Gateway to the West, Nathan Boone homestead, and Original gravesite - St. Charles, Defiance, and Marthasville, MO - Day 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We began Day 12 with a visit to Frontier Park in St. Charles just inside the Gateway. This third oldest city west of the Mississippi was the last American town Lewis and Clark saw for the next 2 1/2 years in 1804 and lies on the Missouri River, and served as the first capital of Missouri from 1821-1826. Daniel Boone went through St Charles on his way to his first stop living with his son Daniel Morgan 25 miles inland in 1800.

After some travel into the hinterlands--Daniel and his extended family did not choose very populated areas to settle in, we arrived in Defiance at the Nathan Boone homestead. Nathan was Daniel and Rebecca's youngest son, and incidentally was later quite crucial in providing and confirming a lot of the information we have on Daniel through personal interviews he and his wife Olive gave to Lyman Draper, a Wisconsin librarian and historian who wanted to document some of the history of the early legendary frontier settlers before the knowledge was lost.

At this site we saw Nathan's house where Daniel died in 1820, and also their daughter Jemima's house where Rebecca died in 1813--brought to the site from Marthasville later. Here we saw the bedroom where Daniel died, another group of period structures brought to the site by Lindenwood University, the curator, and one of the typical three sided lean twos that Daniel and other frontiersmen would sometimes spend a winter in during their hunts.

Next, we moved on to Matson where six months after Daniel arrived and moved in with his son Daniel Morgan, he was appointed by the Spanish officials as a "syndic" of the area, with administrative powers over civil affairs, which in essence made him sheriff, judge, and jury. He administered justice from beneath the "judgment tree" which no longer stands, but I photographed another of the large Elm trees in the area to give you an idea of what they would have looked like.

Finally, we searched out the original gravesites of Daniel and Rebecca in Marthasville, even though the GPS had no idea where we were. It was later around 1845 that citizens from Frankfurt, KY came to dig up the couple and bring their bones back to Kentucky.

This was as far west as we would go on our trip, and it was well worth it!