 The Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont. The story of Daniel Boone. Adapted for radio from material suggested by the distinguished American author, Mark West James. Starring John McIntyre, in the role of Daniel Boone. The DuPont Company, Makers of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry, present the Cavalcade of America, dedicated to those men and women in every walk of life who have shaped the destiny of America in the past and to the youth of today who will shape the destiny of America in the future. Our story tonight is Daniel Boone. Our star is John McIntyre, whose voice you have heard on many of radio's leading programs. On the Cavalcade of America, he has notably portrayed the role of Andrew Jackson. Presenting John McIntyre in the story of Daniel Boone. Year 1819, an artist named Chester Harding made his way through the wilderness of middle America to a place some 200 miles up the Missouri River from St. Louis. There, coming upon a small cabin in a clearing, he was the painter-portrait of the great American frontiersman, Daniel Boone. Good morning, mister. Good morning, ma'am. Could you tell me where I could find Colonel Daniel Boone? Why, sure. Colonel Boone's my grand pet. What would you be wanting of him, mister? Well, ma'am, I'm an artist. Everybody back east has heard of Daniel Boone. When I heard he was out here in Missouri, I set off to find him. It's taken me over three months to get here. But if he let me paint his picture, it'll be what? Well, mister, the hard time you'll have of it if you hanker to paint his likeness. His head do wobble like the roll of any shoulders. And you talk to him to an early grave. But I'll have my young ones leave you to him. Jimmy? Yes, ma'am? Becky? Come here. Stranger, ma'am. Now, don't be a question. Lead the stranger to your grand pet and be quick to get him back for their choice to be. Yes, ma'am. Just follow us, mister. All right. Grandpa lives over yonder hill. He'd be a city fella, ain't ya? How did you guess that? You got store clothes on, that's how. So, uh, Colonel Boone's your grandfather, eh? No, our great-grandpape he is. Oh. But we don't hold with fancy titles, so we just call him grandpa. Because there'll be grandpa over there. What's he doing, eh? Is he ill? Oh, no, he behalors can be. He's roasting a venison. He always lays on his back whilst roasting a venison. He says he's easier on the joints. Oh, I see. Hey, grandpa, pay some heed. Give a visitor. Well, pleased to see you, sir. I hope he ain't even settled in these parts. No, uh, no. I guess I'm not the settling type, Colonel Boone. Good. Neither am I. Where are you from, Stranger? Boston. Took a lot of riding and porting rivers and trampling a foot to come out here to find you. Never knew the country was so big. Well, it's still mighty crowded for me. Well, like me, you've got to have elbow room. I don't feel easy. I can look out of my cabin door and see a chimney smokin' anywhere. But, uh, what do you want of me, Stranger? Well, Colonel Boone, I'm a painter. You don't need no painting done. Well, I've come to paint your picture. People back east have heard a lot about you, Colonel Boone. I had a hard time getting out here. I want to bring them back a painting of just how you look. Likeness? Me? That's it, yes. I'll be hanged. Paint away, Stranger. Paint away. All right. I'll, uh, just set up my easel here. You have to hold your head still, though, so it'll be a good job. Jimmy. Yes, Grandpa? Come on over here. Hang on to the back of my scalp so as to my head don't move. All right, Grandpa. Say, Grandpa, tell the Stranger about the engines. Them all, right now, Stranger? Fine, fine. Uh, well, them engines, I tell ya. I tell ya, nice, passable friends to have. Too bad there ain't more of them around. But they had to go because the country just had to spread out, I guess. I seen it all happen. Yes, I did. Folks needed elbow room for shotting. And the wandering spirit and myself. Back there in 75s, we began to cross over the mountains, even to the west. King Tuck. There was freedom out there, room for a man to move about in. We wanted to get behind the mountains and build homes where we'd ever say about how we did. All right, men. You'll be quiet and listen. We all started out here from Carolina, strung our pack horses and wagons along over the mountains. We blazed the trail to King Tuck. We've been building this fort here, Boonesboro. The land we bought fair and square from the Cherokees. Now the British say we have no right to settle on it. Well, engines were here before them. It was their land to sell and we paid for it. It belongs to us now. Well, just the same, it's going to be a struggle to hold it. The British will do all they can to drive us off. They won't if we're ready for them, if we run things right. All right, that's it. What do we do, Judge Edison? Well, we've got to have a government here at Fort Boonesboro, the first west of the mountains. And we need to run it the best we know how. Well, that's agreeable. What do we do first? Well, for one thing, somebody's got to take charge of things. Well, that aims the right way. Well, Captain Boones showed us the way out here. Oh, wait a minute. I ain't fit for what you're thinking. All right, all right. Captain Boones, we've followed you to King's Hut. You did a good job leading us here. I think you're the one to give us the help we need now. Well, man, you all heard what the judge said about them British fixing to drive us out of King's Hut. Well, we won't let them. We'll get the stockade built, 30 horses and mules and 30 guns we've got, and this wilderness of band of men don't need no more to defend what's ours. We'll take all turns watching the fort is centred. Then, boys, we'll get down to living. For now, we've been loaned out here. We need our families. Soon we'll get things fixed up. And I vote we go back and get them. And then we'll hold this settlement here at Boonesboro. Well, Becky, we've crossed the Holson River. We've come through Marcus and Gap and down the clinch. It are pretty weren't it, all the Laurel and Canebreak? Yes, Daniel. It were pretty, but it were wild and fearsome. Well, don't worry, Becky. It's been slow going in this wagon for certain, but you and our daughter, Jemima, have borne it brave. I'm right proud of you. Wait. Well, all right is, Becky, down there. Down there in them valleys is the dark and bloody hunting ground. Kentucky. What's that mean, Tom? Among the medders, daughter. That's what the Indians call it. There she is, 20 million acres of her and all of it ours. Yes. Yes, it's fair land, Daniel. The Indians said, brother, it's a good land, but you'll find it hard to hold. Hard to hold? The aim is to settle down for good at Boone's bird, Daniel. Sure aims to, Becky. Where do you see our fort? Becky, there ain't nothing going to stop us. We've blazed a trail out here and we have a place to live where men aren't played with kings and their orders. It's a home for you and me and Jemima, Becky. A home in God's wilderness. Yes, Daniel. Is it a hard thing I'm asking of you, Rebecca? To come out here and to the wilderness? Daniel, I've seen your eyes turn to the hills. I've felt your yearning to be wandering. But, Daniel, remember on the words in the Bible, the words of Ruth, and treat me not to leave you and to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go. Everything is to find and happy at the fort now, Daniel. And I think, daughter, Jemima's first and joyful to be wed. Well, Flanders, Calloway's a right good man. Kind of thought, Art, Jemima looked like a happy child. Waitin' for her, set me to wonderin' if she'd give him a say. Percy Young. He's at 15, Daniel, but I was just turned 17 when I wed you. Rebecca. Well, who's the bride and groom? You two or us? Oh, Flanders, you gooshie. I'm so happy for your ghost. Ma, you've been so kind. Oh, no, no. You all go on back to your dad's. Will you do me the honor, Mrs. Calloway? Delighted, Mr. Calloway. Well, what's happened to the music? It's a runner from up the creek. Wonder what's up. Hey! Hey, just a minute! Folks, I got bad news. Ten men were scouted today over to Lick and Crick. Ten. How many Redskins was there? I can't tell, but they burned homesteads all the way from here to the valley. We've got to turn out and fix them, boys. They're headed for Boone's borough right now. We've got to hurry. Come on. The Redskins are camping tonight. They won't start for here till tomorrow. Twitty. All right, Captain. Now, listen. I'm telling you, keep the men inside the stockade. Won't do no good running all through the woods, leaving Boone's borough unguarded. We've got to hold the fork, you understand? But they're on the warpath. I am a goon. Where are you going, Captain? I'm going out of here tonight. I'm going to talk to the engine chief, Blackfish. I'm going to see if you listen to me instead of the British. It's been peaceful right here at Boone's borough up to now. I know engines. They ain't meant to attack for no reason. Someone's lying and putting them up to it to drive us out of King Tuck. And I tell you, Twitty, remember this. We got a fight now as never before for our rights. Tell us about the engines now. I'm aiming to have a look at that lightness of mine. So I'm coming over to see it, stranger. Don't move, Colonel Boone. I'll turn the easel around for you. Do I look like that? Well, when it's done, you may look a little like it. Now, if you turn his head just a bit more to the right, Jimmy. Wait, Grandpa. A little more. Now hold it. Grandpa's been painted before by the Indians. He lived with them, didn't he, Grandpa? Yep, that's right, Becky. But they never painted me like the strangers are doing. Maybe the stranger'd like for you to tell him about the bullet gun. Yeah, I can tell you about that. It was a trick to call it. One day I took the bullets out of Blackfish's gun when they weren't looking at the bullet and darted him to shoot Squire at me. He did, and I pretended to catch him. He should have seen his face. But all this must have been much later, Colonel. After he left the wedding party. Oh, I almost forget where it was. Well, I went to talk with Blackfish that night. After I'd walked through the woods, thinking things over, I decided I'd better be playing, speak right out, but it was bothering me. And I know the Indians that understand me better than they would the British. How about it? Well, how, Blackfish? The Great Boon always welcome here. But why you come see red men? Because I like Indians, Blackfish. But I was thinking there might be a sneakin' white man or two there makin' your plan for you. Why you think white men lead war party on Boonsboro? I know they be Blackfish. Red paint and a few feathers can't fool me. That and ours, Jim's Gertie. And the red coat has become that and better than the blanket. All right, Boon. My name's Gertie. Every man, woman, and child in your fort will know it too. I'll handle it, Jim. You think you'll stop us, Captain? That's why I'm here, if you want to know it. You ain't got much time, Boon, if you aim to stop us. We reckon we aim, but I've got time to tell Blackfish and the Shawnees you're trickin' them, Gertie. Don't believe in Blackfish. What do you mean, trick, brother? I'm a mean in the English, and Blackfish and a war are against us free people. Well, Joe Boon, you have no right to settle here. The king intends to land on this side of the mountains for the Indians. Oh, listen, Boon, he speaks truth. Listen, Blackfish, that ain't the truth. They mean free for Canuck fur traders, but this land belonged to the Indians and we bought a fire and squire of them. Talking about it ain't gonna do any good, Boon. You're a goner and your forts lost. Ain't it going to be as easy as you think, Gertie? How many rifles you got in this party? Uh, 120. Too bad. There's 200 at the port. You're a lion, Boon. Listen, Blackfish, they want to burn Boon's burrow and drive us your friends from our homes in winter. Don't listen to them, Blackfish. Remember there's a reward for Boon. Let's burn the port and take him back to Detroit with us. Blackfish will not burn Boon's town in winter. We come back in spring. We take Boon to see Colonel Hamilton at Detroit. I have spoken. Oh, Blackfish. So this is the famous Captain Daniel Boon. Understand you're the famous hire buyer, Colonel Hamilton. I'm paying more for rebels with their hair on than for scalps, Captain. Blackfish, why didn't you burn down Boon's burrow as I told you? It's winter, brother, bad for women, children, rot. Perhaps it would be easier with Boon here in Detroit. There must be no mistake this next time. You may have more than earned your 20 pounds in that case. You speak truth. Boon worth five men. Well, I've got Boon here in Detroit. We'll attack the fort. Blackfish, I'll pay you well for Boon. 50 pounds sterling. I know what sell Boon. 100. Boon fine hunter, brave man. I make him my son. Boon, wet, hundred men. Looks like you lost, Colonel. Reckon you'll have to allow me to go along with Blackfish. Go ahead and find your home with the Shawnee's Boon because you won't have a home at Boon's burrow long. We're going to make an example of your settlement. You can't keep us pinned behind the mountains to doom the day, Colonel. Americans need elbow room. We aim to get it. When we caught you last night, you trying to escape? Well, maybe I weren't, Blackfish. I have won many times, Boon. You won of our tribe, my son. Next time, braves kill you. If only you see me, Blackfish. Boon, you know escape all the way to Boon's burrow. Seven days journey. You'll find woodsman, but we catch you easy. You wait. We go Boon's burrow soon. That sort of figure, Blackfish, from the drums. Hamilton, make us send war pipe to mingles and delawares. Too late for you, say fort. Well, too late today, anyway. I warn you, last time, Boon, my own tomahawk kill you first. I'll take over the watch, Walker. All right, Twitty. I ain't seen a sign of nothing today. Nothing, you say? Look, stagging inside that tree. Red skin. Let me get a bead in it. Wait a minute. Something mighty strange about that engine. You keep them covered. Just a minute. He's holding up his hand. Hold your fire, Twitty. Stan or Boon, come home from the dead. You mind, ma? Mrs. Calloway. Everybody come running. Dan or Boon, you come home. Dan or Boon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Open the sake. Don't you worry. Bring some of this, you can. You mind, ma? Where's Rebecca? No smoke in that cabin, worries. Ma went back to Carolina, Pa. She thought you was dead. We all did. You see, Captain, I scouted for you and found nothing but engine signs. Well, never mind now, Rebecca's safer in Carolina. Quick, Twitty, how many rifles do you have? We've got 50 riflemen to port now, Captain. Don't you worry. We ain't got time to worry. We're facing the dangest British attack you ever heard of. Now get busy, all you boys. Get to work on the stockade. We'll need new blockhouses. If we've got time to build them, drive the stock inside the walls. I tell you, they'll be here any minute. If we're ever going to hold King Chuck, we'll fight to hold it down. Well, that's how it was, stranger. I got back to Boone's Wurr in time. We saved the fort. We fed them for 10 days. And one night, they quit. Sneaked away after dark. They didn't come back, did they, Grandpa? No. The next day, we dug 125 pound lead out of the stockade. It was the worst engine that British attack King Chuck ever saw. But it was the last. King Chuck was a dark and bloody ground. But we held it at Boone's Wurr. Tell me, Colonel Boone, did you ever see Blackfish again? No, I never did see Blackfish after that strategy. Count how he was killed in the siege. Whatever, whatever happened to all the land you staked out in Kentucky? Well, stranger, I never bothered to find out. Too many people followed me into King Chuck. No elbow room. So I moved on two or three times. Now they even followed me here to Missouri. Well, in that case, Colonel, maybe you'd better push on further west. That's just what I've been thinking, stranger. But for a man, well, over 80, ain't got too many moves left. A couple of seasons ago, I went out to the Yellowstone. Dang it, I won't be there soon. You know, I'd sort of like to see what hid behind them rocky mountains out there, too. Must be elbow room in California. California is a mighty long way off, Colonel. It'll be a whole generation before America reaches the Pacific, I'm afraid. Don't you be thinking that, stranger. America weren't meant to be hammed in by an old Mississippi River. The Rockies, neither. When I started down the wilderness road in 1975, it was a mighty small country. We'll look at it now. It's growled all over the place. I reckon most folks, just like me, they're all looking for elbow room. Might as soon as we spread clear to the Pacific. Tell me, Colonel Boone, were you ever lost? Well, stranger, things rightly say as they were lost, but once for three days, I was mighty bewildered. When America moved west, Daniel Boone led America. Wherever he went, people seemed to follow. He was the Frontiersman, and his fame was worldwide at his death in 1820. His legend is the common property of every American and has been immortalized in Lord Byron's poem Don Juan in these lines. Of the great names which in our faces stare, the general Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky, was happiest among mortals anywhere. Daniel Boone typified the eternal pioneering spirit of Americans, and tonight he takes his rightful place in the cavalcade of America. Thank you, John McIntosh. Ladies and gentlemen, we hope you've enjoyed our story tonight and that you will enjoy the story we bring you from the wonder world of chemistry. There was once a man named Sam Winslow who said he could make salt in a way that had never been discovered before and supply it to people more cheaply. A general court in Boston, impressed by Winslow's story, gave him the exclusive right to make salt by his method for ten years and prohibited anyone else from making salt the same way during that time. That was the first patent ever issued in America, two hundred and ninety-nine years ago in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It hadn't anything to do with the United States patent system as we know it today, but the basic idea is the same. That idea is to encourage the genius of the inventor by giving him an opportunity to profit from his labor for a specified length of time. This month marks the 150th birthday of the United States patent system. For on April 10th, 1790, President George Washington signed the law that has helped so much to give better things for better living to millions of Americans. More than that, our patent system is one of the foundation stones of democratic government. It offers the same protection, the same opportunity, the same hope of reward to every individual. It's as democratic as an American institution. With his gift for a striking phrase, Abraham Lincoln said that the American patent system adds the fuel of interest to the fire of genius. And honest Abe had good reason to know, for he was an inventor himself. While he was Congressman from Illinois, he received a patent for a device to help bolts through shallow water. The model of Lincoln's invention was whittled out of wood by his own hands. And you can see it on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Among other many well-known people who invented things on the side was Mark Twain, the famous humorist, who took out three patents, one of them for a self-pasting scrapbook. But such examples are merely curiosities. And although the Patent Office in Washington is full of amusing stories and strange machines, its true importance is shown by such inventions as McCormick's Reaper, Morse's Telegraph, Mergenthaler's Linotype Machine, Bell's Telephone, the Wright Brothers' Flying Machine, and Edison's Incandescent Lamp. Edison, during his lifetime, was awarded 1,101 patents. As new products have been invented, countless new jobs have been created. For example, the recent development of nylon by DuPont chemists after many years of research made necessary the construction of a large plant. And when the workmen finished building the plant, about 850 new jobs were filled in the little community of Seaford, Delaware. In this way, American inventions have played a big part in building America, as well as creating the American way of life, which provides comforts and happiness for many instead of a few, which is the spirit of the DuPont pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. And now the cavalcade of America's historian, Dr. Frank Monahan of Yale University. There is a time when every one of us is called upon to make a decision, a decision great or small, an act that will cut or repatter in the threads of destiny. Few can realize the momentous decision that faced Robert E. Lee on the verge of the tragic war between the states. Lee was a man of peace. He believed that if forbearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides, there would have been no national tragedy in 1861. When he was offered the command of the Union Army, he declined because of his higher loyalty to his natives, Virginia. Lee's military genius prolonged a bitter and hopeless struggle, but after Appomattox, he devoted himself to the great task of peaceful reconstruction. Next week, cavalcade salutes the memory of Robert E. Lee, whose fame transcends geographical boundaries and whose generous spirit has been fused into the best of America today. Our next broadcast of the cavalcade of America will come to you from the stage of the Mosque, the great show place of Richmond, Virginia, there in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the surrender of the Confederacy at Appomattox. And in the home city of the South's most heroic and beloved figure, we will present the distinguished actor of stage and screen, Philip Merrivale. The drama is an original radio portrayal of General Robert E. Lee. Our story is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning biography, R. E. Lee, by the distinguished American author and editor, Douglas Southall Freeman. The orchestra and original musical effects on the cavalcade of America are under the direction of Don Voorhees. It is Basil Riesdale saying goodnight and best wishes from DuPont. This is the National Broadcasting Company.