Daniel Boone led a crew of workers who were hired to open the Wilderness Road into Kentucky. The expedition chopped down trees, cleared brush, and dug out stones to open a route through the dense forest.
When Daniel was unable to repay his debts, the lenders took him to court. To defend himself, he turned to lawyer Richard Henderson. When they met, Daniel often described Kentucky’s wonders to the wealthy North Carolinian.
Henderson listened carefully. In 1775, he formed the Transylvania Company as a way of speculating in western lands. Before he could do so, he had to gain title to the land. The lawyer’s solution was to open talks with the Cherokee. The fact that the tribe did not own the land did not stop him. Neither did the fact that he was breaking the law. Since 1763, settlers had been confined to the lands east of the Appalachians.
It was Daniel who arranged the meeting. More than a thousand Cherokee gathered in March 1775 for the talks. Henderson won their good will by showing up with six wagons full of trade goods. He claimed that the cargo was worth $50,000. Some observers did not believe him. They saw mostly “cheap trinkets,” firearms, and rum.
After much debate, the Cherokee sold 20 million acres. The land lay between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers. Henderson also won the right to open a road to his land. Most of the Cherokee leaders signed the Great Grant. One who did not was a chief named Dragging Canoe. “Brother, we have given you a fine land,” he warned Daniel. “But … you will have much trouble in settling it.”
Daniel left the meeting early. Henderson had offered him two thousand acres of prime wilderness land. In payment, Daniel had promised to open a road into Kentucky. His friends and neighbors hurried to join him. The pay was good—ten British pounds (£10) to each workman. As a bonus, they were allowed to take the best land for themselves.
The road builders met on the Virginia-North Carolina border. Squire was there. So was Daniel’s daughter Susannah and her new husband. Fourteen-year-old Susannah had hired on to cook and keep camp. It was a good time for Daniel to be away from home. In mid-April, a creditor swore out a warrant for his arrest. The sheriff did his best, but he could not find Daniel. Across the court papers he scrawled, “Gone to Kentucky.”
Daniel Boone led a crew of workers who were hired to open the Wilderness Road into Kentucky. The expedition chopped down trees, cleared brush, and dug out stones to open a route through the dense forest.
Daniel marked the way along the Warrior’s Trace. The woodsmen felled the first trees on March 10, 1775. Yard by yard, the men carved a pack trail through the wilderness. They cleared brush and dug out rocks. They slashed their way through canebrakes. Snow and sleet slowed the work but did not stop it. Henderson later wrote that “no part of the road [was] tolerable.” Most of what became known as the Wilderness Road was hilly, stony, or muddy.
Two weeks of backbreaking labor took the crew into Kentucky. Certain that the worst was over, the workers camped near a boiling spring. On March 24, they awoke to the sound of gunfire. Dragging Canoe’s prophecy was coming true. As Daniel described it, “A party of Indians fired on my company about half an hour before day. [They] killed Mr. Twetty and his negro.” A second attack two days later cost two more lives.
Only Daniel’s cool courage kept the men from fleeing. On April 6, the weary party finally reached journey’s end. Daniel led the workers to a site on the south bank of the Kentucky River. There, they built a cluster of log huts. A crude, unfinished twelve-foot stockade guarded the enclosure. The men called it Fort Boone.
Daniel resolved to bring his family to Kentucky. He felt sure his tiny settlement would grow. His workers, too, were pleased with their prospects. Indeed, their hunger for land caused a serious problem. The men often left the fort unguarded while they scrambled to stake their claims.
Henderson’s caravan of packhorses arrived two weeks later. With them came seeds, trade goods, black powder, and cattle. Henderson renamed the site Boonesborough. He later wrote: “It was owing to Boone’s confidence in us and the people’s in him that a stand was ever attempted.”