Sons of Daniel Boone

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The Sons of Daniel Boone (sometimes the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone) was a youth program developed by Daniel Carter Beard in 1905 based on the American Frontiersman. When Dan Beard joined the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 as one of their National Scout Commissioners, he merged his group into the fledging 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's (Vice-president) is a tomahawk
• Kit Carson's (Treasurer) is a flint arrowhead
• John James Audubon's (Librarian) is a bird
• Johnny Appleseed (Forester) has a tree
• David Crockett (Secretary) has a coonskin
• George Catlin, the totem painter, wears a buffalo head on sleeve

The "uniform" of the boy's was based on the fringed buckskin outfit of the frontierman.

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

[edit] 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