We were fortunate to have the First Territorial Census of Oklahoma survive the loss of nearly all of the 1890 census documents. Amongst them was a Black Homesteader named Daniel Boone — no likely relationship to the famous Longhunter and namesake for a National Forest in Kentucky. This Daniel was born in Virginia in about 1845 and served his country in Company G, Kansas Cavalry Volunteers — enrolling in 1864 at Fort Smith, Arkansas and mustering out on 25 June 1865, according to his homesteading case file.
He was one of many Black Homesteaders who utilized the various Homestead Act's provisions to procure his independence and own land for the first time. In his case, Daniel filed the daunting mountain of paperwork required to begin his 4-year unbroken residency on his selected land in October 1889, completing the construction of his 12 x 14 house on 12 December 1889 and making it his home for his wife and five children. Season after season he worked his land — which was described as Prairie Land in his Proof/Evidence file he filed 4 years later in 1893. Neighbors Harles Price and Joseph Willis filed affidavits attesting to Daniel's improvements to the land including the house, stable, a well and an orchard and his crops. Daniel and his neighbors assigned approximate values to the improvements at $375.
His farm was located about 2 miles southeast of what became later the town of Hennessey, Oklahoma — but in 1893, this was Oklahoma Territory or often abbreviated I.T. for Indian Territory. The Oklahoma Land Rush was April 22, 1889 just a few months prior to Daniel's initial application. You can learn more about that at the National Park Service's Homestead National Historical Park (Nebraska) website at www.nps.gov/home and the rich history that they are stewards of.
Hennessey came to be as a result of the above land rush into the so-called "Unassigned Lands" of central Oklahoma and was the center of agriculture for the Kingfisher County, O.T. in 1889. Daniel, his wife, and four children — ages 45, 25, 8, 6, 5 and 2 — are named in the O.T. 1890 census. They must have had another child between 1890 and 1894 since his 1893 affidavit states he was living with his wife and five children.
Without the work of the NPS to preserve and transcribe these case files, we might not otherwise know that Daniel was born in Virginia, but was from Caldwell, Kansas. Correlating some of the information in the 27-page bounty land file then yields his Kansas service and that his residence was in Marion County, Kansas at the time of his service. He spent many years later in a home for Disabled Veteran Soldiers and the record there in 1924, at age 81, tells us that he was 5'8" tall, with black eyes, gray hair — and that he could read and write and that he was of the Protestant religion.
In that same Veteran's record, his wife Jennie of many years (she was named in the 1890 census) was still living in Hennessey in the 1920s and a son Daniel Boone (junior) was living in Kansas City, Missouri at about the time of his father's death.
Genealogy is about storytelling but also scrounging up details in some hidden places that can paint the real family story and supplement many other stories that may exist. Perhaps this is your family member? I am proud to have been the transcriber for this case file as a volunteer with the NPS.