[CONTENTS]

John Filson[1]
The Air and Climate of Kentucky[2]
Quadrupeds[3]
Boone's First View of Kentucky[4]
John Bradford[5]
Notes on Kentucky. Section I[6]
Matthew Lyon[8]
Reply to John Randolph of Roanoke[9]
Gilbert Imlay[11]
The Flight of a Florid Lover[13]
Adam Rankin[17]
On the Extent of the Gospel Offer[18]
Upon Marriage by License[18]
Thomas Johnson[19]
Extempore Grace[21]
Danville[21]
Kentucky[21]
Hudson, wife-murderer[22]
Parson Rice[22]
The Poet's Epitaph[22]
George Beck[23]
Fifteenth Ode of Horace[24]
Anacreon's Fifty-fifth Ode[25]
Anacreon's First Ode[26]
Humphrey Marshall[26]
Primeval Kentucky[28]
Stephen T. Badin[30]
Epicedium[31]
Charles Caldwell[34]
General Greene's Early Life[35]
Allan B. Magruder[37]
Citizen Genet and Jefferson[38]
Henry Clay[39]
Reply to John Randolph[42]
Address to La Fayette[43]
John J. Audubon[45]
Indian Summer on the Ohio[48]
Horace Holley[52]
Mr. Clay and Col. Meade[53]
Constantine S. Rafinesque[56]
Geological Annals[58]
Mann Butler[59]
Pioneer Visitors[60]
Zachary Taylor[62]
A Letter to Henry Clay[63]
Daniel Drake[65]
Mayslick, Kentucky, in 1800[67]
Mary A. Holley[69]
Texas Women[70]
John J. Crittenden[71]
Eulogy upon Justice McKinley[72]
John M. Harney[74]
Echo and the Lover[76]
The Wippowil[77]
Sylphs Bathing[78]
George Robertson[78]
Anniversary Address[80]
Early Struggles[80]
Literary Fame[81]
Shadrach Penn[82]
The Coming of George D. Prentice[83]
William O. Butler[84]
The Boatman's Horn[86]
Hew Ainslie[87]
The Bourocks o' Bargeny[89]
The Haughs o' Auld Kentuck[89]
The Ingle Side[90]
The Hint o' Hairst[91]
James G. Birney[91]
The No-Government Doctrines[93]
Thomas Corwin[95]
The Mexican War[96]
Henry B. Bascom[98]
A Clergyman's View of Niagara[99]
James T. Morehead[102]
John Finley[103]
Lewis Collins[104]
Preface to the First Edition[105]
Julia A. Tevis[107]
The May Queen[108]
Robert J. Breckinridge[112]
Sanctification[113]
Caroline L. Hentz[114]
Beside the Long Moss Spring[115]
John P. Durbin[117]
Impressions of London[118]
Fortunatus Cosby, Jr.[119]
Fireside Fancies[120]
Thomas F. Marshall[123]
Temperance: an Address[124]
Jefferson J. Polk[126]
The Battle of the Boards[127]
George D. Prentice[129]
The Closing Year[131]
On Revisiting Brown University[133]
Paragraphs[135]
Robert M. Bird[135]
Nick of the Woods[137]
John A. McClung[139]
The Women of Bryant's Station[140]
James O. Pattie[142]
The Santa Fe Country[143]
William F. Marvin[145]
Epigram[146]
The First Roses of Spring[146]
Song[147]
Elisha Bartlett[147]
John Browdie of "Nicholas Nickleby"[148]
Samuel D. Gross[150]
Kentucky[151]
The Death of Henry Clay[152]
Thomas H. Chivers[152]
The Death of Alonzo[154]
Georgia Waters[156]
Jefferson Davis[156]
From the Farewell Speech[158]
William D. Gallagher[160]
The Mothers of the West[162]
Thomas H. Shreve[163]
I Have No Wife[164]
Ormsby M. Mitchel[166]
Astronomical Evidences of God[167]
Albert T. Bledsoe[169]
Seven Crises Caused the Civil War[171]
Richard H. Menefee[173]
Kentucky: a Toast[174]
George W. Cutter[176]
The Song of Steam[177]
Mary P. Shindler[179]
The Faded Flower[180]
Martin J. Spalding[181]
A Bishop's Arrival[182]
John W. Audubon[185]
Los Angeles[186]
Tulare Valley[186]
Christmas in 'Frisco[187]
Adrien E. Rouquette[187]
Souvenir de Kentucky[189]
Emily V. Mason[191]
The Death of Lee[192]
Edmund Flagg[194]
The Ancient Mounds of the West[195]
Catherine A. Warfield[197]
Camilla Bouverie's Diary[198]
A Pledge to Lee[199]
J. Ross Browne[200]
Lapdogs in Germany[201]
Robert Morris[205]
The Level and the Square[206]
Amelia B. Welby[207]
The Rainbow[209]
On the Death of a Sister Poet[210]
Charles W. Webber[211]
Trouting on Jessup's River[212]
Lewis J. Frazee[216]
Havre[217]
Theodore O'Hara[218]
The Bivouac of the Dead[220]
The Old Pioneer[223]
Second Love[225]
A Rollicking Rhyme[225]
The Fame of William T. Barry[226]
Sarah T. Bolton[228]
Paddle Your Own Canoe[229]
John C. Breckinridge[231]
Henry Clay[232]
James Weir, Sr.[234]
Simon Kenton[235]
Mary E. W. Betts[237]
A Kentuckian Kneels to None but God[238]
Reuben T. Durrett[239]
La Salle: Discoverer of Louisville[241]
Richard H. Collins[244]
Preface to the Second Edition[245]
Annie C. Ketchum[247]
April Twenty-Sixth[248]
Francis H. Underwood[250]
Aloysius and Mr. Fenton[252]
An Amazing Prophecy[254]
Stephen C. Foster[255]
My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night[256]
Zachariah F. Smith[258]
Early Kentucky Doctors[259]
John A. Broadus[261]
Oxford University[263]
Mary J. Holmes[265]
The Schoolmaster[266]
Rosa V. Jeffrey[269]
A Glove[270]
A Memory[271]
Sallie R. Ford[272]
Our Minister Marries[273]
John E. Hatcher[276]
Newspaper Paragraphs[277]
William C. Watts[279]
A Wedding and a Dance[280]
J. Proctor Knott[282]
From the Duluth Speech[283]
George G. Vest[285]
Jefferson's Passports to Immortality[286]
Eulogy of the Dog[286]
William P. Johnston[288]
Battle of Shiloh—Sunday Morning[289]
Will Wallace Harney[291]
The Stab[292]
J. Stoddard Johnston[292]
"Captain Moll"[293]
Julia S. Dinsmore[295]
Love Among the Roses[295]
Henry T. Stanton[297]
The Moneyless Man[299]
"A Mensá Et Thoro"[300]
A Special Plea[301]
Sweetheart[301]
Sarah M. Piatt[303]
In Clonmel Parish Churchyard[304]
A Word with a Skylark[305]
The Gift of Tears[306]
Boyd Winchester[307]
Lake Geneva[308]
Thomas Green[310]
The Conspirators[312]
Forceythe Willson[313]
The Old Sergeant[314]
W. C. P. Breckinridge[319]
Is Not This the Carpenter's Son[321]
Basil W. Duke[323]
Morgan, the Man[324]
Henry Watterson[325]
Old London Town[327]
Gilderoy W. Griffin[331]
The Gypsies[332]
John L. Spalding[334]
An Ivory Paper-Knife[335]
Nathaniel S. Shaler[336]
The Orphan Brigade[337]
Tom Marshall[339]
Lincoln in Kentucky[341]
William L. Visscher[342]
Proem[343]
Bennett H. Young[344]
Prehistoric Weapons[345]
James H. Mulligan[348]
In Kentucky[350]
Over the Hill to Hustonville[351]
Nelly M. McAffee[353]
Finale[353]
Mary F. Childs[356]
De Namin' ob de Twins[357]
William T. Price[359]
The Offenbach and Gilbert Operas[361]
George M. Davie[363]
"Frater, Ave Atque Vale"[363]
Hadrian, Dying, to His Soul[364]
John Uri Lloyd[364]
"Let's Have The Mercy Text"[366]

[KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN LETTERS]

[JOHN FILSON]

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).

THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY

[From The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky (Wilmington, Delaware, 1784)]

This country is more temperate and healthy than the other settled parts of America. In summer it has not the sandy heats which Virginia and Carolina experience, and receives a fine air from its rivers. In winter, which at most lasts three months, commonly two, and is but seldom severe, the people are safe in bad houses; and the beasts have a goodly supply without fodder. The winter begins about Christmas, and ends about the first of March, at farthest does not exceed the middle of that month. Snow seldom falls deep or lies long. The west winds often bring storms and the east winds clear the sky; but there is no steady rule of weather in that respect, as in the northern states. The west winds are sometimes cold and nitrous. The Ohio running in that direction, and there being mountains on that quarter, the westerly winds, by sweeping along their tops, in the cold regions of the air, and over a long tract of frozen water, collect cold in their course, and convey it over the Kentucky country; but the weather is not so intensely severe as these winds bring with them in Pennsylvania. The air and seasons depend very much on the winds as to heat and cold, dryness and moisture.