Early Meetings, Activities, and Members
The Filson Club members met at Reuben Durrett's home at 202 E. Chestnut at Brook Street in Louisville from 1884-1913. Here Durrett maintained his own extensive historical collection, visible in the image of his library, the meeting place of the Filson Club. The house, originaly built for Dr. Thomas Edward Wilson and his wife, Caroline Bullitt, was desigend by noted Kentucky architect Henry Whitestone some time after 1856.
At Club meetings, members shared their own research and writings on topics of Kentucky history, mainly focusing on family history and pioneer times; some of this research was given greater public access via printing. Durrett led the Filson's publication efforts with his monograph John Filson, the first historian of Kentucky. An account of his life and writings, principally from original sources published by John P. Morton & Co. in Louisville in 1884.
Despite the group of Club founders being all male, the Filson did have early female members. One of note is Mary Cecil Cantrill (1948-1928). Cantrill was a controversial figure at the Chicago World's Fair, when the Board of Lady Managers gave her, a white woman who was a Commissioner-At-Large from Kentucky, control over African American women's exhibits. African American exhibits were later incorporated into the State's exhibits. Cantrill was also a financial supporter of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association's lobbying efforts in the 1910s. Cantrill was married to James E. Cantrill, a lawyer, judge, and Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky.
In June 1891, members of the Filson Club determined to celebrate the centenary of Kentucky statehood on June 1, 1892. Although initial plans for the celebration included the construction of a pioneer fort in a Louisville park in order to displaying artifacts documenting Kentucky's pioneer times, this was abandoned in favor of a historical address by Durrett, a poem by Kentucky poet laureate Henry T. Stanton, held at Macauley's Theater, and a banquet, held at the Galt House.