Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of KentuckyAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Boone, Daniel, 1734-1820
This money was to be paid to the State Treasurer, who would give for it
a receipt. This receipt was to be deposited with the State Auditor, who
would in exchange for it give a certificate. This certificate was to be
lodged at the Land Office. There it was to be registered, and a warrant
was to be given, authorizing the survey of the land selected. Surveyors
who had passed the ordeal of William and Mary College, having defined
the boundaries of the land, were to make a return to the Land Office. A
due record was there to be made of the survey, a deed was to be given in
the name of the State, which deed was to be signed by the Governor, with
the seal of the Commonwealth attached.
This was a perplexing labyrinth for the pioneer to pass through, before
he could get a title to his land. Not only Colonel Boone, but it seems
that his family were anxious to return to the beautiful fields of
Kentucky. During the few months he remained on the Yadkin, he was busy
in converting every particle of property he possessed into money, and in
raising every dollar he could for the purchase of lands he so greatly
desired. The sum he obtained amounted to about twenty thousand dollars,
in the depreciated paper currency of that day. To Daniel Boone this was
a large sum. With this the simple-hearted man started for Richmond to
pay it to the State Treasurer, and to obtain for it the promised
certificate. He was also entrusted with quite large sums of money from
his neighbors, for a similar purpose.
On his way he was robbed of every dollar. It was a terrible blow to him,
for it not only left him penniless, but exposed him to the insinuation
of having feigned the robbery, that he might retain the money entrusted
to him by his friends. Those who knew Daniel Boone well would have no
more suspected him of fraud than an angel of light. With others however,
his character suffered. Rumor was busy in denouncing him.
Colonel Nathaniel Hart had entrusted Boone with two thousand nine
hundred pounds. This of course was all gone. A letter, however, is
preserved from Colonel Hart, which bears noble testimony to the
character of the man from whom he had suffered:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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