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| Boundary survey, dated December 25, 1799, of 600 arpents conceded to Daniel Morgan Boone on September 1, 1797 (Courtesy of the Missouri State Archives, Missouri Digital Heritage) |
On January 24, 1798, Trudeau conceded to Daniel Boone a tract of land of 1000 arpents (about 850 acres) adjoining the tract previously conceded to his son in the district of the Femme Osage on the Missouri River near present day Matson and Defiance in St. Charles County (ASP:PL Vol. 2, pg 396). Daniel Morgan Boone’s tract was surveyed on December 25, 1799 and Daniel Boone’s tract was surveyed on December 26, 1799. Both were recorded in the Registre d’Arpentage by Antoine Soulard on January 9, 1800. Adjoining tracts had been previously conceded to David Darst Senior for 600 arpents, David Darst Junior for 264 arpents and John Linsay for 500 arpents.
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| Boundary survey, dated December 26, 1799, of 1000 arpents conceded to Daniel Boone on January 24, 1798 (Courtesy of the Missouri State Archives, Missouri Digital Heritage) |
When Daniel Boone arrived in Upper Louisiana, he and his lady took up residence with Daniel Morgan Boone on the adjoining tract of land. On July 11, 1800, Daniel Boone was commissioned as commandant of the district of Femme Osage by Spanish Lieutenant Governor Don Charles Dehault Delassus, who had succeeded Trudeau in 1799. Since the Spanish regulations required that a settler establish himself within one year, Daniel Boone inquired with Delassus about this necessity. Delassus advised him that, since he was serving as commandant of the district, the requirements did not apply to him. Daniel Boone continued to live with Daniel Morgan Boone until he later moved to the home of a younger son, Nathan Boone (ASP:PL Vol. 2, pg 396).
After the United States had acquired Upper Louisiana in 1803 and taken possession of it in 1804, Daniel Boone filed notice of his claim with the recorder of land titles for the district of Louisiana as directed by the Act of March 2, 1805, chapter 26, An act for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land, within the territory of Orleans, and the district of Louisiana (U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 2, pg 324). Evidence and testimony for his claim were presented to the first Board of Commissioners on February 13, 1806. At that time Boone was said to be about seventy (70) years old and his wife about sixty-eight (68) (ASP:PL Vol. 2, pg 396).
The first Board of Commissioners ultimately failed to finish its business, so Boone’s claim was not decided upon until it was examined by the Board of Revision. On December 1, 1809, John B. C. Lucas, Clement B. Penrose and Recorder of Land Titles, Frederick Bates, rendered the following decision: “It is the opinion of the Board that this claim ought not to be confirmed ” (ASP:PL Vol. 2, pg 396).
Daniel Morgan Boone’s claim for the 600 arpents conceded to him was approved under commissioners’ certificate number 20 on December 13, 1808. David Darst Senior’s claim for the 600 arpents conceded to him was approved under commissioners’ certificate number 18 on the same date. John Linsay’s claim for the 500 arpents conceded to him was approved under commissioners’ certificate number 59 on December 22, 1808 (ASP:PL, Vol. 2, pg 563-564). David Darst Junior’s claim for the 264 arpents conceded to him, however, was not approved by the Board of Revision. In testimony it was noted that he was crippled, a minor and did not reside on the tract, but with his father, Daivd Darst Senior (ASP:PL, Vol. 2, pg 396).
Daniel Boone was not satisfied with the decision of the Board of Revision, so he appealed directly to the United States Congress with the following petition (ASP:PL Vol. 2, pg 5):
To the Senate and Representatives of the citizens of the United States in Congress assembled. The petition of Daniel Boone, at present an inhabitant of the territory of Louisiana, respectfully showeth:
That your petitioner has spent a long life in exploring the wilds of North America; and has, by his own personal exertions, been greatly instrumental in opening the road to civilization in the immense territories now attached to the United States, and, in some instances, matured into independent States.
An ardent thirst for discovery, united with a desire to benefit a rising family, has impelled him to encounter the numerous hardships, privations, difficulties, and dangers to which he has unavoidably been exposed. How far his desire for discovery has been extended, and what consequences have resulted from his labors, are, at this time, unnecessary to detail.
But, while your petitioner has thus opened the way to thousands, to countries possessed of every natural advantage, and although he may have gratified to excess his thirst for discovery, he has to lament that he has not derived those personal advantages which his exertions would seem to have merited. He has secured but a scanty portion of that immeasurable territory over which his discoveries have extended, and his family have reason to regret that their interest had not been more the great object of his discoveries.
Your petitioner has nothing to demand from the justice of his country, but he respectfully suggests, that it might be deemed an act of grateful benevolence, if his country, amidst their bounties, would so far gratify his last wish, as to grant him some reasonable portion of land within the territory of Louisiana.
He is the more induced to this request, as the favorite pittance of soil to which he conceived he had acquired a title, under the Spanish Government, has been wrested from him by a construction of the existing laws not in his contemplation, and beyond his foresight. Your petitioner is not disposed to murmur or complain; but conscious of the value and extent of his services, he solicits some evidence of their liberality.
He approaches the august assemblage of his fellow-citizens with a confidence inspired by that spirit which has led him so often to the deep recesses of the wilds of America; and he flatters himself that he with his family will be induced to acknowledge that the United States knows how to appreciate and encourage the efforts of her citizens, in enterprises of magnitude, from which proportionate public good may be derived.
DANIEL BOONE
Boone’s petition was referred to committee in the U.S. Senate and, subsequently, presented to the full Senate on January 12, 1810 (ASP:PL Vol. 2, pg 5). The committee recognized Daniel Boone’s meritorious contributions and the benefit to the United States, thus recommending a bill for his relief. The Senate, however, delayed addressing the petition, since the Board of Revision had not yet submitted its final report and would not do so until January 1812.
On December 10, 1813 the chairman of the committee on public lands in the U.S. House of Representatives requested information about the claim of Daniel Boone from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Edward Tiffin, who forwarded the information on December 13, 1813 (Territorial Papers, Vol. 14, pg 718). A report from the committee was subsequently submitted to the House of Representatives on December 24, 1813. The committee surmised that since the Act of March 2, 1805, chapter 26, required actual settlement and cultivation for confirmation and that Daniel Boone made no claim to have actually settled and cultivated the land, the Board of Revision must have rejected the claim on that deficiency alone. The claim appeared to be good in all other respects. The committee observed that “the petitioner is in his old age, and has, in early life, rendered to his country arduous and useful services; and ought not, therefore, to be deprived of this remaining resource by a rigorous execution of a provision of our statute, designed to prevent frauds on the Government.” The committee recommended that Daniel Boone be confirmed in his title to one thousand arpents of land in the Femme Osage district granted to him by the Spanish Government (ASP:PL Vol. 2, pg 736).
Daniel Boone was ultimately granted relief by the special Act of Congress of February 10, 1814, chapter 10 (U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 6, pg 127), which reads as follows:
Be it enacted, &c. That Daniel Boone be, and he is hereby confirmed in his title to one thousand arpens of land, claimed by him by virtue of a concession made to him under the Spanish government, bearing date the twenty-eighth day of January, 1798, and it shall be the duty of the recorder of land titles for the territory of Missouri, to issue to the said Daniel Boone, or to his heirs, a certificate in the same manner, and of the same description, as the said Daniel Boone would have been entitled to receive, if his claim to the said land had been confirmed by the commissioners appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the rights of persons claiming land in the territory of Louisiana, or by the recorder of lands titles for the said territory of Missouri.
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| Partial General Land Office plat, showing the relative situation of tracts confirmed to Daniel Boone, Daniel Morgan Boone, David Darst Senior and David Darst Junior (Courtesy of the Missouri State Land Survey) |
SOURCES
American State Papers: Public Lands (ASP:PL)
Stoddard, Major Amos, Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana, 1812
The Territorial Papers of the United States, compiled by Clarence Edwin Carter, 1948
U. S. Statutes at Large
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original composition by Steven E. Weible
