Jemima Boone - Life on the Frontier - Chautauqua at Meadowgreen Appalachian Music Park

Free! Presented by Kentucky Humanities. Food available, 12:30 – 1:30

Jemima Boone, 1762 – 1834, the fourth child of Daniel and Rebecca Bryan Boone, was born in North Carolina, on October 4, 1762. Destined to live a life beyond the borders of civilization, she helped pioneer two American frontiers: Kentucky and Missouri.

Typical of pioneers in the era, Boone endured heartbreak and suffering almost unimaginable to modern Americans. One of the most well-known stories to come out of Kentucky’s pioneer past involved 14-year-old Jemima. In July 1776, Boone was kidnapped by a group of Native Americans. Her father led a search party that caught up with the captors and rescued the girls after three days in captivity.

In 1777, Boone married Flanders Callaway, a union that lasted nearly 50 years. Together with the other settlers at Boonesborough, they endured times of terrible suffering, facing starvation, cold, and the ever-present fear of attack.