Boy of a Frontier Fort

[Music] [Music] in the early days of America's history the Young Nation was dotted with ports and out this reconstructed one called Frontier towel at these buildings today it's not too difficult to imagine a time in the 1790s when this Blockhouse might have been part of an outpost in the Ohio Valley After the Revolutionary War many Americans were pushing Westward across the Appalachian Mountains far from the towns and cities along the coast for safety they look to such outposts as Fort Pitt now Pittsburgh Fort Washington now Cincinnati or any one of the many ports erected by military Expeditions and early settlers let's imagine ourselves in the 1790s in the frontier four foreign in one of the cabins in the fort a boy Daniel Knight is still asleep chores to be done says mother a body can't sleep all day Daniel was named after that great leader of the frontier Daniel Boone who was opening up the Wilderness Road about the time young Dan was born back east in Pennsylvania but this is a long way from Pennsylvania and work begins early on the frontier already Dan's father is going to the forest with a friend the rifle always goes with him there are still Indians about after finishing a breakfast of cornborn and milk Dan is ready for his chores his job this morning is to hold the weeds in a small garden plot near the fort [Music] he stops to see the blacksmith hard at work making a new horseshoe foreign at the frontier needs to learn all he can about the tools and other things made by simple hand industry in the wilderness Dan knows how much his father and other men depend on the simple tools of the frontier father's job this morning is cutting trees in the forest on this land father and his friend Simon will be able to plant crops next spring but more important right now are these trees which will be used to build a stockade for the fort father has seen stockades at other forts on the journey West and he hopes to have this kind of protection against a possible Indian attack Simon agrees with father that The Stockade must be built soon meanwhile they and the other people of the fort can rely on the Block House for defense until the Stockade can be finished in the afternoon Dan's chore usually is gathering firewood deep in the forest what was that it's the Perkins Family they live out a few miles west of the port but why do they have their cow and some of their household things it's engines says Mrs Perkins a scout brought word to us that Indians are attacking another Fort to the west and may be headed this way we're aiming to get to the Block House but we walked a long way and we're pretty tuckered out we've come to warn your people at the Fort Daniel Dan will run ahead and warn the fourth now there's no time to lose if the Indians come this way they better be ready there's Old Timer better tell him the Perkins family is coming in Indians west of their cabin everybody out as I keep with getting ready every family will leave their cabin to go into the Block House in case of Indian Sea fill out every water bucket bring every Powder Horn and rifle to the Blockhouse Take Along plenty of gunpowder food must be brought to the black house too damn's mother is worried about the family sheep outgrazing where the Indians might get them fathers are in the forest he can't bring the sheep in Dan it's up to you and be careful Dan runs past the Perkins Family now safely within the settlement have the Sheep wander very far here they are now to get them to the fort losing the Sheep would mean losing wool and meat he made it the sheep and other livestock can be protected by gunfire from the black house by now people who are miles around have come to the port here's Peter Trumbull the scout once a soldier in the revolution he's now a well-known Frontiersman he tells Mrs Knight that her husband and Simon are going to stay out in the forest as Lookouts and Daniel says he's brought the Sheep safely in inside the Block House The Defenders of the fort are on the upper level then comes up to find old-timer busy if an attack does come he says we'll need you Dan to load guns so watch me close now measure the powder careful like and pour it into the barrel take your wad of cloth and put it between the powder and the bullet Ram it all down with the ramrod that's it there now she's ready to fire if the Indians try to come close we can shoot through the portholes says old Tire Dan wonders why the Indians try to kill the white people and burn their settlements why are they so warlike well it says Old Timer the idioms are fighting to defend their homelands the old-timer can remember not long ago when he lived in friendship with the Indians in the early days of settlement Indians often helped the light hunters and Travers as they traded and bargained together they learned something of each other's ways and often they lived in peace but now Old Timer explains the Indians feel they are being driven out with so many settlers coming to take over the land for farming the Indians no longer can hunt and live on this ground as they have always done and so they fight to drive the settlers back thank you [Music] all through the night the men take turns standing watch inside the Blockhouse Dan tried to stay awake like the man but even a frontier boy gets sleepy and so the hours passed until dawn oh in the black house let us in careful it might be an engine trick says Old Timer it's all right let us in Dan recognizes his father's voice father and Simon have scouted the forest and the Indians are gone there's no attack [Music] and so for now the danger is over though there will be many such Indian scares for every real Attack the settlers know they must always be prepared foreign can take the Sheep out again and the men can continue their work cutting logs to finish the Stockade for they know that new settlers will be coming to join them and new settlers do keep coming from the East to the fort looks like we're getting more neighbors says father this is a site they'll be seeing often more people moving Westward into the lands that will become before too long the new states of Ohio Indiana Illinois and others the new settlers too were warned of the Indians they will welcome a chance to rest at the Fort before they push on Westward father wants to know what is the news from back east well they're talking about building a Road West from Pennsylvania instead of using pack horses people may be coming West in wagons then many thousands more will come West into these lands by the time young Dan has grown to manhood and someday there will be a new frontier farther west and new lands of opportunity [Music] the settlers will build more ports for protection and someday Dan and his family and other families will see growing towns and cities permanent settlements that will replace the four Frontier