Daniel Boone was a man.
That’s a fact.
That statement also begins the famous theme song for the 1964 television series ‘Daniel Boone,” based on the legendary 18th-century trailblazer and settler of America’s western frontier.
One of the first things I learned after moving to Berks County in the late 1990s was that Daniel Boone actually lived here. His Exeter Township childhood home has been preserved as part of the Daniel Boone Homestead.
There’s also a school district in Berks named after the famous woodsman.
This confused me. I associated Daniel Boone with Kentucky, not a Birdsboro ZIP Code.
I recall singing a version of the Daniel Boone song in chorus in elementary school. The lyrics, until recently, were the depth of my knowledge of him.
A biography on Boone has been on my vague reading list for quite a while.
My search for the definitive text in the Berks Libraries’ online catalogue produced disappointing results — at first glance.
The pictures of the book covers suggested they were children’s books. I had neglected to go to the next page where I would have found several adult-reader biographies at various Berks libraries.
I selected “Daniel Boone: Frontier Legend” by Pat McCarthy, a book that seemed to check the boxes.
When I went to retrieve a copy at a local library, I couldn’t locate it in the biographies or nonfiction sections.
A librarian eventually found it — in the young readers section. I decided to to take it home. If nothing else, it was a good primer
I learned this about Boone’s early life:
Members of the Boone clan began their migration from England to the New World about 20 years before Daniel was born in 1734. George Boone, who would become Daniel’s grandfather, heard good things about the colony founded by William Penn, a fellow Quaker.
Young Daniel was fascinated by the native Delaware Indians. He followed them around, asked questions and learned to track animals and cook the meat by hanging it over an open fire, skills that would suit him well in the wilderness.
The Boones left Pennsylvania in 1750, frustrated with congestion on Route 422. Well actually, that didn’t exist 275 years ago. But what drove them and other settlers westward was the 18th-century version of suburban sprawl.
Additionally, they suffered the indignation of being kicked out of the local Friends society after family members married outside the sect.
At 15, Daniel led the way west across the Susquehanna River on the Allegheny Trail, which is now the Pennsylvania Turnpike, then down the Indian north-south passageway known as the Virginia Road.
In Virginia, Daniel’s renowned skills as a trailblazer were much sought after by those who sought to establish settlements in the Ohio Territory, where attacks on settlers from the native Shawnee were common.
In his time, Daniel Boone would become a living legend.
Source: Berkshire mont
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