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Show ...--. A---.y;?:'iV'"';-:'--: ;'--f-----4 LMO SCOTT WATSON TCT-JV T i I Eli 10 is Daniel ISoone, the Jj : 'jL Krvat frontiersman, buried? Ask a Kentuckian that jfl V j and he will probably an- !',f ver, "Why, in our state Xi'' - capital, Frankfort, of , nJ '; course '." V-wi 'i'tll a Missourinn what llle Kentuckian has said, Kf--WJ ;,nd bis comment may pos- V y ,-ibly be the traditional, "Show me!" iu-ad any of the dozens of biog rapines of Daniel I'.oone and you'1 1 probably find a statement something like this : 'Tie was buried in Missouri but" in 1S45. at the urgent request of Kentucky the bodies of Iloone and his wife were removed to Kentucky and reburied in Frankfort." But it's just possible that all of the histories are wrong and that Daniel Bonne still sleeps beneath the soil of Missouri instead in-stead of the blue grass of Kentucky. Surprising as that statement may be, there seems to be some foundation of fact for the belief that "somebody blundered" in lS-lo and that, as a result, re-sult, the body of an unknown stranger, stran-ger, instead of the body of the famous pioneer, rests beside that of Rebecca Boone in the Kentucky capital. All of which came about through the discovery recently in an old hair trunk in the attic of a farmhouse near -Boonville, Mo., of several letters written writ-ten to Capt. Nathan Boone, Daniel Boone's son, by the governor of Kentucky Ken-tucky aud other distinguished men in that state, asking his permission for the removal of the bodies of Daniel Boone and his wife to Frankfort for burial. The discovery of these letters let-ters started a representative of the Kansas City Star upon an investigation investiga-tion which has raised the question of where Daniel Boone is actually buried and has uncovered evidence which indicates in-dicates that it is in Missouri and not in Kentucky. As a necessary background for a consideration of this startling theory, it may be well to go back into some of the familiar history of Daniel Boone. It will be remembered how the infant state of Kentucky, displaying display-ing an ingratitude not at all unusual ina.-e for his own. It is at this point in the narrative that the possibijity that "somebody blundered'' enters, ac voiding to descendants of Boone wh live in Missouri and who have made a careful investigation of the circuia stames connected with the burial and removal. One of these is Jesse IV Crump, vice president of the Kansas City Title and Trust company, director di-rector in Missouri of the Boone Family association anil an authority on the life of his illustrious ancestor. From his statements and from those of David Cardyne of Marthasville, Mo., who has spent years -tracing up every item connected with the life of Boone, as presented by the Kansas City Star writer, the evidence sums up as follows fol-lows : When the grave diggers had nearly completed the grave beside that of Rebecca Boone, they uncovered a human hu-man skeleton. So the grave was refilled re-filled and this unknown preoecupnnt was left in possession. They then attempted at-tempted to make a grave on the other side of the Rebecca Boone grave. B.ut here the bill sloped sharply away, -muking it unsuitable for a grave. So they had to try again and a grave was dug either at the head or t lie foot of Rebecca's grave (no one knows for certain which) so as to carry out his request to lie beside his beloved. There Daniel Boone was buried and there, bis descendants believe, he sleeps today. The next chapter in the "somebody blundered" chain of events occurred a little later when headstones were placed at the Boone graves. The si ones were dragged to the graves by a yoke of oxen, driven by a man whose name is lost to history. When he arrived ar-rived there he was not certain as to the placing of the stones and went to a farmhouse nearby. The woman there returned with him to the graves and after discussing the situation for a time, finally pointed to the two graves side by side and said "I think those are the graves." Accordingly the headstone for Rebecca Boone was placed correctly but the one for Daniel Dan-iel Boone was placed ut the head of the grave occupied by the unknown stranger. the will of the legislature, appointed -he 1 3th of September, 1 845, as the dny .vhen public funer&l honors should be aaid to the Illustrious dead and their 'eniains be deposited in the bosom of Kentucky. The events of that day will ever form :;n intciestins page In the annals of the .state. On that occasion historic men men whose names will never be forgotten gathered around ti e co Ml n of a more eminent historic character nnd bore It to the fc'rave The pallbearers were fitly chosen from anions the elders and the honored men of the commonwealth. Thousands of p -opto had gathered from all parts of the slate to participate partici-pate in the ' solemn . funeral rites. A procession was formed, consisting of military companies, Masor.ic and other societies In regalia, and a great number of citizens on horseback and on foot, making the line more than a mile in lennth. The broad grave for the two coffins was dug in a lovely shaded hollow hol-low near the banks of the Kentucky river and around it the multitude gathered. gath-ered. The religious ceremonies we?a performed by Rev. Mr. Godell of the Baptist chu"ch and were followed by an oration by Hon. J. J. Crittenden, the able representative of Kentucky in thn senate of tne United States. When the closing prayer had been offered, and the benediction pronounced, the cofhns were lowered into the grave and over them was piled a mound of earth yet the only monument that marks the spot where the noble pioneers are buried. What was true in 1S39 was still true JO years later that this mound of earth was "yet the only monument that marks the spot where the noble pioneers are buried." For, strange to say, having ptiid these signal honors to its great pioneer, Kentucky again showed a strange indifference to him and it was not until 1SS0 that the present monument was erected in Frankfort. Daniel Boone has been honored by memorials in many other places in the monument which marks the site of Boonesborough. the "station" which he established in 1TT5 ; in the statue of him in Cherokee park in Louisville; in the monument which stands in Cumberland Cum-berland C,ap, where Boone stood and looked into his land of promise, even though it was the "Dark and Bloody Oround," and which may some day be replaced with a heroic statue of the great pioneer; and in the Boone Trail highway which follows his path into the West. Last year lie became one of America's immortals when a bust of in the history of America, failed to confirm Boone's title to lands within its borders. So the old pioneer took his family to Missouri, which was then Spanish territory. The news of his coming had preceded him and the Spanish governor gave him a grant of a thousand acres of fine bottomland on the Feiume Osage creek and made him syndic (an ollice combining the duties of Judge, jury, military commander com-mander and sheriff) for his district. Here he lived happily for several years, but when Missouri, as a part of the Louisiana purchase, came under the American Hug, misfortune overtook over-took Boone. The federal government refused to recognize the title to the acres granted him by the Spanish and again he found himself landless. He sent in memorials to both the Ken- tucky legislature and congress but it I was not until six years had passetl I that congress took action to contirm his Spanish land grants. After the death of bis wife, he made bis home with his son, Nathan, in St. Charles i county and there he died September . 1!G, 1S20, at the age of eighty-six. When Rebecca Boone died in ISl.'i she was buried in u cemetery on a - knoll upon the bank of Teugue crcek about a mile and a half north of the present town of Marl hasviile in War-j War-j ren county, Mo. It had been Boone's ; oft-repeated request that he be placed ' beside her when he died and by the ! side of her grave In- had marked a i The final "blunder" (if such It was) was made in lS-io when Kentucky, in an effort to -pay Its tardy honors to the man to whom it owed so much, started the movement to have the bodies of Boone and his wife returned to the Blue Grass state. As the result of the letters from Kentucky officials to Nathan Boone such as those recently recent-ly discovered, the .Boone family tinally gave Its consent to the removal. A delegation of Kentuckians arrived to obtain the bodies. They opened the grave of Rebecca Boone and found the cofl'm in an excellent stale of preservation preserva-tion but when they opened the grave beside her, which they believed to contain the body of the old pioneer, they found only a few pieces of the collin and the larger bones of a human skeleton. Apparently no one at the time was struck by the inconsistency of this fact: how could Rebecca's eofiin he In such perfect state of preservation, while the other, supposed to contain the body of her husband, who was buried seven years after her, had so nearly perished? At any rale he contents of the two graves wei-v placed in elaborate collins and carried to Frankfort. The ceremony of roburial tit the Kentucky capital as described in an article in Harper's Magazine in ISfi'.t tells us that : Having oll,'ilni"l the consent of the survivine, relalivi-s nf tho pbinrrr for the removal f the remain!!, r committee, com-mittee, cliar;i'd with the execution of him was unveiled in the Hall of Fame at New York university. But to Kentuckians the monument in Frankfort (an unpretentious one, It would seem, considering the worth of his services to that commonwealth), Is something of a slate shrine. It will be startling news to Kentuckians If it is ever definitely proved that Daniel Boone does not sleep beneath that monument. There were times during the bloody years of the Revolution In the West that Kentucky owed her very existence to the strong right arm and stout heart of Daniel Boone. Yet for all that he did for her she allowed al-lowed him to " defrauded of his lands and saw him, saddened by her ingratitude, set forth to seek a new home in anolher state. A quarter of n century after his tlealh she paid him tardy honors, then neglected his memory mem-ory for another ."." years. If us the Missouri descendants of Boone believe, It Is not only possible probable, Hint Daniel Boone still sleeps in Missouri and not In Kentucky, Ken-tucky, bow Fnle must smile at the delicious irony of the sll nation Kentuckians Ken-tuckians of today n aking a pilgrimage p, this slate shrine, unconscious of the fact that they are standing In reverence at the last resting place of an unknown stranger and not that of their great hero whom the Kenlueklans of yesterday denied I he full measure of honor and the i"'wards which he so richly deserved ! |