Daniel Boone Grave & Monument
Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Daniel Boone-Pioneer. Born, Pa., 1734. Died, Mo., 1820. Married Rebecca Boone, 1756, N.C. First trip to Kentucky, 1767. Set up Fort Boonesborough, 1775, blazed Wilderness Trail and settled. Frontiersman, surveyor, settler, legislator and sheriff. Defender against Indians and British. His claim to 100,000 acres lost, 1784. Emigrated to Missouri in 1799. See other side. (Reverse) Grave of Daniel Boone - In the cemetery stands a monument to Daniel and Rebecca Boone, done by a grateful Commonwealth in 1860. Their remains had been brought back from Missouri and reburied, on September 13, 1845. A tribute to that outstanding frontiersman and his wife, who pioneered in carving out a wilderness empire-now Kentucky. See other side. Presented by Rotary Club, District 671. Dedicated April 6, 1963.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Daniel Boone was already a legend in his own lifetime, and this monument in Frankfort marks the final resting place a grateful Kentucky claimed for him and his wife Rebecca. Born in Pennsylvania in 1734, Boone blazed the Wilderness Trail, founded Fort Boonesborough in 1775, and helped open the trans-Appalachian frontier to settlement even as he served as surveyor, legislator, and sheriff. Though he lost his vast Kentucky land claims and moved on to Missouri, the Commonwealth brought his remains home in 1845 and raised this tribute in 1860.
Why it matters
Boone became the archetype of the American frontiersman, and his grave marks how a young nation mythologized westward expansion and the settlers who pushed into contested Indigenous homelands.
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Related people
- · Daniel Boone
- · Rebecca Boone
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Daniel Boone's Grave
Frankfort, KY
Daniel Boone (1734–1820) was the frontier's most famous pathfinder: he entered eastern Kentucky in 1767, explored the Bluegrass, and in 1775 blazed the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap and raised Fort Boonesborough, which he helped defend against attack in 1778. Late in life he moved on to Missouri, still chasing the edge of the wilderness. In 1845 he and his wife Rebecca were reinterred here at Frankfort Cemetery, overlooking the river country he opened.
Lewis, Chief Sheheke & Clark in Frankfort
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Frankfort saw the Lewis and Clark story at both its triumph and its tragedy. In November 1806 Meriwether Lewis passed through the capital escorting the Mandan chief Sheheke and his family, along with a delegation of Osage Indians, on their way to meet President Thomas Jefferson in Washington. Three years later, in 1809, William Clark stopped in Frankfort while traveling east and there confirmed and mourned the death of his co-leader Lewis, discussing the loss with Kentucky leaders including Christopher Greenup and Charles Scott.
Squire Boone's Station, 1779
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In 1779 Squire Boone — younger brother of the famed Daniel Boone — planted a fortified station he called "Painted Stone" on Clear Creek in the Kentucky wilderness. For nearly two years it stood as the only large station on the Wilderness Road between Harrodstown and the Falls of the Ohio, a lifeline of shelter for settlers pushing into the trans-Appalachian frontier during the Revolutionary War. A devastating Indian attack in 1781 forced its abandonment, though whites soon reoccupied the ground; its very layout survives because a ground plan was preserved among the papers of General George Rogers Clark.
Samuel Boone
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Here lies Samuel Boone (1728–1816), eldest brother of the famed pioneer Daniel Boone. Born in Pennsylvania, he came to Kentucky from South Carolina in 1779 and settled at Boone's Station, joining the 1782 defense of Bryan's Station during a period of intense frontier warfare. That same year his son Thomas was killed at the Battle of Blue Licks, one of the last engagements of the Revolution in the West.