Timeline for Daniel Boone in North Carolina
By Robert Alvin Crum copyright 2024
Daniel Boone lived in North Carolina beginning in 1750 and left for the last time in 1779. He initially left in 1773 but returned for his last year in 1778. This is a list of the events and dates covering the time he first lived in North Carolina until he left for the last time in 1779.
1749 Squire Boone travels to the colony of North Carolina with his daughter Elizabeth, his son Daniel, and apprentice Henry Miller to explore land purchases and returns to Pennsylvania to prepare for his family’s migration to North Carolina the following year.
1750 On April 10, Squire Boone sells his farm, and on May 1, he and his family leave Pennsylvania to move to North Carolina. Daniel was 15 years old.
1750 Squire Boone and his family establish their home on the east side of the Yadkin River near the location of present-day Boone Cave Park in Davidson County. He completes surveys and purchases two 640 acre land warrants in what is present day Davie County.
1753 Squire Boone receives two 640-acre land grants from Lord Granville. The first is on April 13 near the present-day confluence of Elisha and Dutchman Creeks. The second is on December 20 at Bear Creek, two miles west of present-day Mocksville. Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone settle on Elisha and Dutchman Creek tract.
1755 Daniel, a member of Major Edward Dobb’s North Carolina militia, serves as a teamster driving a wagon at General Edward Braddock’s defeat near Fort Duquesne during the French & Indian War. Daniel also meets trader John Findlay who also was serving as a waggoner in Braddock’s army. He returns home to the Bryan Settlement in the Forks of the Yadkin in Rowan County.
1756 On August 14, Daniel marries Rebecca Bryan. For a short time, they live on his father and mother’s property at Dutchman Creek but then make their home along Sugartree Creek in Rowan (now Davie) County.
1756 Daniel’s brother, Israel, dies of consumption and is buried at Burying Ground Ridge (Joppa Cemetery). He leaves two sons and two daughters. Daniel and Rebecca take in the two sons, Jesse and Jonathan, and raise them.
1757 On May 3, James, Daniel and Rebecca’s first child, is born at Sugartree Creek.
1758 The Anglo-Cherokee War erupts. Daniel serves with General John Forbes’s Virginia troops and in the Rowan County Militia under Captain Morgan Bryan.
1759 On January 25, Israel, Daniel and Rebecca’s second child, is born at Sugartree Creek.
1759 Squire and Sarah sell Daniel their Bear Creek tract and give Squire Jr. their Dutchman Creek tract. Due to Cherokee hostilities and raids, Daniel takes Rebecca and their family to Culpeper County, Virginia. Daniel’s parents go to Pennsylvania and have their son Squire Jr. become a gunsmith apprentice under his cousin, Samuel Boone. Daniel returns to North Carolina with brother-in-law William Grant and serves under Captain Morgan Bryan in the Rowan County militia.
1760 On November 2, Susannah, Daniel and Rebecca’s third child, is born in Virginia.
1760 Daniel and Nathaniel Gist (son of famed scout Christopher Gist) hunt the game-rich Holston Valley region of what is now northeastern Tennessee.
1761 Daniel serves in Major Hugh Waddell’s Cherokee campaigns and was present at the Cherokee peace treaty. He is discharged from service after the treaty is signed on November 19 at Fort Robinson at the Long Island of the Holston. Afterwards, Daniel and others hunt northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.
1762 On October 4, Jemima, Daniel and Rebecca’s fourth child, is born at Sugartree Creek.
1764 Daniel Hunts along Rockcastle Creek. He sells the Bear Creek Tract to Aaron Van Cleve, who is the father of Jane, the future bride of Squire Boone, Jr.
1765 Patriarch Squire Boone dies on January 2 at his Dutchman’s Creek property and is buried beside his son Israel at Burying Ground Ridge (Joppa Cemetery).
1765 October through December, Daniel, Squire Boone, Jr., John Stewart, John Field, William Hill and several others explore portions of Georgia’s Altamaha River region and northern Florida where the British encourage settlement by selling land for a minimal fee. Daniel buys a lot near Pensacola but never returns. He returns to his home at Sugartree Creek on Christmas Day.
1766 On March 23, Lavina, Daniel and Rebecca’s fifth child, is born at Sugartree Creek.
1767 Daniel moves his family 60 miles farther up the Yadkin River to Holman’s Ford and shortly after to Beaver Creek. His siblings, George, Squire, Edward, and Hannah and their families also move up the Yadkin to establish a settlement in the Beaver Creek area.
1767 Daniel and Benjamin Cutbirth hunt what is now eastern Tennessee’s Watauga county. In the fall of the year, Daniel, with William Hill, explores for the first time in Kentucky and stays all winter. Daniel, William Hill, and either Jesse or Squire Boone cross the Blue Ridge and the Clinch to hunt along the west fork of the Big Sandy River.
1768 On May 26, Rebecca, Daniel and Rebecca’s sixth child, is born along Beaver Creek in what is now Wilkes County, North Carolina.
1768 The Regulator Movement ignites in North Carolina. John Findley meets with Daniel at the Beaver Creek site for the first time since they last saw one another in 1755 at “Braddock’s Defeat.” They spend the winter with others planning to hunt and explore Kentucky.
1769 Daniel appears in court for failure to pay debts. John Findley guides Daniel and his brother-in-law, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, and William Cool through the Cumberland Gap to explore and hunt what is now Kentucky. Daniel spends two years there. In Kentucky, Daniel and John Stewart were captured by Indians twice but were able to escape both times.
1769 On December 23, Daniel Morgan, Daniel and Rebecca’s seventh child, is born along Beaver Creek in what is Wilkes County seven months after Daniel left to explore Kentucky.
1770 Squire Boone and Alexander Neely reach Daniel with supplies. John Stewart is killed by the Shawnee when separated from Daniel and hunting by himself.
1771 In March, Daniel and Squire return to their homes on the Yadkin with plans to move to Kentucky.
1772 The Boones move to the Watauga and live for a short time in what is now Tennessee on a homestead near Sapling Grove.
1772 Daniel and companions hunt as far west as French Lick (now Nashville, Tennessee) and then enter what is now Kentucky and establish a station camp in a cave at the mouth of Hickman Creek along the Kentucky River.
1773 On May 3, Jesse Bryan, Daniel and Rebecca’s eighth child, is born near Sapling Grove.
1773 Daniel and his family return to the Upper Yadkin River in North Carolina to sell their farm and make arrangements to migrate to and settle in Kentucky.
1773 Lord Dunmore, the Virginia Governor, sent crews into Kentucky to survey French and Indian War bounty lands.
1773 On September 26, there was meeting in the Boone settlements in the Lower Yadkin of Daniel and Rebecca and other families in the area, and they left from the home of the late Squire Boone. Accompanying them part of the first day were neighbors and family, which included Sarah Morgan Boone. When it came time to part ways, there were hugs and tears, and this was the last time Daniel and Sarah saw one another. Along the way to Kentucky, Daniel and Rebecca’s son James and five other young men were killed by Indians.
1773 The families with Daniel return to North Carolina, while Daniel and his family settle along the Clinch River in Virginia.
1774 With atrocities on both sides, Lord Dunmore sends Daniel and Michael Stoner to warn the surveyors in Kentucky.
1774 Daniel is a Lieutenant of a company of scouts and is promoted to Captain and ordered to take command of Fort Blackmore, Moore’s Fort and Fort Russell, in Fincastle County, Virginia during Dunmore’s War in Virginia.
1775 The Transylvania Company purchases most of what is now Kentucky from the Cherokee.
1775 Daniel leads axe men to blaze the first trail (the Boone Trace) to what becomes Fort Boonesborough. It becomes the main migration trail from Tennessee, through Virginia and into Kentucky.
1775 As the men build Boone’s Fort in Kentucky, the Revolutionary War starts in the east. When Judge Henderson arrives, he quickly has the men move construction to higher ground, and it becomes Fort Boonesborough.
1775 Daniel is given the rank of Captain. He and his brother Squire are members of the Transylvania legislature.
1776 The Boones’ daughter Jemima and two Callaway girls are captured by Indians. After two days and nights the girls are rescued due to Daniel’s tracking skills and knowledge of Indians.
1777 Shawnee attacks increase against the Kentucky settlements and at Fort Boonesborough on March 7, April 24, and May 23. Daniel is shot outside the Fort on April 24 and is rescued by Simon Kenton.
1777 Sarah Morgan Boone, Daniel’s mother, had been living with her daughter, Mary, and son-in-law, William Bryan, at “the Bend” on the west side of the Yadkin River. She dies this year and is buried beside her husband Squire Boone at Burying Ground Ridge (Joppa Cemetery).
1778 Daniel and the 28 men with him are captured by the Shawnee while making salt away from the fort. During captivity Daniel is adopted as a son by Shawnee War Chief Black Fish.
1778 While Daniel is captured, Rebecca thinks he may have been killed and takes her family back to the Bryan Settlement in North Carolina.
1778 Daniel escapes after five months in captivity as the Shawnee prepare to attack Fort Boonesborough.
1778 The Shawnee put the fort under siege for nine days. They leave after Daniel and those at Fort Boonesborough outwit their many schemes.
1778 Daniel is court-martialed, tried, found innocent, and then commissioned as a Major.
1778 In the Fall, Daniel Boone travels back to North Carolina to be with his family and spends the winter hunting in North Carolina.
1779 In the Spring, Daniel and John Cathey travel to Charleston, South Carolina with skins and furs and return home to the Forks of the Yadkin with salt, powder, lead and necessaries. This is in preparation to return to Kentucky. Daniel also goes to Virginia to attend to land matters, probably to secure lands in place of those located under the Transylvania Company.
1779 Most of the Boones and Bryans migrate out of Bryan Settlement to settle in Kentucky. Daniel raises a militia company in Rowan County, North Carolina, and on September 15, he marches with them and other settlers. They reach Fort Boonesborough in October.
1779 Daniel establishes a settlement five miles west of Fort Boonesborough, and it’s called Boone’s Station.
Sources:
Anson County Deeds, Wadesboro, North Carolina.
Belue, Ted Franklin, Editor, The Life of Daniel Boone by Lyman C. Draper, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, 1998.
Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1753, Chapter VII, p. 383.
Crabb, Anne, Warrior-Pioneers: Extracts from the Boone Papers, Volumes 4C-13C of the Draper Manuscripts, Heritage Books, Inc., Berwyn Heights, Maryland, 2019.
Draper, Lyman Copeland, Draper Manuscripts, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
Hammond, Neil O., My Father Daniel Boone: The Draper Interviews with Nathan Boone, The University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, Kentucky, 1999.
Kamper, Ken, An Accurate Summary of the Life of Daniel Boone, Daniel Boone History Research – Newsletter No. 6, December 2021.
Kamper, Ken, A Researcher’s Understanding on the Boone Family Move to North Carolina, No. PK17.0211, February 2017.
Kamper, Ken, Daniel Boone – A Timeline of His Life: A Paper Related to the Factual History of Daniel Boone, No. PK 19.0622, November 2019.
Linn, Jo White, Abstracts of the Deeds of Rowan County, North Carolina, 1753 – 1785, Books 1 through 10, Salisbury, North Carolina, Privately published, 1983.
Linn, Jo White, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Rowan County, North Carolina, Volume I – 1753-1762, Volume II – 1763-1774, Volume III – 1775-1789, Salisbury, North Carolina, Privately published, 1977, 1979, 1982.
Manuscript Collection, The State Historical Society of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri.
Ramsey, Robert W., Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier 1747-1762, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1964.
Rowan County Deeds, Salisbury, North Carolina.
Spraker, Hazel Atterbury, The Boone Family, The Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont, 1922.
U.S Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935.
Van Noppen, Ina Woestemeyer, and Van Noppen, John James, Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman: The Green Woods Were His Portion, The Appalachian Press, Boone, North Carolina, 1966.
Weiss, Kathryn H., Daniel Bryan, Nephew of Daniel Boone: His Narrative and Other Stories, Self-published by Kathryn H. Weiss, 2008.