Rebecca Bryan Boone (January 9, 1739 – March 18, 1813) was an American pioneer and the wife of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone. She began her life in the Colony of Virginia (1606–1776), and at the age of ten moved with her grandparents and extended family to the wilderness of the Province of North Carolina (Crown colony (1729–1776), now North Carolina). It was there that she met her future husband, Daniel Boone. Rebecca Boone raised ten of her own children and eight nephews and nieces that she and Daniel had adopted. Since Daniel was away for extended hunting and exploration trips, sometimes for several years at a time, Boone generally raised and protected their eighteen children by herself. Living in the frontier, and needing to be self-reliant, she was a healer, midwife, sharpshooter, gardener, tanner, and weaver. The family was subject to attacks by Native Americans as their land was encroached upon by white settlers and by bands of white men, called highwaymen, who attacked settlers. Several times she and her family left their home for shelter and protection in nearby forts and in one case lived several years in Culpeper County, Colony of Virginia, during the Anglo-Cherokee War.
In 1775, the Boones moved to Kentucky County, Virginia (1776–1780), now the state of Kentucky, where Boone was the first white woman settler. Boone's son James was killed by a group of Cherokee, Delaware, and Shawnee men during the trek through the wilderness. After the family settled at Fort Boone (now Boonesborough), Jemima was captured by Native Americans and was subsequently rescued by Daniel. Daniel was also captured and Boone, believing her husband was dead, returned to North Carolina with her children. Daniel later escaped, returned his family, and later escorted them back to Kentucky County. During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), one of Boone's sons was killed and another was wounded at the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). Boone moved to numerous locations where she raised her family, ran a tavern kitchen, operated stores, hunted for game, and made and sold maple sugar.
Early life Rebecca Ann Bryan was born January 9, 1739 in Frederick County, Virginia near Winchester, Colony of Virginia. She was born into the Quaker family of Joseph and Hester Bryan. Hester was Joseph's first wife. The couple had a second daughter, Martha, before Hester died. The young girls were then taken in by their Grandmother Bryan.
In the fall of 1748, Rebecca, Martha, her grandparents Morgan and Martha (Strode) Bryan, and their eight married children and families left Virginia. They traveled along the Great Wagon Road, which at the time was a path of rugged terrain, just wide enough for a horse-drawn cart. It was a long and dangerous trip to the wilderness of the Province of North Carolina, where they settled in the Yadkin River valley in Rowan County, present-day Davie County, North Carolina. They founded the community called Bryan's Settlement. In Augusta County, Virginia, her father, Joseph Bryan, married a second time to Alice "Alee" Linville, with whom he had a large family. Joseph Bryan fathered a total of eleven children.
The Carolina Bryans cleared the land and built cabins and barns for the families. Elk, deer, turkeys, and fish were abundant in the area. Boone gathered berries and nuts and tended the garden. She learned to spin wool, weave, sew, cook, and make candles. She also learned how to dry food for the winter, tan deer hide, ride a horse, and shoot a musket. She received domestic training from her grandmother and learned outdoor skills, like shooting, from the male members of the Bryan family.
Daniel Boone's family, who were Quakers until 1748, migrated from Pennsylvania in 1750 and between the fall of 1751 and spring of 1752, they settled along the Yadkin River near the Bryans in Rowan County. There are a couple of stories about Daniel and Rebecca's first meeting. One is that on a night that Rebecca was herding stray cows, Daniel tracked her during a "fire hunt", a Native American night-time method for stalking and shooting deer that became frozen or catatonic by the light. In the story, he followed her to the Bryan homestead. Another is that they first met at a cherry picking. They likely first "took notice of each other" at the wedding of Mary Boone, Daniel's sister, to Rebecca's Uncle William—or the later wedding of Squire Boone, Daniel's relative, to Rebecca's Aunt Rebecca. Rebecca was said to have been a tall, attractive woman with black hair and dark eyes. No contemporary portrait of her exists.
Rebecca and Daniel were engaged for two years, during which Daniel fought in Pennsylvania under General Edward Braddock during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). During that period, gangs of white men called highwaymen "plundered, stole, and killed" people in the Yadkin River area; They often disguised themselves as Native Americans. The French hired Cherokee men to raid settlers in the area.
Joseph Bryan settled in the Providence of North Carolina about 1755, living about four miles from his father, Morgan Bryan. Rebecca and Martha Bryan lived with their grandparents until they were married. Martha married Edward (Ned) Boone, Daniel's brother.
Marriage and children Rebecca Bryan married Daniel Boone on August 14, 1756, becoming Rebecca Bryan Boone. She was 17 years of age. Daniel's father Squire Boone officiated the wedding in what is now Davie County, North Carolina. Initially, they lived in a cabin on Squire Boone's land. Before the birth of her first child, the Boones had moved to a small farm and built a one-story log house on Sugartree Creek near members of the Bryan family, close to current-day Farmington, North Carolina. The log house, built with the assistance of Bryan and Boone family members, was unusual for a home in the wilderness. It had glass windows, a hand-pump well, and a separate summer kitchen.
Boone's life was difficult as a frontierswoman. She raised the children on her own during the falls and winters that Daniel spent hunting and trapping furs and on his extended exploration trips into the wilderness. Pelts that Daniel sold to traders supported the family. Boone grew up learning how to raise, feed, and clothe a family in the wilderness. She was also reputed to be a midwife, healer, leather tanner, sharpshooter, and linen-maker. During the extended periods that Daniel was away, she protected her family from attacks by highwaymen and Native Americans. An accomplished hunter, she hunted deer and other game and grew produce to feed her family. When they were old enough, the children helped Boone run the farm and perform domestic chores. Boone sold a variety of produce for income. During financially lean years, the Boones made and sold hundreds of pounds of maple sugar. She entertained Native Americans who came to visit her husband.
By 1757, forts, like Fort Dobbs in the Yadkin River valley, were built for refuge during attacks by Cherokee people, who until this point had "cordial if wary relations with the whites." Native Americans began attacking after white people settled in their hunting grounds. In 1759, following a raid during the Anglo-Cherokee War, Daniel served with the militia under Major Hugh Waddell and Boone went to Culpeper County, Virginia with their four children—young James, baby Israel, and nephews Jesse and Jonathan. Their first daughter Susannah was born in November 1760, after which Daniel went on extended winter hunts and fought in the militia. Boone and her husband were separated for nearly two years. The Boones returned to Rowan County in November 1762.
There was relative peace in North Carolina for a time after the Cherokee signed a peace treaty in November 1761. After the harvest in 1766, the Boones moved west to Holman's Ford in Wilkes County. They moved two more times in the next couple of years, living near Beaver Creek and then overlooking the Yadkin River. Their frequent moves were generally because settlers had tapped out the game in the area forests.
Children
Boone raised eighteen children. Soon after her wedding, Boone took in her husband's two orphaned nephews, Jesse and Jonathan. Her brother-in-law Israel Boone and his wife died of tuberculosis before her wedding; their two daughters also died of the disease soon after their parents. Jesse and Jonathan lived with Boone in North Carolina until the family left for Kentucky in 1773.
Over twenty-five years, Boone delivered six sons and four daughters, most of whom were born in North Carolina and one was born in Boonesborough. Boone's children were: From Daniel Boone's Bible record. James Boone (May 3, 1757 – October 10, 1773) was killed at age 16 by Shawnee in the Clinch Mountains, Virginia Israel Boone (January 25, 1759 – August 19, 1782), died during the Revolutionary War at Blue Licks, Kentucky Susannah Boone Hays (November 2, 1760 – October 19, 1800, now St. Charles County, Missouri) Jemima Boone Callaway (October 4, 1762 – died in Montgomery County, Missouri) Lavinia or Levina Boone Scholl (March 23, 1766 – April 6, 1802, Clark County, Kentucky) Rebecca Goe (May 26, 1768 – died in Clark County, Kentucky) Daniel Morgan Boone (December 23, 1769 – July 13, 1839, Jackson County, Missouri) Jesse Bryan Boone (May 23, 1773 – died in St. Louis, Missouri) William Bryan Boone (June 25, 1775 – died in infancy 1775) Nathan Boone (March 2, 1781 – 1856, Ash Grove, Greene County, Missouri)
Her elder children began having children while she continued to have children. She adopted her widowed brother's six children when she was in her early forties. The children stayed with the Boones until they married.
Kentucky
Daniel had traveled into what is now the state of Kentucky beginning in 1767 and again in May 1769 with an exploration expedition to build a trail through Cumberland Gap for traders and settlers. In December of that year, he and another man were captured by members of the Shawnee nation and they were warned not to return. During that time, Boone was still in North Carolina, living a difficult frontier life with threats of attacks by Native Americans and long periods when her husband was away. Boone was visited by Moravian missionary George Soelle in 1771. He wrote in his diary that Boone "is by nature a quiet soul, and of few words. She told me of her trouble, and the frequent distress and fear in her heart." Daniel returned to North Carolina in 1771, after spending two years in Kentucky. Boone was intent on leaving North Carolina for several reasons, he owed money to people there, the settlements were becoming crowded, and he sought better hunting grounds.
In 1773, Daniel headed for Kentucky with Boone, their children, and other settlers, a party of about 80 people. According to contemporary Daniel Boone biographer Timothy Flint, during the trek Boone "followed [her husband] from North Carolina into the far wilderness, without a road or even a trace to guide their way—surrounded at every step by wild beasts and savages." The move, though, would encroach on Shawnee and Cherokee land. Daniel had been warned by the Native Americans not to return to what is now Kentucky. The settlers were attacked by a group of Cherokee, Delaware, and Shawnee men in October. Six men, including Boone's son James, were tortured and killed. Boone and other survivors returned to North Carolina, taking up temporary residence along the Clinch River, where settlers established forts for protection. Boone and her children found shelter at Moore's Fort after bands of Shawnee attacked settlers in the area. She helped defend the fort during an attack.