The making of the Ohio Valley states, 1660-1837 . ey was one,set out on a hunting and prospecting tour to Kentucky. These six men belonged to a class formed to battlewith the wilderness. As a class they became extinct withit. Nothing of the graces of civilized life they knew ;but with hardship and danger they were familiar from thecradle. These had made robust ^ men of them— menoiiron ./ thews and sin-ews. They livedmostly by hunt-ing, as the Ind-ians did, andlike them weremore deeplyread in naturesbooks thanmans. A sturdyhonesty distin-guished one and all. Every mans door was unbarred to admi
The making of the Ohio Valley states, 1660-1837 . ey was one,set out on a hunting and prospecting tour to Kentucky. These six men belonged to a class formed to battlewith the wilderness. As a class they became extinct withit. Nothing of the graces of civilized life they knew ;but with hardship and danger they were familiar from thecradle. These had made robust ^ men of them— menoiiron ./ thews and sin-ews. They livedmostly by hunt-ing, as the Ind-ians did, andlike them weremore deeplyread in naturesbooks thanmans. A sturdyhonesty distin-guished one and all. Every mans door was unbarred to admit the stran-ger ; every one stood ready to lend his neighbor a helpinghand. AVeak outposts of advancing civilization, insensi-bly they fell into more or less barbarous ways. Thebest hunter was the most useful citizen ; the best wife,she who could hoe as well as spin. Though each mantilled his little patch of ground, the drudgery of the farmmostly fell to the women and boys. It is here we dis-cover the backwoodsmans distinguishing trait. Other7. DANIF:I, BOONE. 98 THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY frontier folk were farmers first of all; lie was more hunterthan farmer. And here, again, he resembled the term backwoodsman is therefore highly descrip-tive. Nothing indeed could be better. Daniel Boone,* the leader of this little band, haspassed into history as the representative backwoods-man. These hunters wore garments suited to rough workand weather, partly borrowed from the Indians, partlytheir own invention, but certainly the one distinctiveAmerican costume ever worn by our people. It was noless picturesque than appropriate. Each man wore onhis head a raccoonskin cap, of home make, Avith the aui-mals bushy tail dangling down over the left ear, whichgave the wearer a very rakish look indeed. His outergarment, in all weather, was a fringed deerskin hunting-frock, long in the skirts, open in front, and gathered in atthe waist by a broad leathern belt. His legs were pro-tected b
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