“A
good gun, a good horse, and a good wife,” in that order, were the
ingredients for Daniel Boone’s prescription for happiness. The American
pioneer’s name has long been synonymous with such terms as the greatest of
frontiersmen, an intrepid explorer or hunter, and a resourceful
backwoodsman. Boone’s accomplishments have been exaggerated in popular
accounts, but there is no doubt that his explorations “opened the way to
millions of his fellow men.” Born near Redding, Pennsylvania, the great
folk hero moved to North Carolina with his Quaker family in his early
years. After serving under British General Braddock as a wagoner, he
explored Florida, and fought as a lieutenant colonel of militia during the
American Revolution, among many other activities. But his major
contribution was the blazing of the famous Wilderness Road, which he and a
band of thirty men forged in March, 1775, to found Boonesboro on the
Kentucky River. Daniel and his wife Rebecca, figure in more frontier lore
than any other pioneers and has been commemorated in numerous place names.
Boone was eighty-six when he died in 1820, a legend in his own time.