The Filleys

Book excerpt: The Filleys: 350 Years of American Entrepreneurial Spirit provides snapshots into American entrepreneurship history for a broad readership through a series of biographic essays. These stories, centering on the accomplishments of one family, provide vivid insights into entrepreneurialism in America, spatially across the country and temporally over three centuries. Author Don Southerton guides the reader through multiple generations of the Filley family beginning in 17th century Puritan New England. The saga includes the rise of the Yankee trader, land speculation, and the development of American manufacturing. The Filley business endeavors represent a slice of the American entrepreneurial experience. Moreover, this experience was shared by many thousands of other Americans whose families can be traced to colonial times. Together, they raised families, embraced capitalism, and built this country. The portraits of people and events in this saga provide us with a revealing and instructive glimpse into times long gone, and allow us to connect vicariously to a part of our collective past.