General Notes

JESSE BOONE,  oldest child of Israel Boone, was born in 1748, either in
Pennsylvania or Virginia, died in McMinn County, Tennessee, about 1830;
buried inthe family graveyard at the old Homestead where he had lived,
near Athens, Tennessee.
Married about 1772, in Rowan County, North Carolina, Sarah McMahan,
daughter of James McMahan of Rowan County.
From selected portions in Dr. Hodges' book, including additional quotes
from Dr. Draper, in his "Notes on JesseBoone", page 197, the following
is noted:
"Jesse Boone was a son of IsraelBoone, a brother of Col. Daniel Boone";
and from notes left by Daniel's son Nathan and wife, "Young Jesse was
mainly raised by Daniel Boone and wife".
Daniel had married only 2 months after his brother Israel's death.  And
Jesse'sgranddaughter, Mrs. Sarah Henderson said, "His parents dying when
Jesse wasyoung, he lived in Daniel Boone's family".
Jesse was known to have gone into Kentucky a time or two with Daniel and
his brother Squire Jr., to help with supplies.
Jesse is said to have been about 5 feet, 8 to 10 inches tall.
According to the findings of Dr. Hodges, Jesse first entered land in
Burke County in1777, and by 1801, he had entered four tracts.  Burke
County was just beingformed in 1777, but it was not uncommon for persons
wishing to settle in a new county, to go a year or two in advance of its
establishment, and "squat" onthe portion which they wished to occupy for
a home site.  The land grants are recorded in the Raleigh Land Grant
Office.
Jesse Boone raised his family of 8 children in Burke County, but soon
after 1810, he moved to the Watauga territory of North Carolina, settling
near Coffey's Gap of the Blue Ridge, nowknow as Watauga County, the
County Seat of which is Boone.  A creek flowing through that section into
the Watauga River was named Boone's Fork.  (Dr. Hodges).
Jesse Boone was always an active worker in the church, having been chosen
clerk and "Dacon" at different times in the old Yadkin Baptist church in
Burke County.  The church in the Watauga section to which they moved
after 1810, was called the Three Forks Baptist Church.  It had been
founded in 1790, and its old Minutes, still preserved, contain many
entries concerning the Boone's.  But after several controversies with the
Three Forks Church, a short time before leaving North Carolina, Jesse was
said to have been excommunicatedbecause of a remark he made.  This may
have been the reason he decided to make another move, as he was quite
advanced in years at the time.
He sold his farm in 1823, and moved to McMinn County, Tennessee where he
built with his own hands, his last home, a large room twenty by twenty
feet with a lean-to.  The house had a large stone fireplace that would
take a log 6 feet long, and it was equipped with pot hangers and all that
went with a good fireplace in those days.  Behind the house was a small
cabin for their faithful old Negro woman, Dinah, who had come with them
from Burke County, North Carolina, and hadjoined the Three Forks Church
with them.  She lived to be more than a hundred years old.
The church in McMinn County was known as the Zion Hill Baptist Church,
and is located about 5 miles east of Athens, Tennessee.  It was organized
in 1822, by a group of pioneers standing on the banks of Chester Creek.
They then cut logs and put up the first church building.  The Zion Hill
Church is the oldest church in McMinn County and is still active, and the
Cemetery well-kept.
Sometime after the move to McMinn County, Tennessee, Jesse Boonecame
forward to the Church and explained to them the situation between him and
the Three Forks Church, and the people at the Zion Hill Church decided
that he had been wrongfully excluded, and they wrote his former church
requesting a letter, but the Church refused to send one.  However, the
Zion Hill Church was more lenient, and voted to accept Jesse a