"A lot of people tell me that Daniel Boone was at the Alamo," said Kamper. "And I say, 'No, that was Davy Crockett,' and they say, 'Oh, yeah, you're right.' "
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Kamper set out on a quest to answer that very question some 30 years ago when, quite by accident, he came across a bit of local Boone history.
Back in the 1970s, Kamper and his wife purchased property in St. Charles County. When a problem arose with the property line, Kamper - an engineer by trade - went back to the old deeds and surveys to figure it out. That's when he struck gold.
"I saw that Daniel Boone had owned land about half a mile north of our property," said Kamper. "That's when it all clicked, and I began wondering, 'Just who was Daniel Boone?' He's famous, yes, but who was he?
"All of my life, I was aware that Daniel Boone had lived in Missouri, but that was it. So if he was in Missouri, where was he?"
Kamper turned to historical books to answer his questions, but what he found was that many of the books provided varying accounts. So Kamper spent years reading everything he could on Boone to sort fact from fiction, and along the way did his own research as well.
In 1981, Kamper founded the Daniel Boone and Frontier Families Research Association (www.booneassociation.com) and has been trying to set the record straight on Boone ever since.
"A lot of the history we have on Boone is really poorly done," noted Kamper. "The real history is much more interesting.
"The reason Daniel Boone is important is not in our history books." Daniel Boone wasn't just any American frontiersman - he was legendary, said Kamper.
Boone blazed trails into the wilderness of Kentucky and Virginia that became the trails used by most of the settlers who came afterward, and established the early wilderness settlements, fought off Indian tribes, escaped Indian capture three times himself and led to the rescue of his daughter and two other girls who had been captured by Indians. He served in the Virginia militia and also the Legislature.
Boone Reputation
The roots for Daniel Boone's reputation as an explorer and trailblazer go back to when he was living with his family in North Carolina, said Kamper.
In the 1760s, Boone started hunting and moving west, following old Indian trails. In 1769 Boone blazed the first-known trail from North Carolina into eastern Tennessee on his way to Kentucky with five other men to hunt and explore, according to the Daniel Boone and Frontier Families Research Association's time line of his life.
"He was the earliest white man to mark the trail," said Kamper. "And along the way, he made mental notes of where things were.
"The whole migration movement of America westward from North Carolina to west of the Mississippi starts with Daniel Boone making this trail."
In 1773, Boone and friends "made the first attempt to settle Kentucky. Indians attacked part of the party, killing Boone's son James and five other men, and as a result the party returned to the settlements."
In 1775, Boone led the cutting of the Wilderness Trail from Tennessee to Fort Boonesborough along the Kentucky River. The trail became the main route used for white settlement in Kentucky.
When Boone's daughter, Jemima, was captured by Indians with two other girls in 1776, Boone led a party of men who rescued them two days later, mainly through his knowledge of the wilderness and understanding of the Indians.
In 1778, Boone played the lead role in the defense of Fort Boonesborough against a major Indian attack. Historians agree that if the Indian had taken the fort, all of the white settlers would have been driven out of Kentucky, noted Kamper.
Makes Way to Missouri
Boone's son, Daniel Morgan Boone, traveled to the eastern Missouri River region (present Missouri) in 1797 to hunt, trap and look over the land for possible settlement. He met with Spanish officials and took out a Spanish land grant for himself. Don Zenon Trudeau, the lieutenant governor of the Spanish Territory (Spain was in control of land west of the Mississippi at that time), sent an invitation for the senior Boone to come settle in the area as well.
Around this time, Boone had been losing most of his property in Kentucky - he sold some for taxes and the rest was taken away through disputed land claims, according to the Daniel Boone and Frontier Families Research Association's time line.
So in 1799, ÊDaniel Boone, his family and some friends moved from Kentucky to "Spanish Louisiana" (present Missouri), where they all received Spanish land grants. Boone's grant was for 850 acres.
Boone had been invited to Missouri by the Spanish because they were hopeful that he could bring stability to the region, which was home to many French settlers who felt threatened and controlled by the Indian tribes in the area, Kamper explained.
"The Osage Indians, who controlled all of the land south of the Missouri River, were powerful warriors," he said. "The north side of the river was controlled by the Missouri Indians, who must have also been powerful.
"My theory is that the land controlled by these two tribes was probably some of the most ideal land in America because they had already pushed everybody else out centuries before," said Kamper.
To put this in perspective, Kamper noted a few key points:
*ÊBefore the French and Indian War against the English (1754-1763), the French controlled land on both sides of the Mississippi River.
*ÊBefore the English won that war (which was waged to gain control of North America), the French made a secret treaty with Spain giving that country all of the land west of the Mississippi. (Decades later in 1800, the Spanish made a secret treaty of their own returning the land to France, thus leading to the Louisiana Purchase in 1804.)
*ÊAfter the Revolutionary War, the English were pushed out of America and up into Canada, where they continued trading with the Indian tribes in an attempt to move south.
*ÊThe English traded guns with Indian tribes in the north, while tribes like the Osage and Missouri were still fighting with bows and arrows.
*ÊThe Missouri Indians ended up being wiped out by northern Indian tribes (who had the upper hand with guns), disease and other causes, leaving the land north of the Missouri river open for the Sauk Indian tribe to claim the area as hunting grounds.
*ÊThe Indians made life difficult for the settlers living in the area. The Indians respected the boundaries of the settlers' villages, but if the settlers left the villages, there was no agreement.
"They would steal a lot from them and even kill at times," said Kamper. "Prior to the Boones and other frontier types moving to Missouri, it was the policy of the Osage Indians that anyone who came onto their territory, they would kill them.
"The settlers would get on the Spanish authorities about these killings and thefts, but the Spanish couldn't control it. Once, they took action against the Indians, but then the Indians retaliated by blocking the Missouri River to keep the settlers from trading."
That's when the Spanish authorities thought it might help to bring Boone to the area, said Kamper. They had heard of him blazing trails and expanding settlements in the wilderness of Kentucky and saw him as the solution to their problem.
"The Spanish officers said, 'We need that here!' because the French were afraid to leave their villages. There wasn't anyone ambitious or brave enough to do it," said Kamper. "That's why they invited Boone."
Boone's Time Here
Once Boone arrived in Missouri, he lived up to his reputation.
"The Indians soon learned that if they stole from settlers in Boone's Spanish district, they would come after them," said Kamper, noting, however, that it was Boone's sons who were at the forefront of the confrontations - Boone was in his mid-60s by the time he came to Missouri.
Having the Boone family around made other frontier families feel safe, and more Americans moved into the region.
"While there had been a few American settlers in Missouri before Boone arrived, when Boone came to Missouri it was like a seal of approval," said Kamper. "It was safe now for other frontier families to follow."
The Boone settlement in Missouri was in what is now the Defiance/Matson area. It ran west on the north side of the Missouri River all the way to Charrette at Marthasville and up to the Dardenne area, said Kamper.
The home now known as the Daniel Boone Home near Defiance actually belonged to Daniel's son, Nathan, Kamper points out. The Missouri home owned by Daniel and Rebecca Boone is no longer standing.
Died, Buried Here
Daniel and Rebecca Boone lived out their last years in Missouri, something Kamper and others feel Missouri tourism should capitalize on more.
"The idea that he was looked upon as an important legendary figure in his time is why we should love the fact that he was here and seize on that value," he remarked.
Missouri was the chosen home for this very famous person, said Kamper.ÊHe lived here for 21 years up until his death, a much longer time than he lived anywhere else, including Kentucky, he pointed out.
Rebecca Boone died at their daughter Jemima Boone Callaway's home near the village of La Charrette (now Marthasville). She was buried nearby in the Bryan family cemetery on a hill overlooking (in those days) Tuque Creek. When Daniel Boone died seven years later at the stone house of his son Nathan, near Defiance, he was buried near her.
Over the years, others were buried in the cemetery. There are markers for several, but not all of them.
Kamper said he has found records indicating there could be as many as 30 people buried there.
The controversy surrounding Daniel Boone's grave here in Missouri is whether or not he's still in it. Back in 1845, representatives from Kentucky dug up the bodies of Daniel and Rebecca Boone to transport them to Kentucky. A St. Louis newspaper reporter accompanied them and, according to Kamper, noted in his news story that when the graves were opened the coffins had entirely disintegrated and all that was left were the boards underneath.
Kamper said his research has established that Kentucky dug up both of the Boone bodies, despite the number of Missouri stories to the contrary.
The reporter noted that when the Kentucky officials went to remove the body parts/bones, many were discolored, brittle and turned to powder when touched, said Kamper. The large bones were collected in crates and moved to a burial site in Kentucky.
To Kamper, that means some of Boone's remains are still on that hillside near Marthasville.
"Logically, when they dug up the bodies, I don't see them putting all of the dirt and what they dug up in the crates, so I conclude that most of Boone's body is still here," he said.
"Ralph Gregory, the well-known and highly respected historian in these parts was correct when he said that Kentucky got the large bones, but Missouri still has the heart and brain and everything else."
