Rebecca Boone

Rebecca Bryan Boone (January 9, 1739 – March 18, 1813) was an American pioneer and the wife of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone. She began her life in the Colony of Virginia (1606–1776), and at the age of ten moved with her grandparents and extended family to the wilderness of the Province of North Carolina (Crown colony (1729–1776), now North Carolina). It was there that she met her future husband, Daniel Boone. Rebecca Boone raised ten of her own children and eight nephews and nieces that she and Daniel had adopted. Since Daniel was away for extended hunting and exploration trips, sometimes for several years at a time, Boone generally raised and protected their eighteen children by herself. Living in the frontier, and needing to be self-reliant, she was a healer, midwife, sharpshooter, gardener, tanner, and weaver. The family was subject to attacks by Native Americans as their land was encroached upon by white settlers and by bands of white men, called highwaymen, who attacked settlers. Several times she and her family left their home for shelter and protection in nearby forts and in one case lived several years in Culpeper County, Colony of Virginia, during the Anglo-Cherokee War.

In 1775, the Boones moved to Kentucky County, Virginia (1776–1780), now the state of Kentucky, where Boone was the first white woman settler. Boone's son James was killed by a group of Cherokee, Delaware, and Shawnee men during the trek through the wilderness. After the family settled at Fort Boone (now Boonesborough), Jemima was captured by Native Americans and was subsequently rescued by Daniel. Daniel was also captured and Boone, believing her husband was dead, returned to North Carolina with her children. Daniel later escaped, returned his family, and later escorted them back to Kentucky County. During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), one of Boone's sons was killed and another was wounded at the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). Boone moved to numerous locations where she raised her family, ran a tavern kitchen, operated stores, hunted for game, and made and sold maple sugar.

Early life Rebecca Ann Bryan was born January 9, 1739 in Frederick County, Virginia near Winchester, Colony of Virginia. they settled along the Yadkin River near the Bryans in Rowan County. According to author Eva Thury, Daniel said that he never engaged in fire hunts. Another is that they first met at a cherry picking. They likely first "took notice of each other" at the wedding of Mary Boone, Daniel's sister, to Rebecca's Uncle William—or the later wedding of Squire Boone, Daniel's relative, to Rebecca's Aunt Rebecca. Rebecca was said to have been a tall, attractive woman with black hair and dark eyes. No contemporary portrait of her exists.

Joseph Bryan settled in the Providence of North Carolina about 1755, living about four miles from his father, Morgan Bryan. She was 17 years of age. Daniel's father Squire Boone officiated the wedding in what is now Davie County, North Carolina.

Boone's life was difficult as a frontierswoman. During the extended periods that Daniel was away, she protected her family from attacks by highwaymen and Native Americans. An accomplished hunter, she hunted deer and grew produce to feed her family. When they were old enough, the children helped Boone run the farm and perform domestic chores. Boone sold a variety of produce for income. Morgan also states, though, that it is possible that Daniel fathered Jemima. In addition, Ned had married Boone's sister about the time that Jemima was conceived and Morgan finds it unlikely that Ned would have fathered a child with his sister-in-law at that time. Faragher contends that the story, called "Boone's Surprise" is possibly such an interesting legend that there has not been an interest in correcting the story. The Boones returned to Rowan County in November 1762.

There was relative peace in North Carolina for a time after the Cherokee signed a peace treaty in November 1761. After the harvest in 1766, the Boones moved west to Holman's Ford in Wilkes County. They moved two more times in the next couple of years, living near Beaver Creek and then overlooking the Yadkin River. Their frequent moves were generally because settlers had tapped out the game in the area forests.

Children George Caleb Bingham, Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap, 1852. Using Biblical and classical imagery to justify and make westward expansion appear heroic, Bingham portrayed Rebecca Boone in the pose of a Madonna, a popular domestic ideal of the time, and she is completed in interpretive ways with a faithful hunting dog and her husband leading a noble charger. Boone raised eighteen children. Soon after her wedding, Boone took in her husband's two orphaned nephews, Jesse and Jonathan. Her brother-in-law Israel Boone and his wife died of tuberculosis before her wedding; their two daughters also died of the disease soon after their parents. Jesse and Jonathan lived with Boone in North Carolina until the family left for Kentucky in 1773. Boone's children were: James Boone (May 3, 1757 – October 10, 1773) was killed at age 16 by Shawnee in the Clinch Mountains, Virginia Israel Boone (January 25, 1759 – August 19, 1782), died during the Revolutionary War at Blue Licks, Kentucky Susannah Boone Hays (November 2, 1760 – October 19, 1800, now St. Charles County, Missouri) Jemima Boone Callaway (October 4, 1762 – died in Montgomery County, Missouri) Lavinia or Levina Boone Scholl (March 23, 1766 – April 6, 1802, Clark County, Kentucky) Rebecca Goe (May 26, 1768 – died in Clark County, Kentucky) Daniel Morgan Boone (December 23, 1769 – July 13, 1839, Jackson County, Missouri) Jesse Bryan Boone (May 23, 1773 – died in St. Louis, Missouri) William Bryan Boone (June 25, 1775 – died in infancy 1775) Nathan Boone (March 2, 1781 – 1856, Ash Grove, Greene County, Missouri)

Her elder children began having children while she continued to have children. She adopted her widowed brother's six children when she was in her early forties.

Kentucky

Daniel had traveled into what is now the state of Kentucky beginning in 1767 and again in May 1769 with an exploration expedition to build a trail The settlers were attacked by a group of Cherokee, Delaware, and Shawnee men in October. Boone and other survivors returned to North Carolina, In 1789, Boone and her youngest children moved to Point Pleasant of Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River. There, they operated a store and Daniel worked as a surveyor and supplied the local militia. in the Femme Osage valley. Daniel was appointed Syndic, district magistrate by the Spanish government. In 1803, Boone and her husband went to live with their son Nathan. Daughters Susannah, Levina, and Rebecca died between 1800 and 1805. Levina's husband moved from Kentucky to Missouri with their eight children. Rebecca's husband also died, leaving her children orphaned. Son David Morgan Boone traveled to Kentucky and brought five of her seven children to also be with the Boones in Missouri. Boone and her husband hunted and made maple sugar. During the War of 1812, Missouri settlers were attacked by Native Americans, urged on by the British. Boone and her husband sought shelter in nearby forts on several occasions.

Death Rebecca Bryan Boone died on March 18, 1813, Daniel died in 1820.

Honors and legacy In 1860, a monument was built by John Haley and was placed over her and her husband's graves in Frankfort. In 1862, four marble panels, which depicted scenes from Daniel and Boone's lives, were added to the monument.

The World War II Liberty ship SS Rebecca Boone was named in her honor. It was launched in Houston, Texas on December 21, 1943.

According to Annette Kolodny and Eva Thury, many of Daniel Boone's biographers devalued the role that Boone played in raising and protecting her children in the wilderness. For instance, she says that Timothy Flint writes that "an exemplary Rebecca Boone appeared all too infrequently and all too indistinctly to stand proof against the many and changing stereotypes in which others, in the future, would cast her. And by portraying her first and most dramatically as reflected in the flickering and distorting torchlight of her husband's predominating myth, Flint effectively annihilated any possibility that she might achieve mythic status on her own." Thury compares her to Greek mythical figures Penelope, Hecuba, Deianira, and others for her ability to overcome significant challenges, her strength of character, and her ability to survive during extended, lonely absences of her husband. Author Etta DeGering compares her to the Biblical figure, Ruth, for following where her husband leads, fitting the historical view of women as compliant.

Author Mark Gerzon said of Boone, "Nearly as tall as her husband, Rebecca Bryan Boone was a remarkable woman. Single-handedly, and often under harsh frontier conditions, she cared and provided for their children while Daniel was gone for months on various expeditions. When Daniel was kidnapped by the Shawnee, she moved her children hundreds of miles on horseback through hostile Indian territory. When her aging husband was racked by rheumatism, she went hunting and brought back enough game to feed them all. Yet she is depicted in the popular nineteenth-century biographies of the legendary 'Col. Daniel Boone' as merely an 'amiable Spouse' without any personality of her own."

Samuel A. Drake said of her, "For more than half a century, throughout all the extraordinary vicissitudes of her husband's career, [Rebecca Bryan Boone] had been the faithful and heroic wife and mother."

Popular culture

N. C. Wyeth made a painting of Daniel Boone and his wife crossing the Cumberland Gap entitled Dan'l Boone-The Home Seeker-Cumberland Valley. They were among the first pioneers who traveled on the trail that Daniel recently completed, now known as the Wilderness Road. Boone, wrapped up in a blue cloak that is often used in depictions of Mary, mother of Jesus, holds a swaddled baby while she rides a horse. Her presence, like that of Mary and Jesus in Flight into Egypt, represents the many women who left their homes for the dangers of the frontier. During the Boone family's trek in 1773, Boone had recently given birth to her son Jesse, but the family had to turn back due to the danger. In 1775, she had given birth to William, who died shortly after his birth. George Caleb Bingham painted the image of Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap, 1852. In that painting, Daniel Boone leads Boone's horse during the trek through the Cumberland Gap. Robert Eberhardt Von Der Launitz made the bas relief of Rebecca Boone Milking that is affixed on the Daniel Boone Monument at her and her husband's grave site in Kentucky. Traces by Patricia Hudson is historic fiction which tells the Boone family story through the eyes of Rebecca, and the two eldest daughters, Jemima and Rebecca. The novel was published in 2022 by the University of Kentucky Press.