Daniel Boone Contributions

Daniel Boone was a hunter, farmer, explorer, and outdoorsman who contributed to the expansion of America during his lifetime by navigating through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. Daniel Boone was born on November 2, 1734, near Reading, Pennsylvania. Boone was sixth of eleven children born to Squire Boone, a land speculator and farmer, and Sarah Morgan. He was the son of Quaker parents who valued hard work. He learned some simple skills including blacksmithing but had very little formal education. He loved the outdoors, hunting, and independence. He was given his first gun in 1747 where he routinely went wandering through the woods looking for game. He and his parents moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina where he was able and eager to
This was his first real expedition and went as far westward as Floyd County Kentucky. In 1775 he cleared a trail through the Cumberland Gap that soon became a highway to the frontier. There were two main routes through the Cumberland Gap. The most well-known of the two is the Wilderness Road used to reach Kentucky from the east. He was not the first to discover this passageway. Buffalo traveled through the gap when migrating and indians later used it for trading. He was also an agent for Richard Henderson and his Transylvania Company. Boone led his first group of colonists to Kentucky reaching Boonesborough in April of 1775. He brought a second party west that same year that included his family, his wife and 10 children. Boone became the leader of the Kentucky settlement and was also a hunter, surveyor, and indian fighter. Boone was given the rank of major in the militia when Kentucky became a county of Virginia. Boone had many misfortunes and it began when his daughter was captured by Shawnee and Cherokee tribespeople. He ended up rescuing her but he was then captured two years later by the Shawnee when he went out on a long hunt. He escaped and helped defend Boonesborough and other settlements against many indian raids. While heading east he was robbed of the money that settlers had given him to buy land. The settlers became angry and was forced to repay them. He was followed with debts
He was a legislative representative in Maysville, Kentucky. Boone was not a very good businessman and so he lost his land because there was a mistake in the records. After he lost his land, he moved to Point Pleasant. In Kanawha County he was appointed as lieutenant colonel in 1789 and served as its legislative delegate in 1791. He and his family moved once again to Spain’s Alta Luisiana (upper Louisiana, now Missouri). He was once asked why he moved out of Kentucky and he answered with, “Too many people! Too crowded, too crowded! I want some elbow room.” He actually moved because he wanted to own land that he would actually get to keep instead of getting it taken away from him like many times before. The Spaniards were very pleased and welcomed him excitedly. They gave him a large land grant and a leadership role in his district. When the United States took over this land, they revoked his land claim. Boone began making eager trips to his beloved Kentucky around 1810 to pay off his enormous debts. His wife died three years later so then Boone moved in with one of his sons who also lived in Missouri. This would be the place where he hunted, roamed, and lived until his death on September 26, 1820. Boone was 86 years old at the age of his