Nathan Boone, Daniel and Rebecca’s youngest son, was born 3 March 1781, at Boone’s Station, Kentucky. Nathan came along almost six years after the loss of William, born in Virginia only days before the family made their fateful move to Kentucky in 1775. (William died days after his birth and his grave lies lost and forgotten.) Rebecca was forty-two at Nathan’s birth. Her two oldest daughters had children of their own. Susannah had her third that same year, and Jemima, her first in 1779.
Nathan is most likely the only one of all the Boone children to learn to read and write. Late in his life, Nathan gave Kentuckians and historians, personal, factual memories of his father through interviews with Lyman Draper in 1851. Draper made over 300 pages of handwritten notes, after Nathan had answered seventeen questions sent prior to Draper’s visit. Available in “My Father, Daniel Boone: The Draper Interviews with Nathan Boone”* Nathan’s words provide historians and Boone admirers with a firsthand account of a remarkable man.
Nathan himself was no slouch! He served in the War of 1812, joined the 1st United Sates Regiment of Dragoons as a captain on 2 March 1833 and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Nathan and Olive Van Bibber had fourteen children. A tale for another day just might be one of their marriage and unusual honeymoon!
*Edited by Neal O. Hammon
Illustration: Nathan Boone’s home in Defiance, Missouri