208 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW
DANIEL BOONE*
BY FLOYD C SHOEMAKER
The most interesting life in western annals, perhaps
not surpassed in American history, is that of Daniel Boone.
Wherein lies the charm of this simple, unschooled Pennsyl-
vanian of Quaker parentage? He was not an orator or writer.
He was not a success in business or farming. He was not
the first scout or settler in Kentucky or Missouri. He wandered and roved, he missed opportunity a dozen times. He
was twice or thrice a captive. In his old age he was without
means. Still Daniel Boone was known even in Europe a
quarter of a century before he died. Without a single great
discovery or historic act to his credit, living a simple life open
as a book, he outranks in popular appeal, in printed biographies, every other American pioneer. The name Daniel
Boone has been a household word honored and respected
and well known in America for a hundred and fifty years.
Whoever solves this problem will himself make a contribution.
The salient facts of Daniel Boone's career, covering a
span of nearly 87 years and extending into six states, are
fairly definitely established. He was born of Quaker stock
in Berks county, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1734. The
same commonwealth later furnished Missouri with her first
State governor, Alexander McNair. The same month one
hundred and one years later (November 30, 1835) was to
bear Missouri her most famous son, Mark Twain. And
among other significant facts in Missouri history which this
same month may claim, aside from the election of our officials
since 1864 and the adoption of many constitutional amendments, are the departure from Missouri of the Spanish lieutenant governor and his soldiers in 1804 (November 16),
*An address delivered on October 9, 1926, on the occasion of the visit of
the members of the Boone County Historical Society, as guests of Colonel F.
M. Curlee, of St. Louis, to the home of Major Nathan Boone in the Femme
Osage district of St. Charles county, where Daniel Boone died on Sept. 26, 1820.
