Daniel Boone Homstead 2009 fireplace HPIM3262

The Daniel Boone Homestead, the birthplace of American frontiersman

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

, is a museum and historic house that is administered by the Friends of the Daniel Boone Homestead near Birdsboro in

Berks County Berks County (Pennsylvania German: ''Barricks Kaundi'') is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 428,849. The county seat is Reading. The Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware River, ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. It is located on nearly and is the largest site owned by the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares fo ...

. The staff at Daniel Boone Homestead interpret the lives of the three main families that lived at the Homestead: the Boones, the Maugridges and the DeTurks. The park is just off U.S. Route 422 north of Birdsboro in Exeter Township.

Homestead

Squire Boone

In 1730, Squire Boone, Daniel Boone's father, built a log cabin in the Oley Valley in what is now Berks County near present-day

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

. Daniel Boone was born in the -story log house. One wall was built of native stone. The basement of the house served as a

spring house A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing stru ...

. It provided easy access to water for cleaning, cooking and drinking. The springhouse also was useful for cold storage. Squire Boone expanded his property in 1741 when he purchased of land for use as a

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

for his dairy

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

. Squire Boone was a blacksmith and weaver. The responsibility for tending the cattle was given to Daniel. During the summer months he stayed in a rustic cabin at the edge of the pasture. From there he was able to protect the cattle from predators such as the

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

, bobcat, and

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

. The Boone family became a source of controversy in the local Quaker community. In 1742, Boone's parents were compelled to publicly apologize after their eldest child Sarah married a non-Quaker. When Boone's oldest brother Israel also married a non-Quaker in 1747, Squire Boone stood by his son and was therefore expelled from the Quakers, although his wife continued to attend monthly meetings with her children. Perhaps as a result of this controversy, in 1750 Squire sold his land and moved the family south. The Boones eventually settled on the

Yadkin River The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in North Carolina, flowing . It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, p ...

, in what is now Davie County,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, about two miles (3 km) west of Mocksville.

Maugridge and DeTurk

Ownership of the Daniel Boone Homestead was transferred in 1750 to William Maugridge, a relative of the Boones from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and an associate of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

. He was a shipwright and carpenter. The home underwent an expansion either just before or just after the time that it was transferred to Maugridge. This addition created a two-story house. The house featured a typical hall and parlor as well as a "bible closet". Maugridge died in 1766 and the property was then purchased by John DeTurk. DeTurk remodeled the house completely. He removed the walls of the log cabin and had them rebuilt with stone. DeTurk may have also built the

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

that can be seen today at the park. Several other farmers owned the land in the years following DeTurk's death before an effort to preserve it for historical purposes was undertaken in 1926.

Restoration

The Reverend A. B. Vossler of nearby Birdsboro, Pennsylvania purchased the farm with the help of William C. Foote of East Orange, New Jersey in 1926. They later sold it to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1937 in order to preserve and protect the homestead of Daniel Boone. Restoration began soon afterward and many examples of colonial life in the Oley Valley have been moved to the site of the Daniel Boone Homestead. A circa 1769 blacksmith's shop has been restored at the park as well as the "Bertolet House," an example of early 18th-century Pennsylvania German architecture.

Daniel Boone's youth

Daniel Boone was born on October 22, 1734. Because the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

was adopted during Boone's lifetime, his birth date is given as November 2, 1734 (the "New Style" date), although Boone always used the October date. He was the sixth of eleven children in a family of

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

. His father, Squire Boone (1696–1765), had immigrated to

from the small town of

Bradninch Bradninch is a small town and former manor in Devon, England, lying about south of Cullompton. Much of the surrounding farmland belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall. There is an electoral ward with the same name. At the 2011 Census the ward pop ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1713. Squire Boone's parents George and Mary Boone followed their son to

in 1717, and in 1720 built a log cabin at Boonecroft. ''Note:'' This includes In 1720, Squire, who worked primarily as a weaver and a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

, married Sarah Morgan (1700–1777), whose family members were Quakers from

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Boone spent his early years on what was then the western edge of the Pennsylvania frontier. The pacifist Quakers generally had good relations with the Native Americans—but the steady growth of the white population compelled many Indians to relocate further west. Boone received his first rifle in 1749, beginning his lifelong love of hunting. Folk tales often emphasized Boone's skills as a hunter. In one story, the young Boone is hunting in the woods with some other boys. The scream of a panther scatters the boys, except for Boone, who calmly cocks his squirrel gun and shoots the animal through the heart just as it leaps at him. As with so many tales about Boone, the story may or may not be true, but it was told so often that it became part of the popular image of the man.

References

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External links

*{{Official website , https://www.thedanielboonehomestead.org/ *{{HABS , survey=PA-149 , id=pa0100 , title=Daniel Boone Birthplace *National Archives- Nomination Form - "Pennsylvania SP Boone, Daniel, Homestead Site and Bertolet Cabin" {{Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission {{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania {{Museums in Pennsylvania {{authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Boone, Daniel, Homestead Museums in Berks County, Pennsylvania Open-air museums in Pennsylvania

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania Rural history museums in Pennsylvania Historic house museums in Pennsylvania Biographical museums in Pennsylvania Hall and parlor houses Houses in Berks County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Berks County, Pennsylvania