Daniel Boone Regional Library

Origin of the Library's Name

• Boone County was created in 1820 out of the territory of Howard in the area known as the "Boon’s Lick Country” from a salt spring worked by Daniel Boone’s sons. The Daniel Boone Regional Library was named when the regional library system formed in 1959. The name was suggested by a patron, Mrs. Ruby Hulen of Sturgeon. The library does not have any special archival material pertaining to the Boone family.

Back to Top

Boone Biographies

• Biography Resource Center
  Biographical information from many sources including the Dictionary of American Biography and the Encyclopedia of World Biography.
• The State Historical Society of Missouri's Famous Missourians Explorers and Settlers
  The State Historical Society holds many resources that document and illustrate Missouri’s role in the period of Western Expansion.  The site has a full biography of Daniel Boone plus capsule biographies of his wife Rebecca and sons Daniel Morgan and Nathan Boone.
• Chronology of his life
  From “Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer” by John Mack Faragher.
• Daniel Boone’s Birthplace
  Information on the Boone family’s years in Pennsylvania and other links of interest provided by the Historical Society of Berks County.
• Where is Daniel Boone buried?
  Boone died at his son’s home near Defiance, Missouri in 1820.  However Daniel Boone has two gravesites, one in Marthasville, Missouri and one in Frankfort, Kentucky.
• Daniel Morgan Boone
  The first Boone to arrive in Missouri, Morgan and his brother Nathan opened up the salt-making operation or “salt-lick” near present day Boonville using the Boone Trace trail from the Salt Lick to the Boone Settlements near La Charette. The site has a map of the Boone’s Lick Trail which later developed along the same route.
• Nathan Boone
  The youngest son of Daniel and Rebecca Boone worked as a surveyor and army guide, officer, interpreter and negotiator with the Indians.  His interviews with Lyman Draper are an important source of information on Daniel Boone and frontier life.

Back to Top

Boones in Missouri

Historic Sites in Missouri Associated with the Boone family

• Boone’s Lick State Historic Site
  Wood remnants of the salt works and an iron kettle are still visible at the site in present-day Howard County near Arrow Rock, Missouri.  More artifacts are on display at the Arrow Rock State Historic Site visitor center.
• Historic Daniel Boone Home & Boonesfield Village– Defiance, MO
  Large stone house built by Boone’s youngest son Nathan Boone where Daniel Boone died on September 26, 1820.  Boonesfield Village comprises many 19th century buildings which have been moved from the local area.  The home & village are owned by Lindenwood University and tours are available to visitors and school trips.
• Nathan Boone Homestead State Historic Site
  Later in life Nathan moved from the Femme Osage stone house to a log house near Ash Grove in Greene County.
• Missouri Boone Sites
  A listing of sites in Missouri associated with the Boone Family posted on the Boone Society web site.
• The Daniel Boone Historical Area of Missouri
  Click on “places to visit” for information on trails, historic site parks and Boone family related sites.
• Boone Trail Historical Markers
  Erected by the Boone Trail Highway & Memorial Association to mark the westward route of Daniel Boone.  Eleven markers are located in Missouri; click on blue city/town link to find more information on this marker.
• Two More Mormon Trails
  Article by Stanley B. Kimball, originally published in the Ensign, August 1979, about two trails one of which started as the Boonslick Trail. Originally a trace used by Indians and trappers it was extended by the Boones to Franklin, and then extended westward by William Becknell to Santa Fe.
• Boonslick Trail Markers in Callaway County
  • Jones Tan Yard
  • Grant’s State Stand
• Boone Settlement Area – St. Charles & Warren Counties
  Local map from the Boone Duden Historical Society covering southern St. Charles and Warren counties showing the site of Daniel and Rebecca Boone’s land grant in 1798, Missouriton, a town founded by the Boones and the Charette Village site. There is also a chronology of the early history of the area.

Back to Top

Boone Family Genealogy

• Daniel Boone and Frontier Families Research Association
  The Association’s mission is to “research, assemble, record and present” the story of Daniel Boone’s family & ancestry and “the history and genealogy of all the frontier families who lived in Missouri prior to 1820.”
• DanielBooneFamily.org
  Focuses primarily on the direct descendants of Daniel & Rebecca Boone with links to their ancestry, homes etc.  Currently, the Missouri and other sections of the site are offline.
• Boone Family History & Genealogy
  Five generations of Boones posted by a descendant.
• Daniel Boone’s Descendants
  Detailed family ancestry of Daniel Boone posted by a descendant.
• Nathan Boone Family
  Information on the descendants of Nathan Boone and their annual family reunion in Ash Grove (Ashgrove), Missouri.
• House of Boone
  Follows the line of Edward Boone, Daniel Boone’s brother, compiled by a descendant.

Back to Top

Related Sites

• Boone Historical Sites
  The Society “was formed as a reference service for researchers, a conduit for genealogists, clearing-house for bibliographical works, and to host the biennial Boone Family Reunion.”
• Daniel Boone sites
  Links to Boone related sites from the web site DanielBooneFamily.org
• The Daniel Boone and Frontier Families Research Association
  Founded by Ken Kamper, an authority on the Boone family, the site has many links to sources for genealogy and research on the Boones. Click on Places to Visit for information on the Daniel Boone Historical Area of Missouri.
• Lewis & Clark Expedition
  Click on complete expedition map to view their route through Missouri to the west.
• National Frontier Trails Museum – Independence
  Features pioneer narratives and other resources that illustrate the story of the Santa Fe Trail.
• Santa Fe National Historic Trail
  Maps showing the trail, including descriptions of trail sites from Franklin, Missouri to New Mexico.
• Wilderness Trail - Virginia
  Boone followed Indian trails to lead a group of settlers from Virginia to Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap in 1775.  The event is captured in George Caleb Bingham’s painting “Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap.”
  
• “Kit Carson: The Legendary Frontiersman Remains an American Hero"
  (Online article originally published in Wild West magazine, April 1999.)
  Carson’s family settled in New Franklin (the original town of Franklin was destroyed by a flood) when he was a boy and his brother married into the Boone family.
• Sac and Fox Indians
  The Sac and Fox Indians hunted and traded in Northeast Missouri at the time of the Boone Settlements and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
• Osage Indians
  The Osages occupied much of what is now the central & southern part of Missouri and was one of the tribes most encountered by the Boones and the incoming settlers. 

Back to Top

Research & Resources

• Western Historical Manuscript Collection
  Includes the Lyman Draper Collection and other documents pertaining to the Boone Family and frontier life.
• Missouri Digital Heritage
  Browse the topic “Exploration and Settlement” or use the Search feature to search within collections.
• Library of Congress American Memory
  Search under “Daniel Boone” to see document images of Daniel Boone’s Spanish Land Grant papers in the American State Papers and parts of journals, periodicals and other accounts of Boone’s adventures held by various libraries and repositories.                          
• Diaries and Traveler’s Accounts of the West
  American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920 comprises “253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places and society” Click on alphabetical subject index for Missouri-Description & Travel or use keyword search.

Back to Top

Books in the DBRL Collection

• “Daniel Boone: the Life and Legend of an American Pioneer”, by John Mack Faragher, Holt, 1992
• “My Father, Daniel Boone: the Draper Interviews with Nathan Boone” by Nathan Boone, University Press of Kentucky, 1999
• “The Life of Daniel Boone” by Lyman Copeland Draper, Stackpole, 1988
• “The Long Hunter: a new life of Daniel Boone” by Lawrence Elliott, Reader’s Digest, 1976
• “In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone” by Randall Jones, Blair, 2005
• “Daniel Boone: An American Life” by Michael Lofaro, University Press of Kentucky, 2003
• “Boone: a Biography” by Robert Morgan, Algonquin, 2007
• “Nathan Boone and the American Frontier” by R.  Douglas Hurt, University of Missouri Press, 1998.
• “Historic Sites and Markers along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails” by Stanley B. Kimball, University of Illinois, 1988.
• “History of Boone County, Missouri…” by Colonel William F. Switzler, Western Historical Company, 1882.
• “The Osages: Children of the Middle Waters” by John Joseph Mathews, University of Oklahoma, 1961

Other titles of interest

• “Colton’s Traveler and Tourist’s Guide-book Through the Western States …” by J.H. Colton, Colton & Co., 1855