Daniel Boone's Divided Heart

Daniel Boone was a brave man . . .

On his 50th birthday, in 1794, Colonel Daniel Boone saw published the only work in his own words, “The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone,” a narrative of his exploits in the Kentucky wilderness spanning nearly 20 years.  However, after a life devoted to trailblazing and making Kentucky fit for habitation and an easy access to western territories, Daniel Boone began to feel “cramped in” by his own efforts – after all, Kentucky by the late 1700s had reached a population of nearly 200,000 people spread over a mere 100,000 square kilometers of land. He observes, "Thus we behold Kentucky, lately an howling wilderness, the habitation of savages and wild beasts, become a fruitful field; this region, so favourably distinguished by nature, now become the habitation of civilization.”

. . . and that is why Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca left their beloved home state and moved farther west in 1799, to a less civilized place called Defiance, Missouri – not to conquer new frontiers, for he was nearly 70 years old by then, but to bask in the privacy of untamed territory and wide open space once again. Other sources say he left because of a nasty dispute about land and property rights. Not being a man to put up with such trivial legalities, he and Rebecca just packed up and left . . . Rebecca died a few years after the move to Missouri, followed by Daniel several years later. They were both buried in a neighboring town called Marthasville, MO. That’s when the real dispute begins . . . 

. . . and his wife Rebecca worked very hard

Kentuckians of the early 1800s knew what they had in their historic pioneer Daniel Boone, though I hardly think they could have foreseen the TV series with Fess Parker which we 20th century children would come to know well (and hum the catchy tune all our lives, if not sing the words as well). Kentuckians began to resent that Missourians had somewhat stolen the glory of what Daniel Boone stood for – the trailblazing legend, his general independent spirit, and all that America had come to stand for.



Daniel Boone's gravesite overlooking the Kentucky River 

 That’s when a few like minded independent Kentuckians went to Missouri one night in 1825 to dig up the bones of Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca, and to bring them back to Kentucky for a proper burial in their home state. The couple was reinterred in a fine scenic spot overlooking the rambling Kentucky River that runs through the state’s capitol of Frankfort.

Missourians might have been appalled at first, but from what I’ve read they mostly just laughed, saying, “You didn’t even get the right bones – we’ve still got him!” You see, they claim that the plot next to Rebecca was already occupied when Daniel died – and so, the man who didn't like to be cramped in was buried at his wife's feet.

Kentucky says that’s not true – for they gathered up all the bones in the area. A modern day anthropologist declares that the skull buried in the Frankfort plot actually belongs to a large black man. This anthropologist concedes, however, that some other bones in the plot may very well belong to Daniel Boone.

Missouri replies, saying that the heart and brain of Daniel Boone had long since become one with Missouri soil – and no one can steal that.

The monument to Daniel and Rebecca Boone, Frankfort, KY

But Kentucky reminds them that Daniel Boone’s true heart and spirit will always reside in Kentucky! And so, there are two official plots claiming to hold the remains of Daniel Boone . . .