Sons of Daniel Boone

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.

Related Topics:
Daniel Boone - Daniel Carter Beard - Boy Scouts of America

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

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• 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.

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

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Beard first promoted the program in Recreation magazine in 1905. He then moved over to Womans' Home Companion in 1906. When he left that magazine in 1908, he was apparently forced to rename the program "Boy Pioneers" because the magazine felt they owned the name. The name "Boy Pioneers" would continue after 1910 as a program for boys not yet old enough to join the Boy Scouts.

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