Boonesfield Village

It seems as though we have had either very hot days or days which are cool and rainy since we have parked here in St.Charles. Today the sun was out it in all its' glory, but a cool breeze keep the day from getting too hot. We thought it a perfect day to drive out to Defiance Missouri, the last place Daniel Boone lived before he died. He was not very rich in his last days and the home he lived in was actually owned by his son Nathan. Nathan and his wife had 14 children, however they still were able to let Grandfather Boone live in a couple of the rooms. The house was built in 1810, and Boone died there in 1820. The outside walls of the house have gun ports, as back then there was still a fear of Indians attacking homesteads. The back of the house faced the Femme Osage River, which now is a little creek.

 Boone's daughter Jemima and son Squire also lived in Missouri with their families- their homes have been moved to Boonesfield Village. John and I have visited Daniel Boone's home many times over the years- one time I even took our son Daniel's Boy Scout troop there. Back then there was just the home to visit. Now there has been moved to the grounds a variety of other buildings from the 1800's. Pictured below is Jemima Boone's home. You may remember from your history books that she was at one time captured by the Indians- however her father was able to get her back. That incident happened when they lived in Kentucky.

From the size of the house, I am guessing that Jemima also had a large family, I do know that Daniel Boone and his wife ended up with 70 grandchildren! We had a tour guide for the village, and from her we learned a few interesting facts. In the 1837 Mount Hope schoolhouse she showed us a replica of a horn slate from which the children learned their basic reading skills. The letters "s" and "f" were used interchangeably as they looked closely the same. And,  as you may notice in the picture of the slate below,  the letter "f" is shown twice in the alphabet. Also look at the word Holy Ghost. And while we are on that subject, while touring the carpenter's shop, I learned the origin of the word "sabotage". Wooden clogs were made back in the 1800's and French people called them "sabot". They could be easily taken off and thrown at any political speaker whose viewpoints the wearer of the shoe did not agree with. In effect, the speech was sabotaged.

The grounds have a variety of gardens which were planted back in the 1800's, one of which is a garden for plants used for dying clothes. Pictured below is the woad plant. The flower is yellow, however, by some complicated process, it produces a blue color. It originally came from Northern Europe.

Looks like this posting is getting a bit long, I will write more about our visit to Boonesfield Village tomorrow.