TEACHER'S GUIDE TO
History and Folklife of the Kentucky Frontier
Lesson 2: John Filson's Description of Kentucky in 1784
| First published in 1784, John Filson's volume on Kentucky provided would-be settlers with a general view of the entire Kentucky country. It contained information about the early exploration of the area as well as descriptions of the region's rivers, soil, climate, animal and plant life, and inhabitants. The book also included a map of Kentucky, a fictionalized biographical sketch of Daniel Boone, and a number of other appendices Filson believed would be valuable to those considering a move to Kentucky. Although early editions of Filson's history and map are very rare, recent facsimiles of both may be available in county libraries across Kentucky. |
RIGHTS OF LAND THE proprietors of the Kentucke lands ob-tain their patents from Virginia, and their rights areof three kinds, viz. Those which arise from military service, from settlement and pre-emtion, or from warrants from the treasury. The military rights are held by officers, or their representatives, as a reward for services done in one of the two last wars. The Settlement and pre-emption rights arise from occupation. Every man who, before March, 1780, had remained in the country one year, or raised a crop of corn, was allowed to have a settlement of four hundred acres, and a pre-emption adjoining it of one thousand acres. Every man who had only built a cabbin, or made any improvement by himself or others, was entitled to a pre-emption of one thousand acres where such improvement was made. In March, 1780, the settlement and pre-emption rights ceased, and treasury warrants were afterwards issued, authorizing their possessor to locate the quantity of land mentioned in them, wherever it could be found vacant in Virginia. The mode of procedure in these affairs may be instructive to the reader. After the entry is made in the land-office, there being one in each county, the person making the entry takes out a copy of the location, and proceeds to survey when he pleases. The plot and certificate of such survey must be returned to the office within three months after the survey is made, there to be recorded; and a copy of the record must be taken out in twelve months, after the return of the survey, and produced to the assistant register of the land-office in Kentucke, where it must lie six months, that prior locators may have time and opportunity to enter a caveat, and prove their better right. If no caveat is entered in that time, the plot and certificate are sent to the land-office at Richmond, in Virginia, and three months more are allowed to have the patent returned to the owner. The validity of the right of Virginia to this extensive western territory has been disputed by some, but without reason. The western boundary of that state, by charter, restricted by the treaty of Paris, in 1763, is fixed upon the Ohio River. She has purchased the soil from the Indians, has first settled it, and established wholesome laws for the regulation and government of the inhabitants; and therefore we conclude that the right of Virginia to Kentucke is as permanent as the independence of America.
from John Filson, The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucky: And an Essay Towards the Topography and Natural History of that Important Country....(Wilmington, 1784).
Using the excerpt from Filson's Discovery
1. Determine how Virginia obtained the Kentucky territory. 2. Discuss the various means by which Virginians might be entitled to land in Kentucky. 3. List the prescribed steps to register a land claim. 4. Write a brief essay or prepare an oral report concerning the problems Virginia's land policy imposed on emigrants to Kentucky. Discuss reasons why this land policy might complicate land claims and create conflict.5. Write a short description of your community that might convince people to move there.
This lesson plan comes from A Teacher's Guide to Pioneer Life in South Central Kentucky,
by Nancy Disher Baird and Carol Crowe-Carraco.