author
John Filson
d. 1788
An early chronicler of Kentucky’s frontier, this surveyor and schoolteacher helped shape how the region was imagined in the young United States. His lively 1784 book introduced many readers to Kentucky and included one of the earliest published accounts of Daniel Boone.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, around 1747, John Filson worked as a schoolteacher, surveyor, and writer during the early westward expansion of the United States. He spent time in Kentucky in the early 1780s, where he gathered material that would become the work he is best known for.
In 1784 he published The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke, a book that blended history, description, and promotion. It helped build national interest in Kentucky, and its appendix, The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon, became especially famous and widely read. Filson also produced an important map of Kentucky, adding to his reputation as one of the first historians of the region.
Filson later became involved in land speculation and surveying around the Ohio country and is also remembered as one of the founders of the settlement that became Cincinnati. He disappeared in 1788 during a trip near the Great Miami River, and is generally believed to have died that year.