, los- ing several killed on the journey. They arrived at the chosen point on the Ist of April and on the 29th of the month, having been joined by Henderson and other pro- prietors, they began the erection of a rude fort which they called in honor of their leader Boonesborough. The fort was begun after the Battle of Lexington and com- pleted just before the Battle of Bunker Hill, two mo- mentous events of which the colonists were in ignorance for a long time. When they did hear the news, however, their rejoicings showed their American patriotism was above proof.
The fort, plans of which remain to us, was a very curi- ous one, although all frontier forts, except in dimensions, exactly resembled it. It was situated on the side of a hill with one corner quite near the river. At each of the four corners there was a two story blockhouse, and along the sides of the fort a series of little cabins placed close together, their roofs slanting inward. The loop- holed cabin walls, with the palisades which filled up the spaces where there were no cabins near each of the block- houses, enclosed a space two hundred and sixty feet long by one hundred and fifty wide. There were heavy timber gates in the front and back. The walls were about twelve feet high and there was hardly a nail or a piece of iron used in the whole enclosure.
126
Border Fights and Fighters
Here, in the same year, Boone brought his wife and family; and, on the 8th of September, Rebecca Boone and her daughters were the first white women to stand on the banks of the Kentucky. They were followed
n
1
2
3
4
: 3
1
2
2
1. BLOCKHOUSES.
2. STOCKADES.
3. CABINS.
4. GATES.
3
3
5. COOK HOUSE.
5
Z
2
1
2.
3 :
---
4
2
1
Plan and Perspective View of Boonesborough.
shortly after, however, by other families who settled at Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and elsewhere, in similar forts throughout the territory.
Thus the settlement of Kentucky was begun, but it was not maintained for many years without hardship and loss
2
I27
The Greatest of the Pioneers
of life incredible. In thirteen years hundreds of men and women were killed by Indians. To their natural ferocity and their overwhelming desire to clear the prized hunting ground of settlers, there was added the encour- agement of the British government, which was entirely willing to let loose upon its rebellious subjects the horde of savages and as a definite evidence of its desires paid liberally for the white man's-or white woman's for that matter-scalp. Hamilton, the British Governor of De- troit, " the hair-buyer general, " was the prime mover in this situation.
It goes without saying that the colonists were rebels to a man, and it is interesting to know that on Tuesday, May 23rd, 1775, at the instance of Colonel Henderson, President of the Transylvania Company, a representative government was established at Boonesborough, Daniel Boone being one of the legislators.
It is characteristic of Boone that in the record of in- troduced bills he seems to have originated but two bills, one to preserve the game, the other to improve the breed of horses. There speaks .the Kentucky hunter and sportsman! Both bills were passed, as was another to prevent "profane swearing," introduced by the Rev. John Lythe, a clergyman of the Church of England, who, on Sunday the 28th of May, under the spreading branches of a grand old elm, in the words of that most ancient liturgy, held the first religious services within the state.
V. Adventures with the Indians
Boonesborough was twice attacked by bodies of Ind- ians, but the war parties were driven off with considerable
128
Border Fights and Fighters
loss to themselves and but little loss to the garrison. The prevalence of war parties often prevented the settlers from making a crop and they were forced to live mainly by the chase. Boone was easily the best shot and the keenest hunter in the settlement. This and other quali- ties gave him the practical leadership of all expeditions, although the proprietors were sometimes present.
On Sunday, July 14th, 1776, three young girls, the eldest Elizabeth Callaway, aged seventeen, her sister Frances, and Jemima Boone, just turned fourteen, rowed across the river in a canoe during the absence of Boone and Colonel Callaway, another of the fine spirits of the period. When they reached the other side the canoe grounded on a bar and one of a party of six Indians, who had come close to the fort unobserved, seized the bow of the boat, dragged it to land, and the girls were capt- ured. With the spirit of the pioneer women, Elizabeth Callaway attacked the Indians with her canoe paddle and severely wounded one of them in the head. The other two girls also offered a stout resistance, which of course availed nothing.
The Indians, elated by the capture, which they rightly judged to be of importance, hurried their captives away from the fort. They strove to get the girls to put on moccasins in order that the betraying tracks of their shoes should not indicate their route in the pursuit which was certain to be made, but Elizabeth Callaway resisted so that they were forced to let her have her own way, and to trust to the rapidity of their movements to effect their escape.
The girls, by the intrepid Elizabeth's direction, blazed their trail by breaking twigs from the trees as they passed, and when they were discovered and prohibited, tore their
129
The Greatest of the Pioneers
dresses into bits and dropped pieces at intervals. Boone and Callaway came back to the fort that evening, when the girls were missed.
Many of the men were still away hunting and it would not have been safe to deprive the fort of all means of resistance. Two parties were organized at once, com- prising some twenty men. Seven of them went with Boone, who easily caught the trail of the Indians. Among them was young Henderson, son of the proprie- tor, who was in love with Elizabeth Callaway, who shortly afterward married him, while strangely enough, two of the other men in the party afterward married the two other girls when they had reached what was then con- sidered a suitable age. Women were scarce in Ken- tucky and the available ones never lacked for lovers and attention.
Guided by the traces left by the girls, the party pur- sued the Indians with furious speed, and came upon them encamped in fancied security the second day. How to effect the recapture of the girls without giving the Ind- ians time to kill them was something of a problem. Boone and Henderson finally crawled as near the camp as they dared, and when four of the others fired on the unsuspicious Indians, they dashed upon them, placed themselves between the girls and the camp and immedi- ately opened fire, each shooting his man as he ran. The Indians fled precipitately and the girls were saved. In the excitement of the little battle, so an ancient account says, one of the rescuers, mistaking Elizabeth Callaway, who was very dark and sat at the foot of the tree with a handkerchief bound around her head, for an Indian, lifted his gun butt to beat out her brains before he recognized her.
9
130
Border Fights and Fighters
A few weeks after there was a wedding in the stockade between the dusky Elizabeth and young Henderson, Squire Boone, who is reputed to have been an elder in the church, performing the ceremony. This was the first marriage solemnized in Kentucky.
Boone was many times in danger from Indians. In 1777 his life was saved by the famous pioneer Simon Kenton. Several men in the fields near Boonesborough, attacked by a party of Indians, ran toward the fort, one of them being killed and scalped by the way, and their cries led Boone to sally out to their relief with thirteen men. He charged impetuously upon the Indians and was met by a fire from a concealed party. With six of his men he was wounded by a bullet, and as he lay on the ground one of the Indians attempted to scalp him. Kenton shot the Indian dead, lifted Boone in his arms and with the rest of his party succeeded in gaining the fort. Boone was very taciturn, silent and quiet, as one who had spent much time in self-communion in the wil- derness. In a few brief, unemotional words, which yet meant more than a volume from another man, he thanked Kenton for his assistance.
" Well, Simon, you have behaved yourself like a man to-day," he said, " indeed you are a fine fellow."
On one occasion while out hunting he was captured by a party, who bound him with withes and left him on the ground in the care of some squaws, who proceeded to get very drunk on the contents of Boone's whiskey bottle. It must have been a very large bottle or con- tained an unusual quality of whiskey. During the night Boone rolled over to the fire, held his hands in the flames until the bonds were burned and made his escape, first blazing a tree with three deep gashes to mark the place.
I31
The Greatest of the Pioneers
Years after he found the gashed tree and settled a boun- dary dispute by his identification of the landmark.
While hunting with his brother Edward near the Blue Licks, his brother was shot dead and again Boone fled for his life. The Indians followed his trail with a dog. The hound and the leading savage were close upon him, one of them only was at his mercy. He wisely shot the dog and escaped.
The record of his many adventures would fill a volume. His longest captivity, however, occurred in January, 1773. A great need of the colonists was salt. It was impracticable to bring it from the seaboard over the mountains, and the only way they could get it was by boiling the water from the salt springs, or "licks " as they were called, from the practice of the wild animals in licking the rocks of the ground for the salt with which they were impregnated.
With a party of thirty men Boone was engaged in this tedious but very necessary occupation. As usual he left the work to his subordinates while he hunted to provide game for the party. While hunting he was taken by a large party of Indians en route for Boonesborough, which they were by this time determined to capture. The garrison at Boonesborough, small at best, was great- ly weakened by the absence of this party, and as they could capture Boone and his companions and then fall upon the stockade there would be no doubt but that they would take it with the women and children.
Boone affected to be delighted with his capture. He said that he and his companions had left Boonesborough for good, that they sympathized with the Indians and were quite willing to go along with them-perhaps here he exhibited his British commission. He adroitly warned
132
Border Fights and Fighters
them at the same time that Boonesborough was heavily re-enforced with Americans, who had in fact driven these British sympathizers away.
The Indians, who easily captured the rest of the party, were delighted with their prisoners, who had surrendered by Boone's advice; and, moved by his representations, abandoned their efforts and returned across the Ohio to their own country with their prisoners. Boone's readi- ness undoubtedly saved the women and children from the horrible fate of the Indian captive. His men were scat- tered among the tribes but were in the main well treated, and most of them finally escaped after varying periods of captivity.
There seems to have been a singular difference be- tween the Indians of that day and place and our modern savages. Black Fish, the head chief of the Shawnees, and a warrior of no mean prowess, claimed Boone as his personal prisoner, and finally adopted him into his family, renaming him Big Turtle. Boone was separated from his men and taken to Detroit, where Hamilton, to his great credit be it said, treated him kindly and even offered to buy his freedom from the Indians for one hundred pounds. Black Fish was so charmed with his prisoner that he refused to part with him for any sum, and indeed Boone refused to be bought so far as he had anything to say about it, because he did not wish to be under any obligations of that sort to the British, especially as it might prevent his escape.
The Indians left Detroit in the spring and returned south to their own country, again taking Boone with them. He became a great favorite with all the tribe, and as usual was the hunter upon whom they depended. They used to count the charges of powder and the num-
I33
The Greatest of the Pioneers
ber of balls which he took with him on his hunting expeditions and when he returned he had to account for every charge and ball. In other words, he had to bring back game or bullets. They made no provision for a miss, which spoke eloquently of their opinion of his marksmanship. But Boone adroitly used only half charges of powder and split the bullets, trusting to his skill in stalking the game to bring him near enough to make a small charge do the work. By degrees he man- aged to accumulate a little ammunition this way.
The Shawnees were very busy at the time and he learned, in spite of their efforts at secrecy, that they were mustering in great force for an attack on Boonesbor- ough, which they hoped to capture in his absence. Fear- fully anxious for his family and others he sought desper- ately for means of escape, and finally succeeded in getting away on the 16th of June, and in four days he traversed the distance between the Indian village and Boonesbor- ough, over one hundred and fifty miles, during which time he only had a single meal. Part of the time he was on horseback, it is alleged. He was not a good swimmer. When he came to the Ohio he found a de- serted canoe on the banks which enabled him to cross the wide swift river. When the starved exhausted woodsman reached Boonesborough he was received with rejoicings as one risen from the dead. His wife, deem- ing that he had been killed, had gone back to North Car- olina with her children.
I34
Border Fights and Fighters
VI. The Defence of Boonesborough
The fort, which had fallen out of repair, was at once put in shape for defence when the news that he had brought became known. Boone naturally took charge of everything. Hoping that he might deter the Indians from coming, or stop their advance, while the rest were busily engaged in working on the stockade he led a party of twenty men to the Scioto River, where he encountered a larger force of Indians, defeated them and drove them back. But learning that the main body was already en route for the fort Boone and his companions retraced their steps, succeeded in passing the Indians and reached Boonesborough in safety, after a terrific march, just be- fore the savages appeared.
The party entered the fort shortly before sunset, Sun- day, September 6th, and that night the Indians appeared on the other side of the river and the next morning they crossed without opposition and invested the fort. The Indians were not alone, however, for they were accom- panied by eleven French Canadians under a young cap- tain, whose name was Dagniaux de Quindre, although he is usually referred to in the histories as Du Quesne, and one extravagant romancer actually identifies him with the family of the great marquis for whom the cele- brated fort was named! The party advanced under the French and English flags, strange to say. The real com- mander of the expedition, which numbered four hundred and forty-four Indians beside the Canadians, was Boone's adopted father Black Fish, very much cut up at his quondam son's desertion and defection.
Contrary to their usual practice, instead of at once be-
.
The Greatest of the Pioneers 135
ginning an attack, the Indians through de Quindre pro- posed a parley, in which the surrender of the fort was demanded under promises of kind treatment and so forth. Boone's conduct in his late captivity inspired them with the hope that they could effect their end without resist- ance. The wily hunter asked for two days to consider, which was at once granted by the unsuspecting allies, who carried their complaisance so far that when the cattle of the settlers, returning in the evening as was their wont, presented themselves before the gate the Indians made no objection to their entrance.
Meanwhile the people in the fort, amounting to thirty men, twenty boys, and the women and children, worked like beavers, strengthening the palisades and getting a supply of water from a spring outside. It is a strange thing that almost every fort that was erected in Kentucky was forced to get its water from some external source. At the end of two days, their preparations having been completed, Boone calmly informed the Frenchman that under no circumstances would he surrender and at the same time thanked the besiegers for allowing him time to complete his preparations for defence.
Discomfited by this unlooked-for check to their hopes, they did not yet abandon their endeavors for a further treaty. Boone was very anxious to gain time. Ex- presses had been sent to Virginia and North Carolina asking that troops be despatched to aid them and raise the siege. The longer he waited the more was the like- lihood of their arrival. He therefore consented to a fur- ther discussion of the question of surrender.
The next day was appointed for a council. Nine Americans were to meet a party of Indians and Cana- dians, all unarmed, outside the walls of the fort. Boone
136
Border Fights and Fighters
stationed a number of his best riflemen in the block-house nearest the meeting-place with instructions to fire upon the Indians should any treachery be manifested.
The nine Americans, among whom were Boone and his brother, secure in this protection, held a grand pow- wow with the Canadian and Indian delegates, who were present in considerably greater numbers at the treaty place. between the fort and the Indian encampment. A singular treaty of peace, hard to understand from the meagre accounts which have come down to us, was pro- posed, to which the Americans agreed. After the matter had been apparently amicably settled de Quindre and his allies thought that nothing remained to them but to take possession of the post; but before they parted they proposed that the treaty should be ratified by a general handshaking. This request was acceded to by Boone, who, to tell the truth, does not seem to have shone as a diplomatist. Instead of shaking hands singly two Indians at once endeavored to grasp the hands of each American, and as soon as the savages seized the pioneers they started to drag them toward the Indian camp.
But they reckoned without their hosts. If Boone was little of a negotiator he was much of a fighter. Shout- ing to his men he jerked himself free from the two who held him and struck out right and left with his fists, in the good old Anglo-Saxon style, a way the Indians knew nothing of. His example was followed by his compan- ions and the whole party ran for the fort pursued by the Indians. At the same time the rest of the savages who had not attended the council ran from their camp by the river bank and opened fire; but a steady and well-di- rected fire from the block-house killed a number of the pursuers and enabled Boone and his men to reach the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.