John Filson, the first Kentucky historian, was born at East
Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, in 1747. He was educated at the academy of
the Rev. Samuel Finley, at Nottingham, Maryland. Finley was afterwards
president of Princeton University. John Filson looked askance at the
Revolutionary War, and came out to Kentucky about 1783. In Lexington
he conducted a school for a year, and spent his leisure hours in
collecting data for a history of Kentucky. He interviewed Daniel
Boone, Levi Todd, James Harrod, and many other Kentucky pioneers; and
the information they gave him was united with his own observations,
forming the material for his book. Filson did not remain in Kentucky
much over a year for, in 1784, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and
persuaded James Adams, the town's chief printer, to issue his
manuscript as _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of
Kentucke_; and then he continued his journey to Philadelphia, where
his map of the three original counties of Kentucky--Jefferson,
Fayette, and Lincoln--was printed and dedicated to General Washington
and the United States Congress. This Wilmington edition of Filson's
history is far and away the most famous history of Kentucky ever
published. Though it contained but 118 pages, one of the six extant
copies recently fetched the fabulous sum of $1,250--the highest price
ever paid for a Kentucky book. The little work was divided into two
parts, the first part being devoted to the history of the country, and
the second part was the first biography of Daniel Boone ever
published. Boone dictated this famous story of his life to the
Pennsylvania pedagogue, who put it into shape for publication, yet
several Western writers refer to it as "Boone's autobiography." Boone
is the author's central hero straight through the work, and he is
happier when discussing him than in relating the country's meager
history. Filson's _Kentucky_ was translated into French by M. Parraud,
and issued at Paris in 1785; and in the same year a German version was
published. Gilbert Imlay incorporated it into the several editions of
his _Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North
America_ (London, 1793). And several subsequent Western writers also
reproduced it in their works, seldom giving Filson the proper credit
for it. The last three or four years of his life John Filson spent in
Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. He was one of the founders of
Cincinnati, which he named "Losantiville;" and a short time later, in
1788, he wandered into the Miami woods one day and was never seen
again. Col. Reuben T. Durrett, the Louisville historian, wrote his
biography, and established an historical organization, in 1884, which
he named the "Filson Club." Filson's fame is secure in Kentucky, and
Colonel Durrett and his work have made it so.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Life and Writings of John Filson_, by R. T.
Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1884); _Kentuckians in History and
Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907); _The First
Map of Kentucky_, by P. Lee Phillips (Washington, 1908).