Thought someone might find this interesting. It mentions the
Richmond Palladium folks.
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: SharpRes(a)aol.com
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 02:41:13 EST
Subject: [BOONE-L] Here are the "Two Letters Concerning the Boone
Family"
To: BOONE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Here is the article from The Hoosier Genealogist, as faithfully as my feeble
fingers could type it <g>. Hope it helps someone out there. I also have this
as a Word 7.0 doc file, if anyone can't read this.
Ginny in Seattle
Source: The Hoosier Genealogist, Vol. 13, No. 1 (January-March 1973), pp.
1-3.
TWO LETTERS CONCERNING THE BOONE FAMILY
Typed copies of the two following letters concerning one branch of the Boone
family were set to Willard Heiss, chairman of the Indiana Historical Society's
Genealogy Committee, by way of the Tri-State Trader, by Jesse H. Boone of East
Moline, Illinois, with permission to publish them. The original letters are
in the possession of a relative of Mr. Boone. They were written in 1858 by
Andrew J. Boone, of Lebanon, Indiana, to Nathan R. Boone, grandfather of Jesse
H. Boone, living in Illinois. Andrew and Nathan had a common grandfather,
Daniel Boone. The information given by the writer of the letters does not
entirely agree with that given in the sketch of Andrew J. Boone which appears
in Crist's History of Boone County, nor does it agree with an article on
Nelson Boon(e) which appeared in the centennial edition of the Richmond
Palladium, January 1, 1931.
The original wording of the letters has been preserved, but punctuation and
paragraphs have been used for the sake of readability. Ellipses indicate the
omission of portions that were not pertinent. Information supplies by Jesse
H. Boone or by the editor is in brackets.
Andrew J. Boone, Lebanon, Indiana, to Nathan R. Boone, April 12, 1858.
Yours of last month come to hand short time since & I have delayed an answer
until now having been engaged in court most of the time since I received your
letter . . .
We have had a very moderate winter for the most part & grass and other crops
are as much or more advanced now than they were on the first of May last year.
The waters are now very high here and still raining. Stock is very low &
money scarce. I am trying to start a little farm east of town & want 40 or 50
head of cattle to put on it. Have bought some for less than half what they
would have sold for a year ago, cows $10 & 12, yearlings 5 & 6$, corn 25 cents
per bushel, wheat 50 cents, flour $4 per barrel.
I am not able to give you a very definite history of our family but will do
the best I can. Your grandfather Daniel Boon knew but little about the
history beyond himself. He wrote the name Boon but it should be Boone. Our
grandfather Daniel Boone was the son of Jacob Boone, who from the best
information I can get was brother to Daniel Boone who first settled Kentucky.
Jacob Boone was killed by the Indians when grandfather was small and he had no
recollection of his father but recollects having seen his mother, who died a
short time, probably a year after the father was killed. The children,
Daniel, John, one other brother and a sister whose names I do not now
recollect, were raised by their mother's people, some ninety miles from where
the Boones lived in North Carolina. Daniel married a woman by the name of
Fall and moved to Kentucky in 1790 and then to Ohio in 1795, crossing the Ohio
at Cincinnati and settling in the territory which afterward became Preble
County. There he lived until 1848 when he moved to Boone County, Indiana,
where he lived until 1854 when he moved to Buchanan County, Iowa, where he
died in 1856. [Daniel was age 75 in 1850, so he was born about 1775.]
Daniel's wife, our grandmother, I believe died in 1838 in Preble County, Ohio.
The children by this marriage are as follows:
Benjamin, now living in Boone County, Indiana;
Charity, married William Shisher and died in Ohio;
George, died in Iowa;
William D., died in Iowa 1856;
Lewis, your father [married Julia Ann Page in 1824 in Preble Co., Ohio;
settled in McHenry Co., Ill., in 1837. Nathan, their first child, born in
Dayton in 1826.]
John, now in Iowa;
Elizabeth, married -Witt and died in Boone County, 1857;
Nelson, died at Centerville, Indiana 1834;
Martin F., now in Iowa.
Nelson Boone was a printer, a man of some learning and literary taste and was
generally respected for his manner and skill in his profession. The others
were all respectable farmers and mechanics.
My father, Benjamin Boone, married Charlotte Poyner in Preble County, Ohio,
in 1819. The children of this marriage were: myself, [Andrew J.] born 17 July
1820 Preble County, Ohio; Wilson T., born 1821 Ohio, died near Knoxville,
Tenn., 6 Dec. 1854; Daniel F., born 1823 Ohio, died 1834 in Rush County, Ind.;
Elizabeth, born 1825 Ohio and now living in Boone County, and single; Nancy
P., born 1826 in Indiana and died in Boone County in 1855; Michael O., born
1828 Indiana and died in Boone County in 1854; Julia A., born 1831 and died
1834 in Rush County; Mary A., married and living in Thorntown; Sarah, born
Rush County 1838, married and living in Boone County . . . None of the two
families I have enumerated have, with the exception of myself and Wilson
Boone, engaged in any of the business professions. He chose Medicine and was
a respectable practicing physician for some years before his death. I chose
the law . . .
Andrew J. Boone, Lebanon, to Nathan R. Boone, November 6, 1858.
In turning some papers in a file in my desk this evening, I turned up a
letter written last April in answer to yours of that month, which I thought I
had forwarded long ago. I see that you desired a history of our family as far
as I could give it. I do not know that any of the older ones ever held public
office, except a military office. Grandfather was captain of the militia in
Preble County, Ohio, before and after the War of 1812 but was not in the
service in that war. Your Uncle Ben was a representative in the Indiana
legislature from Rush County, 1837-38, and from Boone County, 1843-44. I do
not know that any of the other brothers ever held public stations of any
notoriety. They all began in the world with little or no property, but by
industry acquired a competence and a few became wealthy. They were
universally companionable and would generally be classed as clever, fond of
jokes, wit, and occasionally a little mischievous. A few of them were mimics
of sharp cost and could turn in fine style many characters bordering on the
ridiculous. They were ingenious in the use of tools, inventive and full of
expedients. While young your father was regarded as a very stout man and a
good mechanic. Some of the men were under 5 feet 10 inches tall, bony and
straight, fond of active sports and rather inclined to travel.
Your Uncle Nelson, my brothers Wilson and Michael, and myself were perhaps
the most inclined to literary habits so far as my knowledge goes. The former
when a boy spent much of his idle time in reading books and after he went into
the printing business was considered a fair newspaper writer, was easy in
company, and conversed readily and intelligently on subjects generally.
During his life he established two newspapers [the Richmond Palladium and
Centerville Western Times] and had purchased a third just before he died. He
left a widow and one child, Arminta; the latter has grown up and is now
married and living in Preble County, Ohio. [According to Preble County
marriage records, Nelson Boone married Phebe Morgan and after his death she
married Henry H. Carr.]
So far as our own experience goes we have found that much of this life is
doomed to disappointment, and those cares and losses which wear away our
frames, shatter the mind, and destroy the energy of our race are sure to come
sooner or later. My father in my youth had much property and carried on a
heavy business for a number of years; the family, or at least that portion
approaching manhood, very naturally expected a reasonable outfit on arriving
at age. But we were in that as in other things doomed to disappointment. In
1840 he broke and we gave up our little property to assist in paying debts.
Property sold under the hammer at less than one third its actual cost to us.
Having a more distinct recollection of my own outfit, I can state this with
certainty: it consisted of fifty cents in money, some clothes, one hat, and a
pair of boots. Having the misfortune to get my ankle out of place, I could
wear but one of the boots. I spent the money for a certificate from the
school examiners to teach a country school. This business I pursued with
satisfaction to my patrons at the same house for the space of six months for
which I received the sum of $90. I was then elected Auditor of Boone County
and came to Lebanon to live in 22d of August 1841. I filed that station two
years and one quarter, and read law and history at nights and Sundays as I
could only walk on crutches . . . Before I came to this town I procured books
at the county library which I carried home seven miles and read at idle times;
this I managed to keep up without in any way interfering with my daily
business, even during the time I was teaching.
On the 6th of December 1843, I resigned the office of auditor with a
determination to go to college, for the purpose of adding to my small fund of
knowledge . . . . Another cause of my resignation was that the legislature had
reduced my salary to $150 a year, which I deemed too poor pay for my services
. . . . I went to the University at Bloomington where I remained two years and
having spent all my money was compelled to quit and turn my attention to some
business to recruit my means. Teaching was considered the most proper and
being offered $20 per month at the seminary at Leavenworth [Kansas], I
repaired there and pursued that avocation with success, pursuing at the same
time my classic studies; I was afterwards employed at $50 per month in the
county clerk's office.
My health becoming poor I returned to Boone County and taught in country and
town for near two years; I then commenced acting as the deputy in various
county offices, having pursued the study of law every since I left college.
In 1848 I spent most of my time in the study of law and in 1849 part of my
time. In 1849-50 I served as clerk of the House of Representatives for which
I received $4.00 per day. I again served in that office in 1850-51 and in
1852, while still devoting time to the law. By this time I was able to put
out my shingle and since 1852 have steadily pursued the practice of law. In
April 1851 I married [Mary Eliza McLaughlin] . . . .
More than once I spent the last red cent on hand in board and lodging while
attending school or pursuing my studies. At other times I have made money
rapidly but my business and associations compelled me to spend it rapidly. I
boarded for twelve years in succession at all prices from 65 cents per week to
$1.50 per day. I have some acquaintance with all the public and businessmen
of the state and drank deep in public life for one of my age and circumstances
and have learned that he who serves the public must, if he does his duty, to
some extent neglect his own affairs, neglect his children, and become a kind
of lackey for every one to order about. You must attend personally, no odds
how unwell you are, nor what condition your family or friends are in, you must
be present in court or in your office.
If you have boys raise them to be farmers or mechanics, give them fair common
education if possible and train them to habits of industry and honesty, and
you will have prepared them for more independence, more happiness, and longer
lives, than is allotted to active men in this profession. Drones anywhere are
no us except when there is an over crop of vegetation; there influence is bad
and they disgrace any business or profession they engage in unless it is to
whittle store boxes or some fancy work of that kind . . .
The season here has been over wet and the wheat and corn crop almost a
failure. It is now raining and disagreeable and I am informed that corn is
rotting considerably on the stalk. I have some 40 or 50 head of cattle to
winter but shall expect them to live on hay principally; the same with my
neighbors. Jacob Witt was in the office this afternoon, said they were all
well. We are tolerably, only our youngest now 3 months old is not well; Frank
goes to school and Wilson does about as he pleases; is sometimes at the office
and sometimes at home. I had a letter a few days ago from our cousin Florrida
Boone [the remainder of the letter lost] [Andrew J. Boone died in 1875]