John Filson publishes The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke

Map of Kentucky drawn by John Filson, 1784, Library of Congress

John Filson was Kentucky’s first well documented historian. He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania around the year 1747. He worked as a schoolteacher for some time, then eventually purchased 12,000 acres worth of land in the region that would soon become the commonwealth of Kentucky. He worked in the area as a surveyor, arriving in 1783 and publishing his book and accompanying map a year later. Filson’s book published the first biographical information, lore, and legend of explorer Daniel Boone, whom Filson encountered and interviewed during his time in Kentucky. Filson’s publication also widely circulated the myth of the area as a “Dark and Bloody Ground,” benefitting colonial settlers’ claims to territory and encouraging European settlement of the area.