Letter from Daniel Boone relation about Kit Carson’s brother’s expedition across the Plains to Santa Fe.
March 5, 1835. · Louisville, Kentucky.
by Boon, Hampton Lynch (H.L.).
Autograph Letter Signed. 1 pg.+ stampless address leaf. A couple of small holes at folds, wear to addresss leaf and some tears and creases at edges, top chipped, normal aging; good to very good. Hampton Lynch (HL) Boon's (1802-1851) grandfarther was Daniel Boone's brother. This letter is to his brother, William Crawford (W.C. - "Billy") Boon, Fayette, Howard County, Missouri. William Carson, half-brother of Kit Carson, regularly crossed the Plains, was one of the first American traders to reach Santa Fe. When his family left Kentucky to settle in Missouri, they became close friends and business partners with the Boone family The writer was the uncle of William Carson's wife, the grand-niece of the famed Daniel Boone. Kit Carson, the famed scout and pioneer of the Rocky Mountains, and at 26, he may have joined his brother's expedition to New Mexico. It is possible that the "domestics" Boon mentions were his Black slaves who were to accompany Carson on this trip. Text is as follows: "…We have been so much detained thus far by ice and will be in all probability, all the way to Pittsburgh, that it will be impossible to get the goods on in time for Wm. Carson's contemplated trip to Santa Fe. We were upwards of 12 days from St. Louis here – the prospect of a speedy trip from this to Pittsburgh is still gloomy – the quantity of ice…breaks the wheels of the Boat and impedes her progress astonishingly… give this information to Carson that he may make such arrangements as may suggest themselves to him under the circumstances. My domestics from Baltimore will be in time for him, but I fear nothing else will...have my storehouse ready……" (Inventory #: 106699)