874Theodore Warner Boone
born 10-11-1844 | died 11-2-1917
by Geraldine F. Ingersoll
GFJay@aol.com
Theodore Warner Boone, son of Daniel Boone and Mary Constance Philabert, grandson of Daniel Morgan Boone and Sarah Griffin Lewis, great grandson of Daniel Boone and Rebecca Bryan, was born in St. Charles, Missouri October 11, 1844, and the sixth of twelve children.
Little is known about Theodore until he and Martha Alice Thompson were married in Brownsville, Linn County, Oregon on April 18, 1869. It might be assumed that Theodore followed The Oregon Trail to Linn County, Oregon. Perhaps he passed through Canyon County, Idaho, where he later returned to settle.
Martha was born in Adel, Iowa November 18, 1849 or 1850, a daughter of Enoch and Mary A. Kinsey Thompson. Martha and her family were living in Adel, Iowa for the 1860 Federal Census. In 1862, when Martha was twelve, the family" crossed the plains” by wagon train, traveling first to California, then on to Linn County, Oregon.
Theodore, Martha and their three month old child, Ernest, were living on the John Thomas ranch in Canyon County, Idaho Territory, for the 1870 Census. Theodore was listed as ”works on farm,” and Martha was listed as “Mattie” and “house keeper.”
By 1885, Theodore had purchased a land patent for 123.06 acres in Canyon County, Idaho, part of the Homestead Act of May 20,1862. He and Martha had eight children by now. As only one of his sons became a farmer, it can be assumed that well before 1885 Theodore was more than a laborer on someone else's ranch. By 1893, and likely before, the family was living in the town of Caldwell, and the last child had been born. All of the children attended
the public schools, and the six youngest attended the College of Idaho, which was established in the late 1890’s in Caldwell.
During the years he lived in Caldwell, Theodore made many, extended summer prospecting trips to Alaska, leaving his ranch in the hands of an overseer. On June 7, 1899, the North West Mounted Police recorded T. W. Boone of Caldwell Idaho, as arriving on boat #92 and entering the Yukon.
By the 1910 census, Theodore was living in Homedale, Owyhee County, Idaho, just over the southern border of Canyon County. This was a well known and profitable silver mining area. Theodore was listed as divorced. Martha was still living in Caldwell, and was listed as head of household and a widow. It is certain that she was not a widow, and doubtful that he was divorced.
Theodore died November 2, 1917, in Tulare, California. He had been living there with his oldest surviving daughter, Gertrude Boone Beatty, her husband and their two young children. Theodore is buried in the Tulare Cemetery, East Block 10, Lot 3, Grave 4. There is no stone or marker of any kind.
By the 1930’s, Martha was making many, extended visits to Southern California where several of her daughters and grandchildren lived or, at least, wintered. Martha was almost 93 when she died on November 17, 1942, in Los Angeles. She had been living with her youngest child, Florence and her husband, Oliver Burns. Martha was buried in the Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho. Her lovely stone marker says “MOTHER MARTHA A. BOONE
1849-1942.”
Theodore and Martha had thirteen children, eleven of whom lived to adulthood. Ten of their children married, but only six had children of their own, and three of those six had only one child. The remarkable proliferation of direct Daniel Boone descendants slowed to a mere trickle with Theodore and Martha's brood.
One of Theodore and Martha’s children was my grandmother, Minnie Boone Ingersoll. She and her twin, May, were born in 1882. May’s only child was Carolyn Schmidt Ossipoff. My father, Willard Bowman Ingersoll was Minnie’s only child.
Geraldine F. Ingersoll
GFJay@aol.com