Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday - Daniel Boone Controversy


The Frankfort, Kentucky, Gravesite of Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone (b. 2 Nov 1734, Berks Co., PA) died on September 26, 1820, in Femme Osage Creek, Missouri.  He was buried next to his wife, Rebecca Bryan, who had died on March 18, 1813. The graves, located on Tuque Creek near Marthasville, in Warren County, Missouri, were unmarked until the mid-1830's. In 1845, the Boones' remains were disinterred and reburied in a new cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Resentment in Missouri about the disinterment grew over the years, and a legend arose that Boone's remains never left Missouri. According to this story, Boone's tombstone in Missouri had been inadvertently placed over the wrong grave, but no one had corrected the error. Boone's Missouri relatives, displeased with the Kentuckians who came to exhume Boone, kept quiet about the mistake and allowed the Kentuckians to dig up the wrong remains.
Although there is no evidence to support this claim, both the Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky and the Old Bryan Farm graveyard in Missouri claim to have Boone's remains.

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