Here's the last of this series. --------------- In 1808 Daniel Boone, who had moved west to Missouri in 1799, sent an invitation to Stoner to come visit him at his new home at Femme Osage near the mouth of the Missouri River. Stoner liked the idea so much that not only did he want to come visit; he wanted to move there permanently. Kentucky was becoming too crowded for him. However, he could not persuade his wife to move, so he left alone Late in the summer of 1810 Stoner arrived at Boone's cabin. His intent was to hunt and explore the Upper Missouri. Boone, in temporary remission from the rheumatism that had plagued him in his old age, could not resist the temptation to join the expedition and so, off they went early that Fall, with some younger relatives of Boone's along to give support. Boone was 76 years old in 1810 and Stoner was 62. Boone's rheumatism returned and he had to turn back after six months. However, he brought back the best catch of his long career as a professional hunter and trapper. Stoner kept on going. He went 1600 miles up the M issouri, far beyond any habitation. Part of the time he was alone; part of the time he was with company. For a period of four or five months he saw no Whites at all. According to records left by Stoner's son, they went "high up the Missouri trapping" and, according to at least one person in the party, they made it as far as the Yellowstone River where it joins the Missouri on the present northeastern Montana-North Dakota border. It must have been the trip of their lives! Coming back downriver, he stopped once again to visit Boone. Then he returned, after an absence of two years, to his home in Kentucky. That trip was his last hunt. Michael Stoner died September 3, 1815. He was 67 years old. His remains were buried near Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky, where his grave is marked only with a crude stone. Three of the Stoner children as well as one grandson married Boone descendents and had large families of their own. One of their sons, Dr. Michael Lower Stoner, born about 1798, was a framer of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Author's note and question: why is there so little mention in the history books of a man who did so much? Three causes come to mind which, put together, would assure obscurity for anyone not obsessed with getting his name before the public. First, I am pretty sure Michael Stoner was illiterate; he could not write, at least not in English. Thus, he would be entirely dependent on others to leave written record of his presence. Second, being illiterate would have prevented him from rising to many positions of leadership. He would not be able to keep log books and records, which would keep him from most managerial positions. This would help guarantee his obscurity. His friend Daniel Boone, by contrast, was fairly literate for the time; he could read and write. True, his spellings were quite imaginative, but, that was not unusual at that time. But, then, Simon Kenton was no great reader and writer either. That probably prevented his rise to leadership anywhere but on the battlefield, but even casual students of early American frontier history know of his exploits. Why not Stoner? Third, we have the prejudices of the chroniclers of the time. Stoner was a "Dutchman". He spoke with a heavy German accent his entire life. True, he was born in Pennsylvania, but he was of German-American background. During the Colonial-Revolutionary War period, the strongest ethnic slur routinely heard in Anglo-America was damned Dutchman. The first person on record to have uttered this oath was John Smith at Jamestown. He was referring to a small group of German glassmakers that had come with the Jamestown company. They (the glassmakers) had been trying to make friends with the Indians and Smith did not like it. Anglo-Americans during the Colonial and Revolutionary period felt threatened by German-American ethnicity. Coming closer to Stoner's time, we only have to look into the writings of a founding father as prominent as Benjamin Franklin to find comments about German Pennsylvanians that are borderline pathological in their dislike. Frontier people, almost as often targets of eastern establishment disdain and contempt as "Dutchmen", seemed not to share this prejudice, at least not as strongly. But frontier people often were not the writers of their own exploits. The early writers, like John Filson, the first person to write the exploits of Daniel Boone, were easterners and had eastern prejudices. They would not be interested in writing the exploits of any "damned Dutchmen". That, in this writer's opinion, is the main reason for Michael Stoner's obscurity today. Present day historians are still influenced, knowingly or not, by the works of their predecessors. If the early writers ignored the works of certain peoples, then "they never happened". References and further reading: The Stoner Family (compiled by Miss Bess Hawthorne, LaPlace, Illinois), from The Boone Family - Allied Families p.550-552, at http://asterix.mathcs.wilkes.edu/~lancaster/ppl/h/holstein/michstoner.html Straight Up To See The Sky, by Timothy Truman, copyright 1991, Eclipse Books. References to Dunmore's War and Indian wars in the old Northwest in the 1780's and 90's. Daniel Boone, the Life and Legend of an American Pioneer, by John Mack Faragher, copyright 1992, Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Frequent mention of Stoner as companion of Boone in many endeavors. The Frontiersmen, by the Editors of Time-Life Books, text by Paul O'Neil, copyright 1977, Time-Life Books, Inc.good summation of frontier campaigns of the Revolutionary War, especially G.R.Clark's Vincennes Campaign, The Battle of King's Mountain, and the Battle of Blue Licks. Many illustrations and maps from the period. The American Heritage History of The American Revolution, edited by Richard M. Ketchum, narrative by Bruce Lancaster, introduction by Bruce Catton, copyright 1971, American Heritage Publishing Company. good chapter on the war on the Frontier. Many illustrations from the period. That Dark and Bloody River, by Allan W. Eckert, copyright 1995, Bantam Books. very detailed history of the Ohio Valley during Stoner's time there. Battle of Blue Licks covered. A must read for anyone who wants to study the Frontier Ohio Valley during the last half of the 18th century. Eckert's works are sometimes dismissed as being fiction. They are not fiction; they are historical narrative. I recommend this as well as all his other books to anyone wishing to study this time period. Spouses _________________________________________ 1: Frances Tandy TRIBBLE Birth: September 3, 1769 Orange, Virginia Death: May 11, 1852 Bath, Kentucky Age: 82 Burial: Machpelah Cemetery, Mt. Sterling, Montgomery, Kentucky Marriage: about 1786 Fayette, Kentucky Children: George Washington (1787-1871) Andrew (-~1856) John Leonard (-1812) Sarah Ann Burris (~1791-1846) Frances (1798-) Michael Lower (1798-1864) Peter Burris (1802-1873) Nancy (1805-) This completes the series. I hoped you enjoyed it. Bob Francis ---------------- Larry -- Larry DeFrance, Helena Montana USA Caretaker: The DeFrance Family Home Page - http://www.helenet.com/~larry/fam_home.html The DeFrance Mailing List - [email protected], The Susquehanna River Mailing List - [email protected] Co-Caretaker: The Boone Mailing list - [email protected]