I'm a Daughter of the American Revolution!

I recently learned that my application was approved and that very soon, I'll become an official Daughter of the American Revolution (DAR)!

You may be wondering, "What is the DAR"? The DAR, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America's future through better education for children.  Any woman over 18 years old who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution is eligible for membership

My journey to discovering my patriot began about 10 years ago as I became interested in genealogy and began researching my heritage through the website, ancestry.com. My desire at that point was really driven by a motivation to uncover the history of relatively recent generations and I had no idea that I'd uncover an opportunity to look back nearly 300 years and discover that one of my ancestors was connected to an important part of early American history! 

My patriot's name is John Wilcoxson and his wife was Sarah Boone, an older sister of the famed pioneer and Kentucky frontiersman, Daniel Boone. Because of Daniel's notoriety and contributions to early American settlement, there are a lot of published books that include family history and also historic sites that have been preserved and are open to the public, including:

1. Daniel Boone Homestead in Birdsboro, PA (which was built 1730 when my ancestor, Sarah Boone was 6 years old).
2. Daniel Boone Heritage Trail, which highlights the Boone Family movement from Berks County, PA to what is now Davie County, NC (John and Sarah Wilcoxson made their family home in present day Davie County - previously called Rowan County, NC). Many of sites connected to Daniel Boone in NC are listed here!
3. Boone's Cave Park which is believed to be the cave where 15-year-old Daniel Boone and the entire Boone family hid to wait out their first winter and escape Native Americans in 1751.
4. And finally, the Fort Boonesborough State Park and History Museum in Richmond, KY, where Daniel Boone took his family to live after leaving Davie County, NC as he made his impact on settling the frontier! 

I'm already beginning to plan a family trip for us to hit all of these sites/areas to experience life as it would have been for our ancestors!

John Wilcoxson was born 6 September 1720 in Chester County, PA, died 26 February 1789 in Rowan County, PA and was buried in the Joppa Cemetery, Mocksville, Rowan County, NC; a memorial in the cemetery confirms the location of John Wilcoxson's grave.  

On 29 May 1742, John Married Sarah Boone (18 June 1724 - 1815), a daughter of Squire and Sarah (Morgan) Boone in Exeter, Berks County, PA. 

The Boone family were members of the Quaker "Friends Society".  When Sarah Boone married John Wilcoxson, who was not a member of the Friends, Sarah's was shunned and her father, Squire Boone was reprimanded by the society.  The entire family ended up moving from PA to the banks of the Yadkin River in North Carolina and eventually became Baptists. 

Eleven children of Squire and Sarah (Morgan) Boone all moved to present day Davie County. They were Sarah (Boone) Wilcockson and her husband, John Wilcoxson, Israel, Samuel, Jonathan, Elizabeth (Boone) Grant, Daniel, Mary (Boone) Bryan, George, Edward, Squire (Jr.), and Hannah (Boone) Stewart Pennington.

John Wilcoxson was a member of the North Carolina Assembly in 1771; he took his seat on Monday, November 25. 1771 (Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Vol. IX, page 143).

In the Revolutionary War, he served in the North Carolina Continental Line, Warrant # 1843. Additional records can be found in the Missouri Historical Review for October 1908, page 34. and Wisconsin Historical Society Papers: Draper MS, 1C 96; 00 203. 

The last known record of John Wilcoxson was a deed of land from John to his son, William Wilcoxson, in Rowan County, dated 26 February 1798, he probably died soon after this date (It is said that John Wilcoxson was killed by Indians, but that has not been confirmed) and was buried in Joppa Cemetery with other members of the Wilcoxson and Boone families. 

The following description of John Wilcoxson was contributed by his great-grandchildren in the "Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton Co, IL, 1890": "John Wilcoxson settled in North Carolina, where he was occupied as a farmer and mechanic. He is reputed to have been the possessor of marked genius, and was endowed with strong faculties and a generous heart."

Sarah Wilcoxson and her husband, John were said to live in Boonesborough, Kentucky for a time and Sarah is believed to have died at her daughter, Elizabeth Cutbirth's home in 1815 in Madison County, Kentucky. 

Sarah's brother, Daniel Boone, the frontiersman became the great explorer and pioneer settler of the trans-Appalachian American West and lived a fascinating and adventurous life.