Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

Daniel Boone Days: Frontiersman’s Ties to Local Families

Story by Terry Harmon

In his biography of Daniel Boone, author Robert Morgan mentions a possible shared ancestry with the famous frontiersman through the Morgan family of Wales. Boone’s mother, Sarah Morgan Boone, was a daughter of Edward Morgan, a Welsh tailor who immigrated to Philadelphia in 1683. Boone also has ties to residents of the High Country. At various times, Boone lived in the vicinity of both the Yadkin River Valley and Wilkes County, so it is not surprising that some of his relatives remained in the area and intermarried with other pioneer families.

Boone’s nephews, Jonathan and Jesse Boone—sons of Daniel’s brother Israel—were early members of Three Forks Baptist Church, although Jonathan was dismissed from membership in 1819 because of his fondness for liquor. Jesse Boone eventually moved west to Kentucky and died in Tennessee, but he lived for a time in a log cabin that formerly stood four miles above Shull’s Mill. Logs from Jesse’s cabin were used to construct what is now known as the Squire Boone Cabin located in Daniel Boone Native Gardens. Among Jesse Boone’s children were three daughters who married Coffeys and one daughter who married a Gragg. Large numbers of Watauga County residents can claim descent from Jesse Boone through his daughters Anna Boone Coffey and Celia Boone Gragg.

Another large portion of the local populace is descended from Daniel Boone’s oldest sibling, Sarah Boone Wilcoxon. In 1742, prior to the Boone family’s trek down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to piedmont North Carolina, Sarah Boone married John Wilcoxon, but not without controversy. Daniel Boone’s parents, Squire and Sarah, were Quakers associated with the Society of Friends at Exeter, Pennsylvania. John Wilcoxon was not a member of the Quaker Church and was considered by the congregation to be “a worldling.” The Boones were reprimanded by the church for allowing Sarah to keep company and marry outside of the fold.

Once in North Carolina, John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxon built a log home near Mocksville in present-day Davie County. John is believed to have died in North Carolina between 1798 and 1805, and Sarah eventually moved to Kentucky where she died in 1815. Prior to her move, however, she is thought to have lived with her son, Samuel Wilcoxon, Sr., a few miles north of Todd General Store, in what has since been dubbed the “Sarah Boone Cabin.”

Among the thirteen children of John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxon were Elizabeth Wilcoxon Cutbirth (among whose descendants are Calloways, Hartzogs, Faws, Graybeals, and Johnsons of Ashe County, including Malinda Hartzog who married Jonathan Horton, an early and prominent citizen of Boone); Nancy Wilcoxon Greer (from whom practically all Greers of this region are descended); and Samuel Wilcoxon, Sr. (whose descendants include the Wilcox and Yates families of Watauga County).

When Daniel Boone Days are celebrated in September, many Wataugans can not only memorialize the trailblazing feats of the great pioneer and the fact that the Town of Boone is named for him, but they can also acknowledge him as “Uncle Daniel.”