Athletes - Daniel Boone

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Daniel Boone (November 2, 1734 – September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer, frontiersman and Indian-fighter, who blazed the trail known as the "Wilderness Road" and founded Boonesborough, Kentucky (also known as Boonesboro).

Family and early life

Daniel was born to Squire Boone (November 25, 1696 - January 2, 1765) and Sarah Jarman Morgan (1700 - 1777) in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. His father was born to a family of Quakers in Devon, England. Squire Boone immigrated to Pennsylvania in early 1713 along with his older siblings George Boone and Sarah Boone. The rest of the family joined them on September 19 (Old Style)/September 30 (New Style), 1717.

Squire at first settled in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania but then moved to Lower Gwynedd Township, Pennsylvania. There he met Sarah Morgan, daughter to a family of Quakers from Wales. They married on October 4, 1720.

The couple eventually moved to Chalfont, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. By 1730, they were able to purchase their own 250 acres (1 km²) of land in Homestead, Pennsylvania.

Squire Boone and Sarah Morgan had twelve children:

Sarah Cassandra Boone (June 7, 1724 - 1815).
Israel Boone (May 20, 1726 - June 26, 1756).
Samuel J. Boone (May 20, 1728 - 1814).
John Jonathon Morgan Boone (December 6, 1730 - 1808).
Elizabeth Boone (February 5, 1733 - February 25, 1825).
Daniel Boone.
Jacob Boone (1735 - 1780).
Mary Boone (November 3, 1736 - July 6, 1819).
George Boone (January 2, 1739 - November 12, 1820).
Edward Boone (November 19, 1740 - October 6, 1780).
Squire Boone, Jr. (October 5, 1744 - August 15, 1815).
Hannah Boone (August 12, 1746 - June 28, 1828).

Daniel received little formal education. Although Daniel was literate, his spelling and grammar were always rather crude. He is presumed to have been trained as a farmer, blacksmith and weaver. He has been described as "an extremely calm man, with a very prominent forehead".

On December 31, 1747, Daniel's brother Israel married Mary S. Wharton, a non‑Quaker, with the consent of his father. The local Quaker community found the marriage scandalous and called the Boones to repentance, but Squire Boone continued to support it. As a result, in 1748 the Quakers shunned the entire Boone family.

Travels and exploration

Squire Boone and his family left Pennsylvania in 1750, eventually to settle in Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. While serving with the British during the French and Indian War, in 1755, Daniel Boone barely escaped with his life from General Braddock's crushing defeat. In 1756, Daniel married Rebecca Bryan, a neighbor in the Yadkin Valley. Daniel fathered 10 children with Rebecca.

Boone explored much of Kentucky and Tennessee, which at the time were frontier hinterlands of the colonies almost unsettled by Europeans, and became instrumental in establishing the Wilderness Road over the Appalachians through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. In 1769, Boone blazed the first known trail from North Carolina to Tennessee. Boone spent the winter of 1769‑70 in a cave, on the banks of the Shawnee River, in Mercer County, Kentucky. A tree marked with his name, is yet standing near the head of the cave. He spent the next two years hunting and exploring in Kentucky ("Kaintuck"), where he was captured twice by Indians, and escaped both times. In 1773, Boone attempted to settle in Kentucky, but an Indian attack resulted in the death of his oldest son James. In 1775, Boone worked as an agent for the Transylvania Company. Along with a party of thirty settlers, Boone began to clear the Wilderness Road and this time was successful in establishing a settlement at Fort Boonesborough near Lexington, Kentucky. This was the first settlement of Transylvania. This action was most significant because, by exploring and encouraging the settlement of "Boonesborough", he violated the agreements of the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

In 1776, Boone became an officer in the Virginia militia when Kentucky formally became a western county of Virginia (later a separate territory and state). During most of the American Revolutionary War, Daniel Boone fought against the Indian tribes along the western frontier. In 1778, Boone was captured by Shawnee raiders and held captive for four months, but survived after.

Revolutionary War battles

During the American Revolutionary War, between the American rebels and the British, Native Americans fought on both sides. Native American loyalties during the War generally depended upon previous loyalties and alliances, although both sides lobbied hard to win support of the Indians. Boonesborough became the site of several battles during the War, when it was besieged at least three times over a period of months. In one of these sieges, on February 7, 1778, Daniel Boone and twenty-six companions were captured by Shawnee warriors, led by Chiungalla.

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Athletes - Daniel Boone

Family and early life

Travels and exploration

Revolutionary War battles

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