Daniel Boone

This week, Barbara and I attended a presentation at the Boone County Library about Daniel Boone.  The man who portrayed him was a historian at the Boonesborough Stake Park.  His hour and a half reenactment of Daniel Boone was sensational - he looked like what you would expect; he spoke like you would expect.  Fortunately, he didn't smell like someone from that period of weekly baths (if that often).  We sat on the front row, two feet away from him.

He related a story from the American Revolution.  Boone was captured by the British-supported Shawnee Indians and held semi-captive for about 5 months.  While there, he learned that the Shawnees, assisted by the British, were planning a major assault on all of the American settlements in Kentucky.  When he escaped, he returned to his home in Boonesborough to warn them of the coming battle.  While they petitioned the assistance of the American Army, they prepared to fight the battle themselves.

Against about 450 enemy, the 40 or so men in Boonesborough held off a siege of their fort for about a week.  During that period there was a lot of gunfire and many attempts to burn down and get into the fort.  But the Americans held firm.  It wasn't until after the siege had ended that a small number of Army regulars showed up.

We are very blessed to have ancestors who didn't rely upon the government to bail them out of their problems.  I hope that Americans today can once again start to rely upon themselves and not the government like Daniel Boone and his fellow citizens.