Daniel Boone: His Valley Connections

Did you know that Daniel Boone has connections to the Shenandoah Valley?

First of all, there was a brief period of time when Daniel Boone lived in the Shenandoah Valley. Around 1750 Daniel Boone’s father Squire Boone moved his family from Oley, Pennsylvania through the Shenandoah Valley to the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina.[1] They would have traveled west on the Allegheny Trail and south along the Virginia Road/Great Wagon Road (Interstate 81 now roughly follows the same route).[2] The Boone family stayed in the Linville Creek area for two years planting a crop there in 1750 and 1751 before moving on to their final destination.[3]

Rebecca Boone

A second Boone connection to the Shenandoah Valley resulted from marriage. On August 14, 1756, Daniel Boone married Rebecca Bryan[4]. The couple first met when both families were living in the Linville Creek area.[5]

The Shenandoah Valley’s third connection to Daniel Boone involves a poem. In 1813 Daniel Bryan wrote the epic poem “The Mountain Muse: Comprising the Adventures of Daniel Boone; and the Power of Virtuous and Refined Beauty.” Daniel Bryan was a poet, a lawyer, and a member of the Virginia Senate representing Rockingham and Shenandoah Counties from 1818 to 1820.[6] Sources disagree about whether or not Bryan was a distant nephew of Daniel Boone’s on Rebecca’s side of the family. “The Mountain Muse” was published in Harrisonburg by Davidson & Bourne.[7]

The Boone family can also claim connections to the Shenandoah Valley through the Lincoln family. Each year Lincoln historian Phillip Stone speaks at the Lincoln Day Ceremony, held at the Lincoln Homestead Cemetery six miles north of Harrisonburg on VA-42, on a different aspect of Lincoln’s life. In 1986 Mr. Stone spoke about the connection between Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Boone.[8] “Stone said the Lincoln-Boone connection involves two separate marriages of Boones to Lincolns. Possibly Boone’s father’s brother and sister married Lincoln’s great-grandfather’s sister and brother.”[9]

If you know of additional connections between Daniel Boone and the Shenandoah Valley please share them with the Massanutten Musings community of readers. All of the sources referenced in this article including “The Mountain Muse” can be accessed and read at Massanutten Regional Library.

Sources:
[1] Morgan, Robert. 2007. Boone: A Biography. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. Page 29.
[2] Morgan, Robert. 2007. Boone: A Biography. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. Page 29.
[3] Morgan, Robert. 2007. Boone: A Biography. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. Page 29.
[4] “Daniel Boone Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. [http://www.notablebiographies.com/Be-Br/Boone-Daniel.html].
[5] Wayland, John Walter. 1943. Men of Mark and Representative Citizens of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, VA. Staunton, VA: McClure Co. page 392. 

[6] “Daniel Bryan.” Encyclopedia Virginia. [http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Bryan_Daniel_ca_1789-1866].
[7] Wayland, John Walter. 1943. Men of Mark and Representative Citizens of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, VA. Staunton, VA: McClure Co. page 392 and 396.
[8] “Lincoln-Boone Connection Detailed.” Daily News Record [Harrisonburg, VA] 13 Feb. 1986.
[9] “Lincoln-Boone Connection Detailed.” Daily News Record [Harrisonburg, VA] 13 Feb. 1986.