Nathan Boone's Ownership of Home

(Article courtesy of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: Sunday, March 5, 2000.)

Legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone lived in a log cabin after he moved his family from Kentucky to Missouri in 1799 (or Upper Louisiana, as it was then known). But he died 21 years later in the magnificent limestone structure that still stands rock-solid near Defiance. Now called the Historic Daniel Boone Home, the house is a veritable mansion.

Why so big? It's no secret that the home actually belonged to his youngest son, Nathan. Nathan had married his wife, Olive, while on the way from Kentucky to Missouri. Of Daniel and Rebecca Boone's 10 children, four accompanied the parents to Missouri. All four had their own families and established their own homes. (One of Daniel and Rebecca's other children died as an infant, and two were killed in attacks by Indians.)

It's logical to assume that the large home was constructed to be a multi generational dwelling, according to the director of the Historic Daniel Boone Home.

The home was constructed in the early 1800s.

Rebecca died in 1813, Daniel in 1820.

Is it disingenuous to call the limestone structure the Historic Daniel Boone Home, when it fact it belonged to Nathan? Boone historian Ken Kamper says he is comfortable with the name, "since in later years, whenever Daniel was away from the home and became ill or needed help, Nathan, as his father's keeper, was summoned to go get Daniel and take him home to Nathan's house." But Kamper adds that Lindenwood should make every effort to make it clear to visitors that the home actually belonged to Nathan and Nathan's family.