1868 Highway F
Defiance, Missouri 63341
Admission: free and free parking. Tours range from $4-$8 for both.
Most people know of Daniel Boone as a Kentucky frontiersman and are not aware that he spent the last twenty-one years of his life in Missouri. When he arrived in 1799 the area was part of the Upper Louisiana Territory under Spanish rule before the French took over and then the Americans. The year he died - 1820 - Missouri became a state.
When Daniel and his wife Rebecca settled in Missouri they chose not to build a home on their 850 acres but to instead build cabins on land owned by their children and then to move among them. His last seven years, Daniel lived in son Nathan's large house which today is called the Daniel Boone Home.
Today the house faces a historic village comprised of more than a dozen buildings that have all been moved there from within 50 miles of the Daniel Boone Home. Before touring the house, we toured the village.The village buildings were mostly built in the 1800's.
Daniel's brother Squire began construction on the stone house below in about 1799, but the house was not completed by him.
The Newton Howell House below is a an example of a traditional dog-trot style - two log cabins connected by a breezeway. Howell accompanied General William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) westward to construct Fort Osage.
The Callaway House belonged to Flanders Callaway and his wife Jemima Boone, daughter of Daniel. It was built 1811-1812.
This reconstructed grist mill is one of the few left that represent animal-driven machinery as opposed to being run by water. Most likely in this mill grains were ground into meal rather than flour. This mill was originally built in 1846.
This general store, built in 1840, most likely started as a trading post.
A tour inside showed many items from the 1800's that were found in period stores including the nine smoking pipes on the wall that also could be used as weapons.
From outside the general store, there is a view of The Blacksmith House and Blacksmith Shop.
Inside the Blacksmith Shop, large bellows keep a huge fire burning.
The Engeldew House is an enclosed dog-trot style house and has four rooms including two bedrooms. It was originally located on a nearby farm.
This example of an open-faced shelter shows how the pioneers lived before building cabins and also most likely when in hunting and sugar camps. A large fire against the stone wall helped deflect wind as well as to keep the pioneers warm in their shelter.
We were able to tour this detached kitchen, or summer kitchen, that was used to keep the heat from cooking out of the main house during the hot summer months.
The Stake House was built in 1828 with an addition added in 1836 and originally was just 1/4 mile from its current site. This type of house would have belonged to a wealthy family and would have been located in a large village or town.
The Old Peace Chapel was originally built as a general store and dance hall in the mid-1800's. In 1905 it was remodeled into a church. Today it is used for weddings and meetings.
The organ pipes are approximately 200 years old but the electric organ console is relatively new. The organ is used regularly for weddings, etc. held in the church.
The clock was built in 1865, one of approximately only 100 made by St. Louis clock-maker Philip Pulhans. The clock face is on the outside steeple and these works shown below are on the inside wall.
The Carpenter Shop was built in 1837. In the village there is also the Dressmaker Shop, the Potter's Shop, and the Surveyor Shop.
The School House was built in the late 1830's and was in continual use in St. Paul, MO, until the 1940's. Naturally it is one-room school with long wooden benches and desks.
The Sappington-Dressel House was built between 1806 and 1808 in south St. Louis County, and was moved to this site in 1990 in order to rescue it from being torn down. John Dressel, for whom Dressel School was named, lived in it 100 of his 102 years. It is now used for special events.
After the one-hour tour of the village, we took a second one-hour tour of the Daniel Boone Home. Nathan Boone, with help from his brother Daniel, began building this house in 1803, taking approximately seven years to complete. The 2.5 feet walls are of made of Missouri blue limestone.
After his wife Rebecca's death in 1813, Daniel moved into the home to live with his son Nathan and Nathan's family. Daniel died in the house.
Today the parlor displays a portrait of Francis M. Curlee who purchased the house in 1926 and whose family was responsible for much of its early restoration.
The sitting room contains a spinning wheel, one of only two items in the house today that had belonged to the Boone family.
The bedroom off of the sitting room became Daniel's bedroom when he moved into the house in 1813. He died in this room.
When Daniel moved into the house, Nathan and wife Olive moved to the bedroom up one floor. Olive was very proud of her green wallpaper.
Nathan and Olive had 14 children in 28 years. Each child would remain sleeping in their parents' bedroom until age 5 which means that Nathan and Olive had children sleeping in their room with them for 33 straight years.
Their eight daughters shared the pink bedroom across the hall. The boys slept in the fourth floor attic.
Today to get from one floor to another, tourists take the outside steps that were added to the back porches in the 1900's. The inside steps are no longer safe for much traffic.
In the lower level of the four levels, is the kitchen. The original large walk-in fireplace that the Boone's used was replaced by this smaller one.
Today the kitchen and dining room display many items from the 1800's.
There is a large pavilion on the grounds which also houses a few displays about Daniel Boone.
And of course there is a small gift shop.
Lunch for us was just five minutes down the road at Café Angelina at Frisella Nursery:
http://frisellanursery.com/
There are both indoor and outdoor seating available.
The Chopped Italian Salad.
And Angelina's Salad.
And of course there is a large and wonderful gift shop with lovely items for your home and yard as well as beautiful gift items.
Comments:
We enjoyed our afternoon at the Daniel Boone Home and the surrounding village. If you have any interest in history you will especially enjoy your time there.
There are four different prices for the tours and you pay the same price whether you go on one or both of the tours. (There is a reduction with a AAA membership card.) The house tours are on the even hours and the village tours are on the odd hours. I had called ahead to learn about possible school field trips on our scheduled day and found out that there were 94 fourth- graders arriving at 10:30 so we scheduled our tours beginning at 1:00 and thus took the village tour first. I highly recommend calling ahead as this site is a very popular elementary school field trip destination.
We had two different tour guides and one was excellent. The other was knowledgeable but harder at times to understand. They were both friendly and open to questions. Because not everybody (but our day all but 2) take both tours together there is some repetition of information, particularly about the Boones. On the village tour there are limited places to sit and only one bathroom. Inside the house there are chairs designated for sitting.
There is a self-guided tour available but I highly recommend taking the tours the park offers. My assumption is that without a tour guide you are unable to enter any of the buildings except maybe the church.
Most of the one-hour village tour and some of the house tour were outside so we were appreciative that we picked a good-weather day to go. The Daniel Boone Home is well air conditioned.
The village is definitely a work in progress. Lindenwood University bought the site in 1998 and did much work to expand and restore the site. In April 2016 the site became part of the the St. Charles County park system; they seem to be committed to additional improvements. A number of the buildings are not open for touring and perhaps someday will be.
Apparently there is a rotating exhibit space in the Newton Howell House. I did not learn of this until after I got home so we did not visit it. I was disappointed that this was not pointed out to us.
The website lists a number of special events. The Christmas Candlelight event is especially popular.
We loved our lunch location. The nursery was beautiful and the gift shop much fun with unique items. The food was good and we certainly enjoyed eating outside among the flowers and green plants. We would definitely return there to shop and eat.
The organ pipes are approximately 200 years old but the electric organ console is relatively new. The organ is used regularly for weddings, etc. held in the church.
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