John Filson/ Boone Swiftest Tall Tales John Filson, an opportunistic investor, land speculator, and entrepreneur, created this myth and many others in a book, The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke, published five years after his death in 1788. The book included an account of Indian Nations inhabiting within the limits of the thirteen United States, their manners and customs, and reflections of their origin. It told readers that there were no Indians living in Kentucky, they were located in the other states. Filson emphasized that the Cherokee and other Nations had no valid claim to Kentucky because it was originally settled by an ancient white race that greatly predated the Indians. Ironically, the very people Filson claimed did not live in Kentucky killed him. John Filson was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, around 1747. He was the son of Davison Filson, also of Chester County. He attended the West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland, and studied with the Reverend Samuel Finley, afterwards president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton). Heitmans Historical Register of Colonial Officers reports a John Filson served as an Ensign in Montgomerys Pennsylvania Battalion of the Flying Camp and was taken prisoner at Fort Washington on 16 November 1776, during the Battle of New York. He worked as a schoolteacher and surveyor in Pennsylvania until 1782 or 1783, when he acquired over 13,000 acres of western lands and moved to Kentucky. He settled in Lexington, taught school, surveyed land claims, and traveled the region interviewing the settlers and leading citizens. He wrote The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke during this period, and traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, to have it published in the summer of 1784. He also had a Map of Kentucke engraved and printed in Philadelphia. The edition, including both book and map, consisted of 1,500 copies and was priced at $1.50. The map was reprinted several times before 1793. Filsons plan for a second edition, to be endorsed by George Washington, fell through. The book was almost immediately translated into French and re-published in Paris (1785) and somewhat later a German edition appeared (Leipzig, 1790). The appendix relating the adventures of Daniel Boone was extremely popular, and was referenced by (among others) Lord Byron in Don Juan. Gilbert Imlay reprinted Filsons entire work, along with other material, in A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America (volume II, published in London and New York in 1793). He left in manuscript A Diary of a Journey from Philadelphia to Vincennes, Indiana, in 1785; An Account of a Trip by Land from Vincennes, hid., to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1785; A Journal of Two Voyages by Water from Vincennes to Louisville, and an account of an attempted voyage in 1786. See Life and Writings of John Filson, by R. T. Durrett (Louisville, 1884). After spending several years in Kentucky teaching school, surveying, trying (unsuccessfully) to start a seminary, and becoming embroiled in numerous lawsuits and financial difficulties, he purchased from Mathias Denman a one third interest in an 800 acre tract at the junction of the Ohio and Licking rivers, the future site of Cincinnati, which he called Losantiville, a name formed by Filson from the Latin os, mouth, the Greek anti, opposite, and the French ville, City, from its position opposite the mouth of the Licking river. Filsons survey and plan of the town survives in the layout of modern downtown Cincinnati. General Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Territory, later changed the name of Losantiville to Cincinnati in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of Revolutionary War officers founded by George Washington. While on a surveying expedition near the Great Miami River, he disappeared, October 1, 1788, when the party was attacked by hostile Shawnees, and his body was never found. After his disappearance his partners, Denman and Patterson, to Israel Ludlow, transferred his interest in the site of Cincinnati and his heirs never reaped any benefit from the subsequent increase in the value of the land. He never married and left no direct descendants. The Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky is named for him. John Filson is the first person known to have referenced the mine following Swifts death. In 1788, Filson claimed a tract of land supposed to have included a silver mine worked by a certain man named Swift. Filson disappeared, taking with him any knowledge he may have had as to the mines location. Kentucky pioneer James Harrod may also have believed in Swifts silver mine. According to Harrods wife, a man named Bridges claimed to have found the mine, and asked Harrod for his help in developing it. Despite the fact that Harrod and Bridges had a dispute over land some years previous, these two and another man entered the wilderness of Kentucky in 1792,purportedly in search of the mine. Harrod did not return from the trip, and although his body was never found, his wife maintained that Bridges had used the story of the mine to lure him into the woods to murder him. When Judge John Haywood was working on a history of the area around Clear Creek in Kentucky, he observed two ancient furnaces that he believed may have been used by Swift. In 1854, Professor David Dale Owen was dispatched to Bell County, Kentucky as part of a geological survey of the state. As part of the survey, Owen examined a location reputed by the locals to be the site of Swifts silver mine. Guided by an explorer named Benjamin Herndon, Owen examined the area and found that it contained some accidental minerals sparingly disseminated, such as sulphuret of Zinc and lead – which proved on examination to be hydrated silicate of alumina. Owens survey did not find any significant deposits of silver ore in the area. Filsons book was widely printed and circulated in England, France, and Germany as a way to entice Europeans to immigrate to the United States and settle in Kentucky. To further allure them to this new land of opportunity, Filson created a story about John Swift and his lost silver mine. This story emphasized that Kentucky was a land filled with riches just waiting to be taken. There is the question of Swift himself. No proof exists that there ever was a John or Jonathan Swift who mined silver in Kentucky. (James Dougherty gives alternate first names of George, William, and Tom.)The man many considered to be the Jonathan Swift of legend is known to have been alive many years after the purported death of the fabled miner.Nothing is known of this mans ancestry, and what little is known about him personally has been handed down through tradition. If the birth date given in Swifts journal is to be believed, the known Swift would have been an incredible 112 years old at the time of his death. If there was an actual Jonathan Swift, there is some disagreement as to his character. Tradition holds that he was an established Indian trader, but some historians came to believe he was a pirate who preyed on Spanish merchants and made his frequent trips into the wilderness not to retrieve his treasure, but to hide and coin it. A resident of Laurel County, Kentucky named William Reams held that following Swifts visit to the mine in 1769 – the last trip recorded in the journal – he and his accomplices agreed not to claim any of the treasure they had hidden in the area until 1790. When they did return, Swift was overcome by the sight of the wealth and killed the other members of the party while they slept. Following this action, he was struck blind and unable to recover the treasure. Nickell contends that the pirate theory raises more questions than it answers. He contends that a journey into Kentucky was a dangerous undertaking, and that Swift could just as easily set up a clandestine coining operation in the backwoods of Virginia or aboard his ship. He also questions why Swift would take the time to produce such a detailed journal to cover his story.The legend of Swifts silver mine is based on accounts given in the journal of an Englishman named Jonathan Swift. Swift claimed to have preceded Daniel Boone into Kentucky, coming to the region in 1760 on a series of mining expeditions.The journal recounts how a wounded bear led Swift to a vein of silver ore in a cave, and how that for the next nine years, he made annual treks back to the site of the mine, carrying out silver bars and minted coins. An article in an 1886 edition of Harpers Magazine tells how Swift supposedly buried a good deal of the treasure at various locations: John Swift said he made silver in large quantities, burying some thirty thousand dollars and crowns on a large creek; fifteen thousand dollars a little way off, near some trees, which were duly marked; a prize of six thousand dollars close by the fork of a white oak; and three thousand dollars in the rocks of a rock house: all which, in the light of these notes, it is allowed any one who will to hunt for. ” Later, amid numerous obstacles that included Indian attacks, and a mutiny by his crew, Swift walled up the cave and discontinued his mining operation. He left his journal in the possession of a Mrs. Renfro, the widow of one Joseph Renfro of Beans Station, Tennessee, in whom he was purported to have a romantic interest. Before Swift could return to the mine, he was stricken blind and was unable to locate it again. The publication of Daniel Boones Adventures in 1784 served to immortalize Boone the frontiersman as an American legend and a true folk hero. Published by John Filson on Boones 50th birthday, the narrative describes in Boones own words his exploits in the Kentucky wilderness from May, 1769 to October of 1782. The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone was subsequently published in The American Magazine in 1787 and again in a book by George Imlay in 1793. The latter publication is the source wherein we present the complete text. Although the stereotype exists in some characterizations even to this day; Daniel Boone did not wear a coonskin cap! Like many other long-hunters of his day, Daniel wore a wide-brimmed felt or beaver hat, much like the Quaker style hats worn by men in Pennsylvania where he was born and spent his early years. One can easily understand why he would not have chosen a fur cap of any kind. As a hunter Daniel spent months in the woods, in all manner of weather. When you think of aiming and firing a .50 caliber long-rifle with either the sun in your eyes or rain running down your face, the image of a coonskin cap on one’s head should dim considerably. So, how did such an image originate and what has kept it alive for the past 150 years? As famous as Daniel Boone was in his lifetime and continues today, he wasn’t that much different in exploits from several other early explorers of what was then the “western frontier.” Men such as Henry Skaggs, James and Robert McAfee, James Harrod, Simon Kenton, Thomas Bullitt, Hancock Taylor, James Douglas and James Smith all explored what would become Kentucky, many of them before Daniel ever set foot in the state. What Daniel Boone had that none of the others had (to anywhere near the same degree) was a good public relations agent – a roll that continues by others even to this day. In 1783, John Filson was a 30-year-old schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, with a romantic notion of the West. Leaving Pittsburgh on a barge, he struck out down the Ohio River to Kentucky. There’s fairly solid evidence that one of his objectives was land speculation in the new territory, a “profession” that was widely held by those early settlers fortunate enough to have the necessary cash. In his book Daniel Boone John Mack Faragher describes Filson as, “…an unlikely pioneer, and he comes down to us a folk stereotype, the pedantic schoolmaster, a character perfected in Washington Irving’s portrayal of Ichabod Crane. The stories people told about him made him seem the fool --- tumbling clumsily off his wagon, being swindled in trade by an old trapper who passed off muskrats as beaver, the butt of crude frontier jokes and pranks.” Nevertheless, Filson persevered in his quest to seek out prominent men and interview them for his book about Kentucky. Filson met and spent considerable time with Daniel Boone and his family. No doubt Daniel took the opportunity to regale Filson with stories of his rich adventures over the previous 15 years in the Kentucky wilderness. One can almost imagine the wide-eyed Filson frantically scribbling notes as Daniel described the early settlement of Boonesborough, the capture of Jemima Boone, Elizabeth and Frances Callaway by Indians or his own capture and short lived existence with the Shawnees. In May of 1784 Filson left Kentucky to arrange the publication of his book. Printing of The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke – to which is added An Appendix, Containing The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon was announced on October 22, 1784 – Daniel’s fiftieth birthday. The first edition of some 1,500 copies was only moderately successful in America; however, when the book was translated into French and German, Daniel became an overnight sensation, celebrated in Europe as a true “natural man.” Later editions in England and Ireland led to an even larger image of Daniel Boone. Although there were many critics of Filson’s work, Daniel is reported to have described events in the book as “All true! Every word true! Not a lie in it!” Regardless, by the late 1780’s Daniel Boone was an international celebrity. A more serious biography of Daniel came in 1833, 13 years after his death, with the publication of Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone, the First Settler of Kentucky by Timothy Flint. This work was also laced with wild exaggeration of Daniel’s life and adventures. One such story had Daniel swinging on vines through the woods in a Tarzan-like maneuver to escape the Indians who had just killed his brother Edward. However the book served to further propel his legendary status. Few people in American history have enjoyed the legacy that Daniel Boone has, and there is no doubt he deserves much of the honor and awe he’s received. He was, after all, a true frontiersman and an explorer who exhibited a degree of courage, intelligence and tenacity few men possessed. But we must remember that a good deal of what’s perceived as accurate history is not. For a century and a half hyperbole, rumor and Hollywood make-believe have all contributed to this amalgamation of how we perceive Daniel Boone. But please, as you think of him, don’t envision a coonskin cap. Unfortunately, all of Filsons myths about the native people of Kentucky were perpetuated and elaborated upon in subsequent books on the history of the state such as Lewis Collins 1847 Historical Sketches of Kentucky, Richard Collins and Lewis Collins 1874 History of Kentucky, Bennett Youngs 1910 The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky, and W. D. Funkhousers and W. S. Webbs 1928 Ancient Life in Kentucky. To make matters worse, these myths are still being taught in some quarters of the state today.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 23:16:50 +0000
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