As the first event of the 68th Daniel Boone Festival, the committee presents the story of Daniel Boone’s daughter and fourth child, Jemima Boone, as portrayed by longtime Chautauqua actress Betsy B. Smith. Echoing the theme of the 2015 festival, Jemima Boone took “A Walk with Boone” along parts of the Boone Trace more than once.
The performance is set for Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015, 7 p.m., at the Francis Patridge Student Center, Conference Rooms A-C. The program is free. The general public and students of all ages are invited.
The daughter of Daniel Boone lived a life almost as adventurous as her famous father. When Jemima was 10-years-old, her family made its first attempt to settle Kentucky but had to turn back when her 16-year-old brother, James, was tortured and murdered by Indians. During Indian attacks on frontier forts, she helped load weapons, carry ammunition, and bring food, water and supplies to the men on the ramparts. Later in life, Jemima and husband Flanders Callaway faced similar hardships along the Missouri frontier. During many Native American uprisings, Jemima’s home was often used as the neighboring fort. During one attack, she and a few other settlers were shot. Jemima just tugged at her skirt, dislodged the bullet from her backside, and continued to aid the men in battle.
Perhaps Jemima’s most well-known adventure took place during the Boone family’s second attempt to move into Kentucky. In 1776 at the newly built Fort Boonesborough, Jemima, along with her friends “Betsy and Fanny Callaway, were kidnapped by a group of five Shawnees when the girls’ canoe drifted across the Kentucky River. The girls were held by their captors for three days before the search party, led by Daniel Boone, was able to rescue them. The experience of being kidnapped and her subsequent rescue forged a strong bond between Jemima and her father, which lasted until his death in 1820. The story of the girls’ capture and rescue would become one of the most often told stories in Kentucky’s frontier history.
Typical of other frontier settlers, the Boone family traveled in large parties composed of friends and family, emigrating from place to place. Jemima and her siblings, as well as their growing families, largely stayed close to their parents as they traveled about Kentucky, searching for something more profitable and permanent. Eventually they moved to Spanish-controlled Missouri where the family experienced the dangers and trials of a new frontier, becoming important in the settlement of two states, Kentucky and Missouri.
This exciting program is sponsored by the Kentucky Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and locally by the Daniel Boone Festival Committee, with the assistance of the Knox Historical Museum.