Who was the real Daniel Boone? Undoubtedly, he did lead an interesting life. Here, with the help of John Mack Faragher, we can sort out the fact from the fiction. Most of Faragher's work was completed with original sources, as well as the extensive collected works of Lyman Copeland Draper, whose work in the mid-nineteenth century with Boone family members and location research has assisted writers and biographers ever since.
1713 Boone's father, Squire, arrives in Philadelphia from England.
1720 Squire Boone and Sarah Morgan marry in the Friends' meetinghouse in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania.
1731 Boone's parents relocate to the upper Schuylkill River valley.
1734 Born in Exeter township, near Reading, on October 22.
1750 Family leaves Pennsylvania for the western country; Boone engages in his first "long hunt."
1751 Family settles in Rowan County, North Carolina, on the Yadkin River; Boone takes up hunting as his business.
1755 French and Indian War begins; Boone with Braddock's army during the disastrous defeat near Pittsburgh.
1756 Marries Rebecca Bryan on August 14; they soon settle in Rowan County.
1759 During the Cherokee War, family flees to Culpeper County, Virginia.
1760 Boone first crosses the Blue Ridge during his winter hunt.
1762 The Boones return to Rowan County.
1765 Boone explores the Florida country with an eye to moving there.
1766 Family moves to a site farther west, near present Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
1767 Reaches Kentucky and hunts along the Big Sandy River.
1768 Regulator rebellion in North Carolina
1769 With five others leaves for a long hunt in Kentucky on May 1; captured by Shawnees on December 22.
1771 Boone returns home after two years in Kentucky.
1773 Boone leads party of family and friends to Kentucky, but they are turned back at Cumberland Gap by an Indian attack that kills his eldest son, James, on October 9.
1774 Sent by Virginia authorities to warn Kentucky surveyors of pending war with Shawnees; leads defense of Clinch River settlements during Dunmore's War.
1775 For the Transylvania Company, leads party cutting the Wilderness Road to Kentucky; founds Boonesborough in the face of Shawnee attacks; brings family to Kentucky.
1776 Leads rescue of daughter Jemima and Callaway girls from Shawnees in July; copy of Declaration of Independence reaches Boonesborough in August.
1778 Boone and his men captured by Shawnees while making salt on February 9; he escapes in June; siege of Boonesborough, September 7-18; rejoins Rebecca and children, who had returned to North Carolina.
1779 Leads large party of emigrants to Kentucky in September; settles Boone's Station, north of the Kentucky River.
1780 Participates in attack on Shawnee towns in Ohio; brother Edward killed by Shawnees in October.
1781 Takes elected seat in Virginia assembly in April; captured by invading British forces in June, but soon released.
1782 One of the commanding officers at the Kentuckians' defeat by Indians at the Blue Licks, where son Israel is killed, August 19; in command of a company that attacks Shawnee towns in November.
1783 Relocates family to Limestone, on the Ohio River; takes up tavern keeping, surveying, and land speculating.
1784 The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon by John Filson published on Boon's fiftieth birthday.
1786 Commands an attack on Shawnee towns in October.
1787 Helps negotiate prisoner exchange with Shawnees at Limestone in August; takes seat in Virginia assembly in October.
1789 With Rebecca and youngest children leaves Limestone and relocates at Point Pleasant, farther up the Ohio River.
1791 Serves once again in the Virginia assembly; wins contract to supply militia companies in western Virginia.
1792 Dispute over supply contracts leads to his abandonment of business and return to full-time hunting; with Rebecca, soon moves to a cabin near present Charleston, West Virginia.
1795 To be nearer family, relocates to a cabin on Brushy Fork in Kentucky.
1797 Son Daniel Morgan Boone scouts land in Spanish Missouri; governor invites Boones to emigrate.
1798 Kentucky assembly names county after Boone; Mason County issues warrant for his arrest for debt; leaves Brushy Fork for a cabin at the mouth of the Little Sandy River on the Ohio.
1799 Leads extended family from Kentucky to Femme Osage country in Missouri; appointed "syndic" of district by Spanish governor.
1803 Seriously injured in hunting accident; relocates with Rebecca to cabin on the farm of son Nathan; Louisiana Purchase.
1806 Appears before the Federal Land Commission, seeking confirmation of his Spanish land grant.
1809 Gets word of rejection of his Spanish land grant; works on petitions to Congress.
1813 Rebecca dies March 18.
1814 Congress grants Boone a tract of Missouri land.
1820 Dies on September 26; buried near Rebecca in the cemetery near Jemima's farm.
1845 A delegation from Kentucky disinters the Boone graves and reburies remains in Frankfort, Kentucky.
(p. xi-xiv)
Julie Rose
Last updated 11/10/95