In the summer issue we ran some "Forgotten Cemeteries in Meade County, Kentucky", which had been copied by a former member, Minnie Richardson. One of those cemeteries contained the remains of a certain Hiram C. Boone. The cemetery is located on the Ohio River near Little Bend and had been copied in 1981. I looked into several things here at home to see if I could find reference to Hiram C. Boone. First, in Early Times in Meade County, Ridenour mentions him on p. 36. "Hiram Boone founded Boone Port in Little Bend. The site of this landing has fallen into the river. In the Hayden and Atwill account book is listed Henry Fullenwider. Bond for a title to four lots in the town of Boone Borough, Indiana." Then, on p. 68 of Early Times I found this little note: "At the April 1826, term of the county court a summons for Hiram C. Boone, Esquire, commanding him to appear on the first day of the next term of this court to show cause, if any he can, why he should not be fined for not attending the present term."1
I then looked through the Meade County, Kentucky Newspaper Abstracts by Carolyn Wimp and found reference to some Boones on page 2. A "James Boone of Little Bend, recently returned from a visit to Texas, where he expects to make his home. And then, "Dr. S.W. Boone, formerly of Little Bend area, but two years ago moved to Denver, Co. for the benefit of his health, is now visiting friends and relatives in this area."2
Next I searched Wimp's Newspaper Abstracts of Hardin County and found a reference on page 253 dated Friday, August 14, 1891 in the Elizabethtown News. "Mrs. Sarah Slaughter died in Louisville on Sunday. Was the mother of W. H. Slaughter and daughter of Col. Hiram C. Boone, grand nephew of Daniel Boone. Mrs. Slaughter was born in Meade Co. Was 69 years old"3
A previous reference in the same newspaper abstract book on page 24 also ties the Fullenwider and Boon(e) families together. There on Wednesday, December 16, 1835 is this abstract: "Breckenridge [sic] Co. Circuit Court-November term 1835-Hiram C. Boon and wife, Henry Fullenwider and wife, vs Joshua Rentfor's administers [sic], heirs and c., defendants in Chancery. The defendants, James M. Yeager and Ruth his wife are not residents of Ky." (KR)4
When the reader begins to peruse the Meade County Court Records in this issue he or she will see that Hiram C. Boone was a member of the Meade County Court in 1827, so his absence at that earlier date must not have prevented his serving later. Who was this man? Could he be related to the other early Meade County settler, Enoch Boone, whose remains rest up river from Hiram, near the mouth of Otter Creek into the Ohio River.
After reading the above references I decided to "Google" this man. First, I found an article regarding one of Hiram C. Boone's grand sons, William M. Boone, which provided much biographical information about Dr. Boone but also about his grandfather, Hiram C. Boone. William M. Boone, M.D. lived in Highland, Doniphan County, Kansas. He was a physician and surgeon in 1892 in that place where he had lived for over 25 years. The article stated that he "belonged to the family of Kentucky Boones and four or five generations back his ancestor was the same as that of the famous frontiersman and hunter, Daniel Boone. The Boone family originated in Southern England, and it will be recalled that Daniel Boone was a native of Pennsylvania who subsequently went to the Carolinas.
The article goes on to say that "Doctor Boone's grandfather was Hiram C. Boone, who was born in 1788 and stood in the relationship of first cousin to Daniel Boone. He became a prominent man in Meade County, Kentucky, where he died in 1863. He had fought in some of the Indian wars and was major of the State Militia. By occupation he was a planter and had numerous slaves to work his fields and gather his crops, as well as look after the duties of the household. His second wife was Sallie Staples, and she died in Meade County, Kentucky, at the age of seventy-five. A record of their children includes: Clemmie, who married Doctor Ray, who served as a surgeon in the Union Army, and both are now deceased; Sallie H., who married A. H. Slaughter; Samuel H., who became a Union soldier, was wounded in battle by a minie ball and incapacitated for further duty, and ten years later he died at Denver, Colorado; James Monroe, mentioned below; Junius B. deceased; Victoria, who married Mr. Douglass and both are now deceased; Hiram C., (Jr.) Who is a retired farmer living in Meade County, Kentucky."
"Meade County, Kentucky, was the birthplace of Dr. William M. Boone. His birthday was March 5, 1860. His father, James Monroe Boone, was born in Kentucky on May 11, 1832, and died at Hillsboro, Texas, in December, 1915. He was reared in Meade County, was married in Breckinridge County, and besides farming he had interests in the boating business in Kentucky. During a period of hard times following the panic of 1873 he had to sacrifice his Kentucky farm, and he then sought a new field. On February 14, 1878, he arrived at Dallas, Texas, which was then an extremely new town and had been connected with the outside world by railroads only a few years. In 1880 he removed to a farm near Hillsboro, Texas, and though middle life at the time he eventually redeemed his fortune in that state. He was a democrat and a very active member of the Baptist Church, serving for many years as clerk. James M. Boone married Ellen Moorman, who was born April 12, in Breckinridge County, Kentucky, and is still living at Hillsboro, Texas at the age of eighty."
There is further information concerning Dr. Boone which is very interesting, and can be found on the Internet. This particular biography is part of A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans written and compiled by William E. Connelley in 1918 and being transcribed for the web by Middle School students in Baxter Springs, Kansas.5
So, now I had a conflict. One source says Hiram C. Boone was a grand nephew of Daniel Boone, another source says that he was a cousin. With my "goggling around" for Hiram I found another Boone researcher, Arthur Hopkins. His web site can be accessed: http://home.comcst.net/ ~adhopkins/sboone-fc.htm. I have learned a lot about the extended Boone family at this site. Mr. Hopkins stated that "the word nephew was a mistake, or a loose use of the term." After analyzing several articles, I believe that Daniel Boone and Hiram C. Boone's father, Samuel Boone were actually first cousins, which technically makes Hiram a first cousin-once removed to the famous hunter and explorer, Daniel Boone. Arthur gave me permission to cite the information on his site, but cautioned me that several of his own citations are copyright-protected. He referred me to the good people in the Boone Society. I first found their address on the Internet and I contacted them with the information I had discovered in Minnie Richardson's cemetery listing of Hiram C. Boone's family. The result of which was that a long-time member Ludella M. Ebinger of Phoenix, Arizona provided me with several xeroxed pages from the Spraker book. This book is cited over and over by Boone family researchers as a secondary reference to the lineage of Daniel Boone's family.6
Ms. Ebinger wrote to me that one of Hiram Boone's grandsons, helped Hazel Spraker with the section on Hiram Boone's line. She also sent part of an article by Bess Hawthorne concerning the Kentucky Boones which appeared in 1982 in the periodical, Boone Family Echoes, published by the Boone Family Research Association. What follows has been gleaned from these sources.
This George Boone appears to be the immigrant ancestor of the family who settled in Berks Co., Pennsylvania. Spraker says he was born about 1666 at Stoak, England, near the City of Exeter in Devonshire. He married his wife, Mary Maugridge in Bradninch, Devonshire, England. They were Quakers. "They were members of the Society of Friends in Callumpton, Devonshire, from which Meeting they took a letter of recommendation to the Society of Friends in America." They left England in 1717 with six children and eventually settled in Pennsylvania, actually following three of their children, who had gone earlier "to investigate conditions there7."
CHILDREN OF GEORGE AND MARY MAUGRIDGE BOONE
George Boone, b. 13 July 1690
Sarah Boone, b. 18 Feb 1691/92, m. Jacob Stover
Squire Boone, b. 25 Nov 1696- Daniel Boone's father
Mary Boone, b. 23 Sept 1699
John Boone, b. 3 Jan 1701/02
Joseph Boone, b. 5 April 1704
Benjamin Boone, b. 16 July 1706
Samuel Boone, b. ca 1711-Hiram C. Boone's grandfather8
Samuel Boone, b. ca 1711 in England, died 6 August 1745 in Exeter in Philadelphia County, in the province of Pennsylvania. at the age of about thirty-four years of age. He married Elizabeth Cassel, daughter of Arnold Cassel and his wife, Susanna de la Plaine.9 They were married at the Philadelphia Meeting on 29 August 1734, according to Spraker. Upon Samuel's death he and Elizabeth had four children: Samuel Boone, Jr., b. 22 March 1736; Susanna Boone b. 17 March 1738; Isaiah Boone, b. 30 August 1741; and Arnold Boone, b. 16 December 1743. Check Arthur Hopkins' site for Quaker records showing marriage banns, condemnations, and other records.
Hawthorne, in her article about the Boones in Kentucky, speaks of the relationships between this Samuel and his cousins, Squire Boone and Squires' brother, Daniel. Samuel Boone's first wife was a Rachel Coles, "probably" a daughter of Dinah Boone and Daniel Coles. Rachel had died in 1763 and their only child, John, died a month later. About three years later Samuel married his cousin, Jane Hughes. Both Hawthorne and Mrs. Spraker call her a cousin to Samuel - indeed Hawthorne cites Mrs. Spraker's book as one of her sources, but Hawthorne goes into some detail and also cites an autobiography of Hiram C. Boone owned by Mrs. Ellen Boone Blakey (said to be a grand daughter, being a daughter of Hiram C. Boone, Jr.)
Hawthorne further states that Samuel moved to Maryland, where he established a gunlock factory, at Frederick town, which he operated for Maryland during the Revolution. She cites "Maryland Archives, Vol. 12, p. 327." As he was paid with continental script he lost his fortune. Arthur Hopkins, on his website, cites Lyman C. Draper's The Life of Daniel Boone when he writes that young Squire Boone, the son of Squire Boone, Sr. (and the youngest brother of the famed Daniel Boone) was apprenticed to "his cousin, Samuel Boone, a gunsmith, to learn the trade", when old Squire Boone and family removed in 1750 from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Many of these citations can be found on Hopkins' website and are fascinating.
According to Bess Hawthorne, Samuel Boone, the gunsmith, moved to Kentucky in 1783, settling on the Salt River, in what is now Shelby County. "In 1787 with his cousin and warm personal friend, Squire Boone Jr., he went via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Chickasaw Bluffs at the mouth of the Yazoo River (near Vicksburg, Mississippi). They were warned of the Indian danger in that area. Samuel lived alone with the Indians, the first white in that region, while his cousin Squire moved on to New Orleans, eventually returning to Kentucky. After working about a year in his gun smithing trade among the Indians (according to Spraker) Samuel returned to his Kentucky home in 1788, there to remain the rest of his life."
Hawthorne writes, "After his death in Shelby County, Kentucky in 1805, Samuel Boone's widow, Jane Hughes Boone, with all her family, except two married daughters, went with Squire Boone to Indiana, settling in Harrison County about ten miles south of the town of Corydon, which later became the Capital of that state (actually the territorial capital). Through her family Jane Hughes Boone became a factor in the founding of Indiana. Her daughter, Hannah, with whom she made her home had married Moses Boone (son of Squire)." Moses Boone became a judge of the Probate Court, under whose direction was constructed the first State House, built of stone, which still stands in Corydon. Samuel and Jane Boone's son, John Hughes Boone, was a member of the Indiana constitutional convention; their son, George Boone, became a state senator; their son, Hiram Cassel Boone, while yet a boy, was commissioned captain by General William Henry Harrison, in 1811, and sent with a company against the Indians. Jane Hughes Boone lived to see Hiram rise to the rank of colonel of the 5th regiment of the Indiana Militia. About 1806, the Boones built a Baptist church one of the earliest churches of the State. "Though of logs, it still stands (in 1982) in good condition, a protecting monument to the clustering of graves of its church yard. Its site was the home farm of Moses and Hannah Boone, and here lie the remains of Jane Hughes Boone."
It is interesting to note that Hazel Spraker stated that Jane Hughes Boone died in Kentucky "at the home of her daughter, Hannah, who was wife of Moses Boone where she was known as 'Little Granny' to distinguish her from 'Big Granny', who was Jane (Van Cleve) Boone, wife of Squire Boone."10 I feel that Bess Hawthorne's information is correct and can be supported by my friend, Ludella Eginger. I can see Moses Boone and John Boone mentioned in Fred Porter Griffin's pamphlet, Harrison County's Earliest Years as being early settlers in Harrison County. Mr. Griffin names "three judges appointed to the Court of Common Pleas" by Governor Harrison on Dec. 8, 1808; Patrick Shields, John George Pfrimmer and Moses Boone. Griffin wrote that the Court of Common Pleas transcribed the major portion of the county's business, only one part of which was Probate Court. I would imagine that much evidence exists in old Harrison County, Indiana records to support more fully the story of the Boones. This short article only scratches the surface.
CHILDREN OF SAMUEL AND JANE HUGHES BOONE
Rachel Boone b. 17 September 1767, married Alexander Merrifield
Hannah Boone b. 6 Feb 1770m. Moses Boone, son of Squire Boone (Daniel's brother)
John Hughes Boone b. 10 Feb 1772
William Boone b. 5 October 1774. Editor's note:
This seems to be the same man buried near his brother in the Boone
Cemetery at Little Bend, Meade County, Kentucky. He d. 14 Feb
1854.
George Washington Boone b. 6 March 1777
Samuel Boone b. 6 October 1779
Susanna Boone m. Gabriel Kirkpatrick
Elizabeth Boone m. a Mr. Hayden
Hiram Cassel Boone, b. 3 July 178911
And so this brings us to Hiram Cassel Boone who lies buried on Little Bend of the Ohio River in Meade County, Kentucky. According to Hazel Spraker's account, Hiram Cassel Boone was born 3 July 1789 and died in Meade County, Kentucky on his farm known as "Sandy Farm." She says his first wife was Frances Ann Boone, a daughter of Jonathan, and granddaughter of Squire Boone. Frances was the mother of three children, Grandison H. Boone, Rattliff R. Boone and John Tipton Boone. Hiram Cassel Boone's second wife was Mrs. Sarah Hairston Staples, the widow of Major John Staples. In her biographical account of Hiram Cassel Boone, Mrs. Spraker says on p. 160, that Hiram left a statement that he was descended from George Boone III who came to America in 1717. Mrs. Spraker wrote that Hiram C. Boone moved to Indiana at the same time Squire Boone, Jr. moved to Indiana from Kentucky. Spraker wrote that Boone was commissioned a captain in the campaign of the Wabash. Later, after his commission as colonel in the 5th Regiment of Militia of the Sate of Indiana he was known as Colonel Boone the rest of his life. She also stated he was one of the wealthiest men in Meade County. He is listed with real estate worth over $13,000 in the 1850 Meade County Census abstracted by Shelly Sims. Mrs. Spraker wrote in 1922 that he had a fine brick home on his farm on the Ohio River in Meade County. At the time she first published her history of the Boones, his son, Hiram C. Boone, Jr. the second lived there.
Below is the list of Hiram and Sarah's children as given by Mrs. Spraker on page 161. In parentheses are those children or grandchildren buried in the Boone cemetery at Little Bend, Meade County, Kentucky. They are buried near Hiram Cassel Boone and his second wife, Sarah Hairston Staples. Where is his first wife buried?
CHILDREN OF HIRAM C. BOONE AND HIS SECOND WIFE, SARAH HAIRSTON STAPLES
Sarah Jane b. 1822 m. Austin Hubbard Slaughter. Several Slaughter children are buried in the Boone Cemetery.
Catherine Jane Boone b. 1822, (d. 14 Sept 1834 aged 9 years, 10 months)
Frances Ann America Boone b. 1827, this is probably daughter who m. Dr. John W. Ray in 1852. They have a child, Clifton Shelby Ray, d. 28 Sept 1857 in the Boone Cemetery. *
Samuel Hairston Boone b. 1828 "b. 15 July 1828, d. 10 June 1877."
Susan Amanda Boone, b. 1830 (buried in Boone Cemetery-departed this life 26 June 1836, aged 5 years, 10 mo. 13 days)
James Monroe Boone b. 1832
Junius Brutus Boone b. 1834 m Belle Elder
An infant daughter b. and d. 1836 possibly "little Mary" who died at 5 mo.
Queen Victoria Boone b. 1837 m. Benjamin P. Douglass (Meade County Marriages abstracted by Wathena K. Miller, p. 110)
Malvina Helen Boone b. 1839 m. Thomas O. Hite, (little child of this couple at Boone Cemetery)
Hiram Cassel Boone, Jr. b. 1842
*The 1850 Meade County census also lists a Clementine Boone, aged 22. She seems to be the same as Frances above. A Frances is not listed, so Clementine may have been a nickname.
My friend, Ludella Ebinger, wrote that a grandson of Hiram C. Boone, William Boone Douglas, worked with Hazel Spraker on the family book from which I have gotten much of the above information. He also wrote articles for the first Boone Society back in the 1920's. His mother was Queen Victoria Boone. Mrs. Spraker wrote that Victoria died in Louisville in 1885. Her husband Benjamin P. Douglas full name and title was Judge Benjamin Pennebaker Douglas. He died 31 December 1904 at Corydon, Indiana, after a very distinguished career. The son, William Boone Douglas, was once Examiner of Survey of the General Land Office. Mrs. Spraker wrote that he discovered "The Rainbow Natural Bridge" in southern Utah which was named a national monument. For any serious Boone family researchers I would recommend finding a copy of Hazel Spraker's book, The Boone Family, which as been reprinted by the Genealogical Printing Company.
There may be descendants of many of the people mentioned here today in both Meade County, Kentucky and Harrison County, Indiana. In reading the few pages sent to me, it can be seen that hundreds of Boone descendants live all over our country, just as has happened in any other pioneer Kentucky or Indiana family.
Write to us with any additions or corrections that have been discovered. Another one of ATHS's benefactors, Charles R. Clark of Tucson, Arizona has also sent a large amount of Catholic Boone information which will be on file at the library in the Hardin County History Museum. From a quick perusal of this material, it would seem the Catholic Boones who immigrated out of England to St. Mary's County, Maryland are not related to George Boone, the grandfather of Daniel and his brother Squire and the great grandfather of Hiram C. Boone of Meade County, Kentucky.