Rebecca Boone
Encyclopedia
Rebecca Ann Boone (January 9, 1739 – March 18, 1813) was an American pioneer
and the wife of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone
. No contemporary portrait of her exists, but people who knew her said that when she met her future husband she was nearly as tall as he and very attractive with black hair and dark eyes.
She was born near Winchester, Virginia
. Her father was Joseph Bryan, Sr. but there is no clear documentation as to her birth mother. Some say her mother, Hester Hampton, died in childbirth, and that Alice (or Aylee) Linville, Bryan's second wife, raised her.
Rebecca married Daniel Boone in a triple wedding on August 14, 1756, in Yadkin River, North Carolina at the age of 17. She took in her new husband's two young orphan nephews, Jesse and Jonathan who lived with them in North Carolina until the family left for Kentucky in 1773.
Like her mother and mother-in-law before her, Rebecca had many children born two or three years apart. Over twenty-five years time, she delivered six sons and four daughters of her own:
Because her children married young and also had many children, she often took care of grandchildren along with her own babies. When in her early forties, considered an old woman at the time, she adopted the six children of her widowed brother. Without formal education, Rebecca was reputed to be an experienced community midwife, the family doctor, leather tanner, sharpshooter and linen-maker – resourceful and independent in the isolated areas she and her large, combined family often found themselves.
In 1852 George Caleb Bingham
painted an epic portrait of Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap. Using Biblical and classical imagery to justify and heroicize westward expansion, 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. She represented all pioneer women who by the mid-nineteenth century were idealized and celebrated.
Rebecca's life was difficult as a frontierwoman. She moved many times during her lifetime. Before the birth of her first child, the Boones had moved to a small farm and built a one-story log house on a stream called Sugartree near the extensive Bryan family, near current day Farmington, North Carolina. They stayed in this home for nearly ten years, which was the longest they ever stayed in one place. She created homes in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and finally Missouri where she spent the last fourteen years of her life.
She often ran her household on her own while her husband was on long hunts and surveying trips. The Cherokee War separated Rebecca and Daniel for nearly two years, and family lore holds that her daughter Jemima was conceived during Daniel's absence.
Daniel Boone came back to his family in North Carolina and finally convinced his wife to leave again for Kentucky - this time with nearly 100 of their kin and joined by the family of Abraham Lincoln
(the president's grandfather). In September 1779, this emigration was the largest to date through the Cumberland Gap
. By late October 1779, they reached Fort Boonesborough but conditions were so bad that they left on Christmas Day, during what Kentuckians later called the "Hard Winter," to found a new settlement, Boone's Station, with 15-20 families on Boone's Creek about six miles north-west (near what is now Athens, Kentucky
). By spring Rebecca and her husband moved to a cabin several miles southwest on Marble Creek. In summer of 1780 at 40 years of age she became pregnant with 10th child (Nathan, born the following March). She lived in a double cabin with five of her children still living at home, the six children of her widowed uncle James Bryan, as well as her daughter Susy with her husband Will Hays with 2-3 children of their own: a household of 19-20 people.
She and her family moved in 1783 where for the next few years she helped Daniel create a landing site at the mouth of Limestone Creek for flatboats coming down the Ohio River from Fort Pitt (Simon Kenton
's village was just a few miles inland). Daniel laid out the road to Lexington (soon to be known as the Maysville Road starting in early 1783. They lived in a cabin built out of an old boat (on what is now Front Street in Maysville, Kentucky
). Rebecca, now 46 years old, ran the tavern kitchen and oversaw the seven slaves they owned. By 1786 the town incorporated as Maysville.
with Rebecca and Nathan, leaving the tavern in the hands of their daughter Rebecca and husband Philip Goe.
After Daniel's failed attempts at land speculation and ginseng exports, they moved in 1788 to Point Pleasant (now in West Virginia) in the Kanawha Valley. They settled on the south side of the river almost opposite the mouth of Campbell's Creek in a log house similar to what he had built in Kentucky: two rooms with a "dogtrot" passage between the rooms and a long porch in front.
The World War II Liberty ship
SS Rebecca Boone was named in her honor.
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
and the wife of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
. No contemporary portrait of her exists, but people who knew her said that when she met her future husband she was nearly as tall as he and very attractive with black hair and dark eyes.
She was born near Winchester, Virginia
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...
. Her father was Joseph Bryan, Sr. but there is no clear documentation as to her birth mother. Some say her mother, Hester Hampton, died in childbirth, and that Alice (or Aylee) Linville, Bryan's second wife, raised her.
North Carolina
When she was ten, Rebecca moved with her Quaker grandparents, Morgan and Martha (Strode) Bryan, to the Yadkin River valley in the backwoods of North Carolina. Meanwhile the young Daniel Boone’s family settled near the Bryans in North Carolina. Rebecca and Daniel began their courtship in 1753 and married three years later.Rebecca married Daniel Boone in a triple wedding on August 14, 1756, in Yadkin River, North Carolina at the age of 17. She took in her new husband's two young orphan nephews, Jesse and Jonathan who lived with them in North Carolina until the family left for Kentucky in 1773.
Like her mother and mother-in-law before her, Rebecca had many children born two or three years apart. Over twenty-five years time, she delivered six sons and four daughters of her own:
- 3 May 1757 - James (died 10 October 1773, Clinch Mountains, VA)
- 25 January 1759 - Israel (died 19 August 1782, Blue Licks, KY)
- 2 November 1760 - Susannah (died 19 October 1800)
- 4 October 1762 - Jemima or Jerimina (died 30 August 1829, Montgomery County, MO)
- 23 March 1766 - Levina (died 6 April 1802, Clark County, KY)
- 26 May 1768 - Rebecca (died 14 July 1805, Clark County, KY)
- 23 December 1769 - Daniel Morgan (died 13 July 1839, Jackson County, MO)
- 23 May 1773 - Jesse Bryan (died 22 December 1820)
- 20 June 1775 - William Bryan (died 1775)
- 3 February 1781 - Nathaniel or Nathan (died 16 October 1856, Green County, MO)
Because her children married young and also had many children, she often took care of grandchildren along with her own babies. When in her early forties, considered an old woman at the time, she adopted the six children of her widowed brother. Without formal education, Rebecca was reputed to be an experienced community midwife, the family doctor, leather tanner, sharpshooter and linen-maker – resourceful and independent in the isolated areas she and her large, combined family often found themselves.
George Caleb Bingham
George Caleb Bingham was an American artist whose paintings of American life in the frontier lands along the Missouri River exemplify the Luminist style. Left to languish in obscurity, Bingham's work was rediscovered in the 1930s...
painted an epic portrait of Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap. Using Biblical and classical imagery to justify and heroicize westward expansion, 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. She represented all pioneer women who by the mid-nineteenth century were idealized and celebrated.
Rebecca's life was difficult as a frontierwoman. She moved many times during her lifetime. Before the birth of her first child, the Boones had moved to a small farm and built a one-story log house on a stream called Sugartree near the extensive Bryan family, near current day Farmington, North Carolina. They stayed in this home for nearly ten years, which was the longest they ever stayed in one place. She created homes in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and finally Missouri where she spent the last fourteen years of her life.
She often ran her household on her own while her husband was on long hunts and surveying trips. The Cherokee War separated Rebecca and Daniel for nearly two years, and family lore holds that her daughter Jemima was conceived during Daniel's absence.
Kentucky
The fall of 1773 was the first time she came through the Cumberland Gap with her family and fifty others under the leadership of William Russell, though they were turned back by the violent resistance by Native Americans to British colonization west of the Alleghenies. In 1775 Daniel Boone brought his family to the Kentucky River where on behalf of the Transylvania Company he and Richard Henderson laid out Fort Boonesborough. She left Kentucky in May 1778 under a cloud of rumors that her husband, a captive of the Shawnee, had turned Tory. She returned to her parents' settlement in North Carolina with five of her children, leaving behind Jemima who by then was married to Flanders Callaway.Daniel Boone came back to his family in North Carolina and finally convinced his wife to leave again for Kentucky - this time with nearly 100 of their kin and joined by the family of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
(the president's grandfather). In September 1779, this emigration was the largest to date through the Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap, at the juncture of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia...
. By late October 1779, they reached Fort Boonesborough but conditions were so bad that they left on Christmas Day, during what Kentuckians later called the "Hard Winter," to found a new settlement, Boone's Station, with 15-20 families on Boone's Creek about six miles north-west (near what is now Athens, Kentucky
Athens, Kentucky
Athens, Kentucky, United States, is a small unincorporated village in the rural services area of Lexington- Fayette Urban County to the east of Interstate 75. First settled in 1786 as the community of Cross Plains, the town was chartered as Athens in 1826 and had its own post office from that time...
). By spring Rebecca and her husband moved to a cabin several miles southwest on Marble Creek. In summer of 1780 at 40 years of age she became pregnant with 10th child (Nathan, born the following March). She lived in a double cabin with five of her children still living at home, the six children of her widowed uncle James Bryan, as well as her daughter Susy with her husband Will Hays with 2-3 children of their own: a household of 19-20 people.
She and her family moved in 1783 where for the next few years she helped Daniel create a landing site at the mouth of Limestone Creek for flatboats coming down the Ohio River from Fort Pitt (Simon Kenton
Simon Kenton
Simon Kenton was a famous United States frontiersman and friend of Daniel Boone, Simon Girty, Spencer Records and Isaac Shelby.-Family and early life:Simon Kenton was alive even before Ohio was a state...
's village was just a few miles inland). Daniel laid out the road to Lexington (soon to be known as the Maysville Road starting in early 1783. They lived in a cabin built out of an old boat (on what is now Front Street in Maysville, Kentucky
Maysville, Kentucky
Maysville is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,993 at the 2000 census, making it the fiftieth largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, northeast of Lexington. It is the principal city of the Maysville...
). Rebecca, now 46 years old, ran the tavern kitchen and oversaw the seven slaves they owned. By 1786 the town incorporated as Maysville.
Virginia
In 1787 Daniel was elected to legislature as Bourbon County representative, and he moved to Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
with Rebecca and Nathan, leaving the tavern in the hands of their daughter Rebecca and husband Philip Goe.
After Daniel's failed attempts at land speculation and ginseng exports, they moved in 1788 to Point Pleasant (now in West Virginia) in the Kanawha Valley. They settled on the south side of the river almost opposite the mouth of Campbell's Creek in a log house similar to what he had built in Kentucky: two rooms with a "dogtrot" passage between the rooms and a long porch in front.
Missouri
In 1799 Daniel and Rebecca follow Nathan to Spain's Alta Luisiana (Upper Louisiana, now Missouri, about 45 miles west of St. Louis) in the Femme Osage valley. Daniel acquired 850 acres and was appointed Commandant and Syndic, district magistrate by the Spanish government. In 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, they lost the rights to their lands but with the direct intercession of Congress in 1814 some parts of his acreage are restored.Death
After a brief illness, Rebecca Boone died at the age of 74 on March 18, 1813, at her daughter Jemima Boone Callaway's home near the village of Charette (near present day Marthasville, Missouri). She was buried at the Bryan family cemetery nearby overlooking the Missouri River. Her and her husband's remains were reinterred and buried again in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1845.Honors
In 1862 a monument was placed over her and her husband's graves in Frankfort.The World War II Liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
SS Rebecca Boone was named in her honor.
Further reading
- Degering, Etta. Wilderness Wife, the Story of Rebecca Bryan Boone. New York: David McKay Co., 1966. ISBN 067920248.
- Ellet, Mrs. [Elizabeth Fries]. "Rebecca Boone," pages 42-57 in Pioneer Women of the West. New York: Charles Scribner, 1856.
- Eslinger, Ellen, ed. Running Mad for Kentucky: Frontier Travel Accounts. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004. ISBN 0813123135.
- Kierner, Cynthia A. Beyond the Household: Women’s Place in the Early South, 1700-1835. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998. ISBN 080149453.
- Kleber, John E., ed. "Rebecca (Bryan) Boone." The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813117720.
- Kolodny, Annette. The land before her: fantasy and experience of the American frontiers, 1630-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. ISBN 0807815713.
- Perkins, Elizabeth A. Border Life: Experience and Memory in the Revolutionary Ohio Valley. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. ISBN 0807824003.