We Are Also Wilcoxsons - Part III

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Wilcoxsons and Boones, 18th Century Pioneers in Central North Carolina and Kentucky

Sources include www.planetmurphy.org; Ft. Boonesborough web site; Hazel A. Spraker's 1923 biography of the Boone Family and Robert Morgan's Boone, a Biography, 2008.

John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxson prospered in their new home in central North Carolina north of Salisbury. In both 1765 and 1772, John assisted in constructing or overseeing road development along the Yadkin River. Numerous children were born, several of whom would help to open Kentucky and fight Shawnee Indians and the British in coming decades.

The Yadkin Valley, once filled with game and hostile Native Americas, had tamed somewhat by the 1770s. Some family members were growing restless, attracted by possibilities of inexpensive land over the mountains. John and Sarah faced some choices in the late 1770s.

Sarah's brother, Daniel, other relatives and her own grown children, were caught up in the opening of Kentucky. A study of the record indicates John was perplexed whether to stay in what was now settled country, Yadkin Valley or move to the cheap lands of Kentucky. They were not longer a young couple, and their children were growing up, starting families of their own.

This is a famous and romantic version of Daniel Boone, his wife, Rebecca Bryan Boone, and other members of our extended family venturing through Cumberland Gap en route in the late 1770s to the Dark and Bloody Ground of Kentucky. Kentucky was Shawnee hunting territory, and the Native Americans fought voraciously to keep the American settlers out. For a few years, until ultimately the Shawnee were defeated, the land was filled with anguish and death. An Eastern writer wrote up the deeds of one of the early explorers, settler, Indian fighter and long hunter, my sixth great uncle Daniel Boone, and he became one of the first America celebrities. His fame continues to this day.

Sometime around 1777 or 78, John and Sarah did move to Ft. Boonesborough, Kentucky. There is a monument today at Ft. Booneborough with the names of John and Sarah engraved, along with other Boone family members. See below.

An unknown descendant of Kentucky pioneers stand adjacent to the Boonesborough monument where John, Sarah, many Boones and other family member names are embedded.

John and Sarah may have been at the famous September 1778 Battle of Ft. Boonesborough when 440 Shawnee Indians and 12 French-Canadians besieged the fort. Certainly other family members were. Sixty settlers, led by Daniel Boone, held off the attack for days, before Chief Blackfish broke off the fight. Below, a 1901 sketch of Ft. Boonesborough, now a state historical park.