THE MURDER OF DANIEL BOONE’S, BROTHER NED BOONE

Ned said, “Daniel, I don’t believe there’s an Indian within 100 miles of this place”. He couldn’t have been any more wrong. To tell the story, we visite the gravesite of Edward Boone, better known as Ned Boone or Neddy Boone. Ned Boone is the brother of the famous, Daniel Boone and actually Daniel and Edward marry two sisters, Martha and Rebecca Bryan-Boone. The location of Ned’s demise is in modern day Bourbon County, in between Mount Sterling, Paris and Carlisle out here in the middle of the country. The spot lies off of a road called See Road, right off of Boone Creek, which is named for Ned by 1779. 

Daniel Boone had moved his family from Boonsborough to an area called Boone Station, which is in modern day Fayette County, just south of Athens, Kentucky. It was in that same year, 1779, that Daniel finally convinced his brother Ned to move into the wilderness of Kentucky. While Daniel had made all of his treks and journeys into Kentucky, his brother Ned had stayed home in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina, but he was finally convinced to join the rest of the Boones, in the new beautiful Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. 

It was just a year later, on 17 October 1780 that Daniel and Ned had been doing some hunting near Blue Licks. They had their horses loaded down with game and were on their way back to Boone Station. The two brothers stopped along this creek and Ned said, “Hey, let’s go over there and crack some nuts and relax a little bit”. Daniel was very leery and told Ned that this was a perfect place for an ambush, and they really didn’t like the idea of staying there. It was just a few moments later that Daniel spotted a bear walking into the tree line and decided to give chase. Daniel tracked down and shot the bear and it was just after that, he heard multiple gunshots and sprinted to the place where he had left his brother Ned.

To his horror, he saw several Shawnee, gathering around the body of his brother Ned. Daniel knew that it was much too late to do anything for his Ned. At that time, one of the Shawnee spotted Daniel, so he sprinted back into the tree line. The Shawnee gave chase and sent their dog after Daniel. As the dog got closer, Daniel shot the dog dead and ran further into the cane brushes. 

He heard the Shawnee proclaim, “we have killed Daniel Boone!”. It was a well-known fact that Daniel and Ned look very much alike. So that’s why the Indians had thought they had killed Daniel Boone himself. The Shawnee were very happy with their prize and decided not to chase Daniel any further into the woods, giving Daniel the opportunity to escape. He ran the approximately 20 miles back to Boone Station to gather up a party to search after the Indians. 

The next morning the party headed out and when they arrived at the scene, they found Ned’s body and it had been chewed on by a wildcat. Many stories say that the Shawnee had taken the head of Ned to take it back to their tribes to prove that they had killed the mighty Daniel Boone. What a horrific sight that would have been! The men buried Ned right where he lies today, along Boone Creek.

After they buried Ned, the men decided they would give chase to the Shawnee and they tracked them all the way to the Ohio River. It was at this point; the men became convinced that they should probably turn back and look after their families that were at Boone Station. Along the way home the men hunted for game for the family left behind of Ned Boone, his wife Martha and their five children. Today, Edward “Ned” Boone’s name is listed on the monument and modern-day Boone Station. 

The area of Ned’s grave is a very beautiful spot. It sits right along Boone Creek a few yards off of See Road just on the other side of a beautiful old stone fence. Another stone fence goes around his grave site which has a wrought iron gate to get to his headstone. A historical marker is just to the right. 

Take a moment to think about this for a scene. We often read stories about this how Native Americans killed a settler or a settler killed Native Americans and we just move on past it. We really don’t think about what this meant to their families at that time. Think about Daniel Boone who watched his brother murdered, then saw his mutilated body, and was forced to bury him. Many people know that Daniel lost multiple family members in the early years of the settlement of Kentucky. What did that do to the mental well-being of Daniel, did he have nightmares? Did he have trouble going on? What was it like for his wife, Martha and the five children that now had to grow up without their father? These are the things that we don’t think about when we read a story such as this in the history books and we really should.

he other thing that we should think about when we visit places like this is, imagine the lives that these people were living. At any moment they could be attacked by Native Americans, or a wild animal, and be dead. These pioneers really lived. Every minute, could be a life or death situation, and what an amazing stock of people they were. We should definitely remember them. Be sure to check out the video at the link below from on location.

-Col. Russ Carson, Jr., Founder of Family Tree Nuts