Daniel Boone – (1734 – 1820) – Frontiersman / Explorer
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer and hunter whose frontier exploits made 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 U.S. State of Kentucky. Despite resistance from
native American Indians, for whom Kentucky was a traditional hunting
ground, in 1775 Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky. There he founded Boonesborough,
one of the first English-speaking settlements beyond the Appalachian Mountains.
On July 14, 1776, Boone's daughter Jemima and two other teenage girls were captured outside Boonesborough by an Indian war party, who
carried the girls north towards the Shawnee towns in the Ohio country. Boone and a group of men from Boonesborough followed in pursuit,
finally catching up with them two days later. Boone and his men ambushed the Indians while they were stopped for a meal, rescuing the girls
and driving off their captors. The incident became the most celebrated event of Boone's life. James Fenimore Cooper created a fictionalized
version of the episode in his classic book The Last of the Mohicans.
Historical / Biographical information courtesy of Wikipedia.
