Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone
Boone depicted in an 1820 portrait by Chester Harding, the only known portrait of him made during his lifetime[1]
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates
In office October 1791 – December 1791
Constituency	Kanawha County
In office October 1787 – December 1787
Constituency	Bourbon County
In office October 1781[2] – December 1781
Constituency	Fayette County
Personal details
Born	(1734-11-02)November 2, 1734 Oley Valley, Province of Pennsylvania, British America
Died	September 26, 1820(1820-09-26) (aged 85) Defiance, Missouri Territory
Resting place	Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, Kentucky, or Old Bryan Farm Cemetery, Marthasville, Missouri
Spouse	Rebecca Bryan ​ ​ (m. 1756; died 1813)​
Children	10, including Jemima, Daniel, and Nathan
Relatives	Squire Boone (brother) Levi Boone (nephew) Alphonso Boone (grandson)
Occupation	Hunter soldier politician surveyor merchant
Signature

Daniel Boone (November 2 [O.S. October 22], 1734 – September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. In 1775, Boone founded the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky, in the face of resistance from Native Americans. He founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.^[3]

He served as a militia officer during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which in Kentucky was fought primarily between American settlers and British-allied Indians. Boone was taken in by Shawnees in 1778 and adopted into the tribe, but he resigned and continued to help protect the Kentucky settlements. He also left due to the Shawnee Indians torturing and killing one of his sons. He was elected to the first of his three terms in the Virginia General Assembly during the war and fought in the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, one of the last battles of the American Revolution. He worked as a surveyor and merchant after the war, but went deep into debt as a Kentucky land speculator. He resettled in Missouri in 1799, where he spent most of the last two decades of his life, frustrated with legal problems resulting from his land claims.

Boone remains an iconic, if imperfectly remembered, figure in American history. He was a legend in his own lifetime, especially after an account of his adventures was published in 1784, making him famous in America and Europe. After his death, he became the subject of many heroic tall tales and works of fiction. His adventures—real and legendary—helped create the archetypal frontier hero of American folklore. In American popular culture, Boone is remembered as one of the foremost early frontiersmen, even though mythology often overshadows the historical details of his life.^[4]