The Sons of Daniel Boone (sometimes called the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...

) was a youth program developed by Daniel Carter Beard

Daniel Carter Beard

Daniel Carter "Uncle Dan" Beard was an American illustrator, author, youth leader, and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America .-Early life:...

 in 1905 based on the American Frontiersman. When Dan Beard joined the Boy Scouts of America

Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...

 in 1910 as one of their National Scout Commissioners, he merged his group into the fledgling BSA.

Boys were organized into "Forts". The officers of the Fort took on names of frontiersman and had specific insignia:

• Daniel Boone's (President) is a powder-horn
• Simon Kenton
  Simon Kenton
  Simon Kenton was a famous United States frontiersman and friend of Daniel Boone, Simon Girty, Spencer Records and Isaac Shelby.-Family and early life:Simon Kenton was alive even before Ohio was a state...
  
  's (Vice-president) is a tomahawk
  Tomahawk (axe)
  A tomahawk is a type of axe native to North America, traditionally resembling a hatchet with a straight shaft. The name came into the English language in the 17th century as a transliteration of the Powhatan word.Tomahawks were general purpose tools used by Native Americans and European Colonials...
  
  
• Kit Carson
  Kit Carson
  Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
  
  's (Treasurer) is a flint arrowhead
• John James Audubon
  John James Audubon
  John James Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats...
  
  's (Librarian) is a bird
• Johnny Appleseed
  Johnny Appleseed
  Johnny Appleseed , born John Chapman, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois...
  
   (Forester) has a tree
• David Crockett (Secretary) has a coonskin
• George Catlin
  George Catlin
  George Catlin was an American painter, author and traveler who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West.-Early years:...
  
  , the totem painter, wears a buffalo head on sleeve

The "uniform" of the boys was based on the fringed buckskin

Buckskin

Buckskin may refer to:*Buckskin , leather made of buck hide*Buckskins, an outfit of buckskin leather*Buckskin , a color of horses similar to buckskin leather...

 outfit of the frontiersman.

There were no ranks or advancement, but boys could earn notches and top notches for achievements in different areas.

Beard first promoted the program in his column in Recreation Magazine starting in March, 1905. Due to issues, he then moved over to Woman's Home Companion

Woman's Home Companion

Woman's Home Companion was an American monthly publication, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s....

in April, 1906. When he left that magazine in 1909 and moved to Pictorial Review

Pictorial Review

Pictorial Review is a magazine which first appeared in September, 1899. The magazine was originally designed to showcase dress patterns of William Paul Ahnelt's American Fashion Company. By the late 1920s it was one of the largest of the "women's magazines"....

, he was apparently forced to rename the program Boy Pioneers of America because WHC felt they owned the name. Most Scouting historians ignore this fact, and refer to the group as "Sons of Daniel Boone".

A handbook for the program wasn't published until 1909, as Boy Pioneers: Sons of Daniel Boone.

In 2006 Great Rivers Council in Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 established a summer camp honor society at Hohn Scout Reservation and Camp Thunderbird named Sons of Daniel Boone, following some of the original writings of Daniel Carter Beard. The honor society has been gaining attention from Scout troop

Scout troop

The Scout troop is a unit of Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts that usually meet weekly. Girl Guides often use Unit or Company instead. The troop is the fundamental unit, which a Scout joins and via which he or she participates in Scouting activities, such as camping, backpacking, and...

s outside of Missouri from Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Since its inception over 500 Scouts have become honor members.

External links

• Boy Pioneers on-line copy of the SDB's handbook, published in 1909.
• The Sons of Daniel Boone/Boy Pioneers Uniforms
• Columbia Encyclopedia entry on Dan Beard
• Great Rivers Council Sons of Daniel Boone Society