Squire Boone
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Squire Boone Jr. (October 5, 1744 – August 1815) was an American pioneer and brother of Daniel Boone. In 1780, he founded the first settlement in Shelby County, Kentucky. The tenth of twelve children, Squire Boone was born to Squire Boone Sr. and his wife Sarah Boone in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Although overshadowed by his famous brother, Squire Boone was well-known in his day.
In 1759, his family returned from the Yadkin River valley in North Carolina to Pennsylvania, where he apprenticed under gunsmith Samuel Boone, a cousin. On August 8, 1765, he married Jane Van Cleve, whose father was of Dutch descent.
From 1767 to 1771 he went on several long hunts with his brother Daniel into the Kentucky wilderness. In 1775, Richard Henderson, a prominent judge from North Carolina, hired Daniel Boone to blaze what became known as the Wilderness Road, which went through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky. Squire Boone accompanied his brother, along with 30 others, eventually establishing Boonesborough, Kentucky.
In Spring 1779, after the siege of Boonesborough, where Squire had a rifle ball cut out of his shoulder, he moved his family to the settlement at the Falls of the Ohio that would become Louisville. In 1780, he brought 13 families to "Painted Stone", tract of land in Shelby County belonging to his father-in-law and established a Station (fort) there, the first permanent settlement in the county. He was wounded in April 1781 when Indians attacked Painted Stone Station, complications of the gunshot injury would result in his right arm being an inch and a half shorter than his left.
On September 13, 1781, the settlers abandoned the undermanned station and headed for nearby Linn's Station, however Squire Boone was still too weak from his injury to make the trip, staying behind at Painted Stone Station with his family and one other. The fleeing settlers from the station were attacked in what came to be known as the Long Run Massacre.
In 1782, he began acting as a land locater for wealthy investors who did not want to personally risk living on the frontier. However, due to financial losses in this line of work, he lost his own property, including the station, in 1786, and was forced to settle elsewhere in the county.
After attempting to establish a settlement near present-day Vicksburg, Mississippi and staying with Daniel Boone in Missouri for several years, he eventually settled with his family in 1806 in Harrison County, Indiana near Corydon. He died in 1815 and was buried in a cave on his property.
Today, that cave is called Squire Boone Caverns and operates as a tourist attraction.
