boys, and of the disruption of the school.

read and write.

In some way, Boone learned to Beyond this, his education was in that school of accomplishment for his life-work-experience. In this, he graduated with the honors of his class. He was no truant or idler. Indolence and indifference never wrought out of crude humanity such a character as Boone, or Kenton, or Tecumseh!

About the year 1752, Boone's father moved the family to North Carolina, and settled on Yadkin river, near Holman's ford, some eight miles from Wilkesboro. Says the historian of that State:1 "In North Carolina, Daniel Boone was reared. Here his youthful days were spent; and here that bold spirit was trained which so fearlessly encountered the perils through which he passed in after life. His fame is part of her property, and she has inscribed his name on a town in the region where his youth was spent. His character was peculiar, and marks the age in which he lived." In the year 1755, Boone was married to Rebecca Bryan, a pretty, rustic maiden of the country, with whom he became enamored. To this wedlock were born nine children, five sons and four daughters. Of the sons, James and Israel fell in battle, slain by the hands of the common Indian foe; the latter at Blue Licks.

The period of Boone's residence on the Yadkin was one of continued turbulence and unrest. The seven years' war with France, terminating with the capture of Quebec and the cession of Canada, in 1760, subjected the borders of Virginia to the horrors of Indian warfare from the Miami tribes, and of North Carolina to the same from the Cherokees of the South, all being allies of the French. Following the comparative quiet which for a time succeeded this treaty of peace and partial immunity from savage hostilities, "the colonists of the Carolinas, and of Virginia, had been steadily advancing to the West, and we can trace their approaches in the direction of the boundaries of Kentucky and Tennessee, to the base of the great Appalachian range."

From Ramsey's annals of Tennessee, we have the historic account of the earliest known venture of Boone to the forests of the great West, in 1760. "At the head of one of the companies that visited the West this year came Daniel Boone, and traveled with them as low as where Abingdon now stands, and there left them." How far he penetrated the forest is not recorded; but "there is still to be seen on a beech tree standing in sight and east of the present stage-road leading from Jonesboro to Blountsville, and in the valley of Boone's creek, a tributary of Wataga, Tennessee, the following words, carved into the bark: 'D. Boone CillED A. BAR On Tree in ThE YEAR 1760.'"

Before the period of Boone's first long visit to Kentucky, the effervescence of discontent and irritant protest against the tyrannical exactions of the British crown, and the insulting intrusions and petty extortions of the foreign.

I Wheeler's "Historical Sketches of North Carolina."

parasites of royalty who were placed in official authority over the colonists, were rife from New England to Georgia. The initial elements needed but time and extended power to formulate an exclusive aristocracy of an association of moneyed fortune, of official power, and of titled lineage, to live in luxury and usurpation by oppression and robbery of the people.

They were already introducing the ostentatious style of living, in contrast to the simplicity of the citizenship. To support their extravagance of style, and their offensive and vulgar aping of the airs of aristocracy, these minions of power-magistrates, lawyers, clerks of courts, and tax-gatherers-imposed enormous fees for their services.1 The Episcopal clergy, supported by a legalized tax on the people, as in England, not content with their salaries, charged extraordinary fees for special services. For a simple marriage service, the poor farmer was required to pay fifteen dollars, equal to fifty dollars now. Tax collections were enforced with extortionate expenses of litigation; while executions, levies, and distresses were of daily occurrence. Sheriffs demanded often more than double and treble the original debt, under threats of sheriffs' sales, and pocketed the gains. Scarcity of money is always incident to a new country, and the cruel extortions became intolerable.

Petitions to the governing powers for relief were treated with contempt, and in desperation, the people banded together for self-protection. The organizations were known as "Regulators," and they resolved "to pay only such taxes as were agreeable to law and applied to the purposes therein named, and to pay no officer more than his legal dues." Out of this came strife and resistance to official proceedings, and finally, actual collision between the Regulators and an armed force led by Governor Tryon, on the 16th of May, 1771, at Alamance, in which the former were worsted. Thus, four years before the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, the war for independence may be said to have practically begun in North Carolina. 2 There was no abatement to the outbreak of 1775.

To the restless, daring, and independent spirit of Boone, these petty tyrannies and outrages were intolerable, and doubtless had much to do in leading him and many comrades to seek liberty and immunity in the far-off refuge of the inviting wilderness. Through all the words that he has spoken or dictated to writers, there is an expression of trust in an over-ruling God, that leaves no doubt that the famous pioneer believed himself an agent in the hands of Providence for His work. Toward the close of his narrative, as dictated to and written by John Filson, in 1784, he says: "I can now say that I have verified the saying of an old Indian, who signed Colonel Henderson's deed at the Wataga treaty. Taking me by the hand, at the delivery thereof, he said, 'Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it.' My footsteps have often been marked with blood; and therefore, I can fully subscribe to its original name. Two

1 Wheeler's Historical Sketches; Hartley's Boone, pp. 27-28.

2 Hartley's Boone, pp. 43-46; Wheeler's Sketches of North Carolina.

darling sons and a brother have I lost by savage hands, which have also taken from me forty horses and an abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights have I been a companion for owls, and often scorched by the summer's sun and pinched by the winter's cold-an instrument ordained. to settle the wilderness."

We would deem it incomplete to close this brief biographic sketch without introducing the fine passages of Marshall in eulogy of Boone and the noble comrades, who together passed through the crucial trials and perils of that pioneer experience which won from savage resistance an empire of crude territory, and wrought out from its exuberant chaos the six illustrious Commonwealths that lie upon either side of the Ohio river, and within the valley of the Mississippi. These were the toilers who established the foundations for the peaceful homes of millions of posterity, and the State-builders who erected empire and authority for the guardianship of society's most sacred trusts.

Says the historian: 1"To appreciate the merit of an enterprise, we should have in view the difficulties which opposed its execution. Thus, we judge of Cecrops, the founder of Athens; of Cadmus, the founder of Boetia; of Danaus, the founder of Argolis. Thus, also, eulogiums have been multiplied and enhanced on Romulus and his hardy followers. In a similar manner, we speak of the first settlers in America. No less than these, have Boone, and others hereafter to be named, merited the appellation of founders; and no less do they deserve the notice of posterity.

"Among the first of these was Daniel Boone, who did not, like Moses of Egyptian memory, find himself the leader of a host of armed followers, impelled by fear or love of the Lord to obey His commands in a journey through the wilderness, though he traversed one equally as extensive and as savage as that of Zin. His attendants were his voluntary comrades, who, without a miracle, reposed their confidence in his sagacity and fortitude. Besides, the names of those heroes and legislators of antiquity have been transmitted to us by the pens of profane historians and poets who, availing themselves of the fictions of past times, have amplified and embellished their subjects with all the inventions of genius, the graces of oratory, and imagery of poetry; or else, under the influence of divine inspiration, the Prophet of Israel has astonished us with the narrative of the wonders he wrought, and which have come down to posterity as miracles. But Daniel Boone, yet living (1812), is unknown to his full fame. From the country of his choice, and of his fondest predilection, he has been banished by difficulties he knew not how to surmount, and is now a resident of Missouri, a Spanish territory. Nor will the lapse of brief time, in which fancy often finds her storehouse of materials for biography, permit the aid of imagination to illustrate his name with brilliant epithets, or otherwise adorn a narrative of simple facts. Yet history shall do him justice, and those who come after him may balance

I Marshall, Vol. I., pp. 16-18.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF BOONE.

43

his relative claims to the regards of posterity. Without the incumbrance of worldly goods to give him local attachments, and without the illumination of science to enable him to shine in society, at the age of eighteen he found himself possessed of high health and a vigorous constitution, supported by great muscular strength and nervous activity. His sole reliance was on his

own arm, and that had been taught to poise the rifle, rather than to use the plow. He delighted to chase on foot the wild deer, and this propensity often led him to places remote from the habitations of men. Accustomed to be much alone, he acquired the habit of contemplation and of self-possession. His mind was not of the most ardent nature, nor does he ever seem to have sought knowledge through the medium of books. Naturally, his sagacity was considerable, and as a woodsman he was soon expert, and ultimately pre-eminent. Far from ferocity, his temper was mild, humane, and charitable; his manners gentle, his address conciliating, and his heart open to friendship and hospitality. Yet his most remarkable quality was an enduring and imperturbable fortitude." The writer was familiar with Boone.

Such is a portraiture of the modern Nimrod and dauntless warrior who for over fifty years led the vanguard of the pioneers of civilization from the slopes of the Alleghanies westward across the waters of the majestic Mississippi, and on to the plains beyond that stretch away to the base of the Rocky mountains. Of the toilers who have builded empires and borne forward the advancing wave of civilization, history records no greater man or truer hero, within his sphere, than simple, unostentatious Daniel Boone.

Judge Richard Henderson.
Life and character..

CHAPTER VIII.

Opens a land office at Boonesborough.
He issues patents in the name of the
Transylvania Company.

A great land monopoly designed.
Henderson's diary.

Plan of government by delegates arranged.

The grand old elm.

Delegates assemble under its shade.
First legislation in Kentucky.
Code of laws passed.

First divine service under the elm.
Reduced to a diet of wild game.

Journal of the proceedings of the delegates.

Compact between the proprietors and the people.

Lordly and crafty usurpations.
Protest by the people.

Defense of the company.

The veto power.

Disputed jurisdiction of Virginia after the Declaration of Independence.

Delegate assembly never meets again. The Transylvania Company usurpation disintegrates under the growth of opposing sentiment and interest.

They fail of recognition by the Continental Congress.

Remarkable scene at Wataga.

Origin of the title, "Dark and Bloody Ground."

Governors of Virginia and North Carolina issue proclamations against the company.

Each of these States grants the company a bonus of two hundred thousand acres. Alienation of Kentucky from Virginia and the Confederation of States, thus defeated.

Our narrative introduces to us here a character very different from that of Boone, but an associate of the latter who made himself a most prominent and important factor in the settlement of Kentucky. Richard Henderson was born in 1735, in Hanover county, Virginia, and emigrated with his parents to Granville county, North Carolina. He was reared in poverty, and his education was neglected almost wholly. Possessed of natural brightness and vigor of mind, and ambitious for preferment, he improved every opportunity with remarkable energy. From the position of constable, he succeeded to that of deputy sheriff under his father, and in the faithful and diligent discharge of the duties of these offices, he acquired that experience that made him distinguished in after life. He prepared himself for the profession of law, and was admitted by Chief-Justice Berry to practice at the bar. Of his career, Collins says: 1 "His energy and spirit knew no rest. He soon rose to the highest ranks of his profession, and honors and wealth followed. Under the law of 1767, providing for a chief-justice and two associates for the province, Governor Tryon the next year appointed Henderson one of the associate justices. While holding the Superior court at Hillsboro, in September, 1770, the 'Regulators' assembled in the court-yard; insulted some I Collins, Vol. II., p. 337.