Death of Boone's Son

K-32

In this valley, on 10 Oct. 1773, Delaware, Shawnee, and Cherokee Indians killed Daniel Boone's eldest son, James, and five others in their group of eight settlers en route to Kentucky. Separated from Daniel Boone's main party, the men had set up camp near Wallen's Creek. At dawn the Indians attacked and killed James Boone, Henry Russell, John and Richard Mendenhall (brothers), a youth whose last name was Drake, and Charles (one of two slaves in the party). Isaac Crabtree and Adam, a slave, escaped. This event prompted Boone and his party to abandon their first attempt to settle Kentucky.

Department of Historic Resources, 2000

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Gregory Edwards, “The Massacre of James Boone and Companions: What Happened and Where,” paper written for History 5950 class at East Tennessee State University, 6 December 1998; Daniel Boon, The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon, http://earlyamerica.com/lives/boone/chapt1/top.html, 2 October 1998; Bicentennial History of Lee County, Virginia 1792-1992 (Waldsworth Publications, 1992), 12; Lyman C. Draper, The Life of Daniel Boone, unpublished manuscript, n.d., Draper Manuscripts, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin; John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (New York: Henry Holt and Company,1992).