Meriwether Lewis
2nd Governor of Louisiana Territory
In office March 3, 1807 – October 11, 1809
Appointed by	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	James Wilkinson
Succeeded by	Benjamin Howard
Personal details
Born	(1774-08-18)August 18, 1774 Ivy, Colony of Virginia
Died	October 11, 1809(1809-10-11) (aged 35) Hohenwald, Tennessee
Spouse(s)	none
Occupation	explorer, soldier, politician
Signature

Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark. Their mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, establish trade and sovereignty over the natives near the Missouri River, and claim the Pacific Northwest and Oregon territory for the United States before European nations. They also collected scientific data, and information on indigenous nations.^[1] President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1806.^[2][3]

Biography[link]

Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in the present-day community of Ivy.^[4] He was the son of Lt. William Lewis of Locust Hill (1733 – November 17, 1779),^[5] who was of Welsh ancestry, and Lucy Meriwether (February 4, 1752 – September 8, 1837), daughter of Thomas Meriwether and Elizabeth Thornton who were both of English ancestry. (Thornton was the daughter of Francis Thornton and Mary Taliaferro). After his father died of pneumonia, he moved with his mother and stepfather Captain John Marks to Georgia in May 1780.^[6] They settled along the Broad River in the Goosepond Community within the Broad River Valley in Wilkes County (now Oglethorpe County).

During his time in Georgia, Lewis enhanced his skills as a hunter and outdoorsman. He would often venture out in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with only his dog, Seaman, to go hunting. Even at an early age, he was interested in natural history, which would develop into a lifelong passion. His mother taught him how to gather wild herbs for medicinal purposes. In the Broad River Valley, Lewis first dealt with American Indians. This was the traditional territory of the Cherokee, who resented encroachment by the colonists. Lewis seems to have been a champion for them among his own people. While in Georgia, he met Eric Parker, who encouraged him to travel. At thirteen, Lewis was sent back to Virginia for education by private tutors. His father's older brother Nicholas Lewis became his guardian.^[6] One of his tutors was Parson Matthew Maury, an uncle of Matthew Fontaine Maury. In 1793, Lewis graduated from Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University).

That year he joined the Virginia militia, and in 1794 he was sent as part of a detachment involved in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1795 Lewis joined the U.S. Army, commissioned as a Lieutenant, where he served until 1801. Among his commanding officers was William Clark, who would later become his companion in the Corps of Discovery.

On April 1, 1801, Lewis was appointed as an aide by President Thomas Jefferson, whom he knew through Virginia society in Albemarle County. Lewis resided in the presidential mansion, and frequently conversed with various prominent figures in politics, the arts and other circles.^[7] Originally, he was to provide information on the politics of the United States Army, which had seen an influx of Federalist officers as a result of John Adams's "midnight appointments".^[8] When Jefferson began to plan for an expedition across the continent, he chose Lewis to lead the expedition.

The Expedition[link]

Route of the expedition

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Jefferson wanted to get an accurate sense of the new land and its resources. The President also hoped to find a "direct and practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce with Asia."^[9] In addition, Jefferson placed special importance on declaring U.S. sovereignty over the Native Americans along the Missouri River.^{[10][11][12][13]}

The two-year exploration by Lewis and Clark was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States.^[9] They were accompanied by a fifteen-year-old Shoshone Indian woman, Sacagawea, the wife of a French-Canadian fur trader. After crossing the Rocky Mountains, the expedition reached the Pacific Ocean in the area of present-day Oregon (which lay beyond the nation's new boundaries) in November 1805. They returned in 1806, bringing with them an immense amount of information about the region as well as numerous plant and animal specimens. ^[14] They demonstrated the possibility of overland travel to the Pacific coast. They found Native Americans in the trans-Mississippi West accustomed to dealing with European traders and already connected to global markets. The success of their journey helped to strengthen the idea that United States territory was destined to reach all the way to the Pacific.^{[15] [16]}

Return and gubernatorial duties[link]

After returning from the expedition, Lewis received a reward of 1,600 acres (6.5 km²) of land. He also initially made arrangements to publish the Corp of Discovery journals, but had difficulty completing his writing. In 1807, Jefferson appointed him governor of the Louisiana Territory; he settled in St. Louis. He died in 1809 on his journey to deliver his journals to a Washington publisher.

Lewis' record as an administrator is mixed. He established roads and was a strong proponent of the fur trade. His position was to protect the western lands from encroachment,^[8] which was not favorable to the rush of settlers looking to open new lands for settlements. But due to his quarreling with local political leaders, controversy over his approvals of trading licenses, land grant politics, Indian depredations, excessive drinking and a slow-moving mail system, it appeared that Lewis was a poor administrator. He did not adequately keep in touch with his superiors in Washington.^[17]

Freemasonry[link]

Lewis was a Freemason, initiated, passed and raised in the "Door To Virtue Lodge No. 44" in Albemarle, Virginia, between 1796 and 1797.^[18] On August 2, 1808, Lewis and several of his acquaintances submitted a petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania requesting dispensation to establish a lodge in St. Louis. Lewis was nominated and recommended to serve as the first Master of the proposed Lodge, which was warranted as Lodge No. 111 on September 16, 1808.^[19]

Death[link]

On September 3, 1809, Lewis set out for Washington D.C., where he hoped to resolve issues regarding the denied payment of drafts he had drawn against the War Department while serving as the first American governor of the Louisiana Territory. Some accounts say he carried his journals with him for delivery to his publisher. Lewis intended to travel to Washington by ship from New Orleans, but changed his plans while en route down the Mississippi from St. Louis. He decided to make an overland journey via the Natchez Trace and then east to Washington. The Natchez Trace was the old pioneer road between Natchez, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee. On October 10, 1809 Lewis stopped at an inn on the Natchez Trace called Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Nashville. After leaving dinner, he went to his bedroom. In the predawn hours of October 11, the innkeeper heard gunshots. Servants found Lewis badly injured from multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. He died shortly after sunrise.

While modern historians generally accept his death as a suicide, there is some debate.^[20] Priscilla Grinder, the tavern-keeper's wife, claimed Lewis acted strangely the night before his death. She said that during dinner, Lewis stood and paced about the room talking to himself in the way one would speak to a lawyer. She observed his face to flush as if it had come on him in a fit. After he retired for the evening, she continued to hear him talking to himself. At some point in the night, she heard multiple gunshots, and what she believed was someone calling for help. She claimed to be able to see Lewis through the slit in the door crawling back to his room. She never explained why, at the time, she didn't investigate further concerning Lewis' condition or the source of the gunshots. The next morning, she sent for Lewis' servants. They found him wounded and bloody, with part of his skull gone, but he lived for several hours. Priscilla Grinder's testimony is held as a point of contention from both sides of the murder-suicide debate. The murder advocates point to five conflicting testimonies as evidence that hers is fabricated, and the suicide advocates point to her testimony as proof of suicide.^[20]

The only doctor to examine Lewis' body did so in 1848. He reported that Lewis appeared to have died "by the hand of an assassin". Lewis' descendants have retained the report.^{[citation needed]}

When Clark and Jefferson were informed of Lewis' death, both accepted the conclusion of suicide. His mother and relatives contended it was murder. In later years, a court of inquiry explored whether they could charge the husband of the tavern-keeper with Lewis' death. They dropped the inquiry for lack of evidence or motive.

From 1993–2010, many of Lewis' kin (through his sister Jane, as he had no children) sought to have the body exhumed for forensic analysis, to try to determine whether the death was a suicide. A Tennessee coroner's jury in 1996 recommended exhumation. Since Lewis is buried in a national park, the National Park Service must approve; they refused the request in 1998, citing possible disturbance to the bodies of more than 100 pioneers buried nearby. In 2008 the Department of Interior approved the exhumation, but that decision was rescinded in 2010 upon policy review, and the Department has stated the last decision is final. It is making improvements to the grave site and visitor facility.^[21]

Memorials[link]

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Paul Allen with a biography of Meriwether Lewis, 1813

The explorer was buried near present day Hohenwald, Tennessee, near his place of death. The State of Tennessee erected a monument over his grave in 1848. The Tennessee State Commission charged with locating the grave and erecting the monument wrote in its official report that it was likely Lewis was murdered. Today, the grave site is maintained by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

In 2009, the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation organized a commemoration for Lewis in conjunction with their 41st annual meeting October 3–7, 2009.^[22] It included the first national memorial service at his grave site. On October 7, 2009, the 200th anniversary of Lewis' death, about 2,500 people (Park Service estimate) from more than twenty-five states gathered at his grave to acknowledge his life and achievements. Speakers included Clark descendant Peyton "Bud" Clark, Lewis collateral descendants Howell Bowen and Tom McSwain, and Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs (the daughter of the author Stephen Ambrose, who wrote Undaunted Courage, an award-winning book about the Lewis and Clark expedition). A bronze bust of Lewis was dedicated at the Natchez Trace Parkway for a planned visitor center at the gravesite area. The District of Columbia and governors of twenty states sent flags flown over state capital buildings to be carried to Lewis' grave by residents of the states associated with the Lewis and Clark Trail.

This was the final bicentennial event honoring the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Re-enactors from the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial participated, and official attendees included Native American tribal chiefs and representatives from Jefferson's Monticello. The Lewis and Clark descendants, along with representatives of St. Louis Lodge #1, past presidents of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, and the Daughters of the American Revolution, carried wreaths and led a formal procession to Lewis' grave. Samples of plants which Lewis discovered on the expedition were brought from the Trail states and laid on his grave. The U.S. Army was represented by the 101st Airborne Infantry Band and its Army chaplain.

Legacy[link]

For many years, Lewis' legacy was overlooked, inaccurately assessed, and somewhat tarnished by his alleged suicide.^[8] Yet his contributions to science, the exploration of the Western U.S., and the lore of great world explorers, are considered incalculable.^[8]

Four years after Lewis' death, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction, ... honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves, with all these qualifications as if selected and implanted by nature in one body for this express purpose, I could have no hesitation in confiding the enterprise to him.^[23]

Jefferson wrote that Lewis had a "luminous and discriminating intellect."

The alpine plant Lewisia (family Portulacaceae), popular in rock gardens, is named after Lewis, as is Lewis' Woodpecker. A subspecies of cutthroat trout, the westslope cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi), is also named after him. Geographic names that honor him include Lewis County, Idaho, Lewis County, Kentucky; Lewis County, Tennessee; Lewisburg, Tennessee; Lewiston, Idaho; Lewis County, Washington; the U.S. Army fort Fort Lewis, Washington, the home of the US Army 1st Corps (I Corps), and especially Lewis and Clark County, Montana, the home of the capital city, Helena; Lewis and Clark Pass (Montana); Lewistown, Montana; the Lewis Range of Montana's Glacier National Park; Lewis Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona; Lewis Avenue in Billings, Montana. A day use campground at Gates of the Mountains Wilderness, north of Helena, Meriwether Picnic site. A cave, Lewis and Clark Caverns between Three Forks and Whitehall, Montana. The US Navy Polaris nuclear submarine USS Lewis and Clark was named for him and William Clark.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Fisher, Vardis (1962). Suicide or Murder?: The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis. The Swallow Press, Inc.. ISBN 0-8040-0616-4. 
• Danisi, Thomas C. (2009). Meriwether Lewis. New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-702-7. 
• Works by Meriwether Lewis at Project Gutenberg
• The Journals of Lewis and Clark from American Studies at the University of Virginia.
• Meriwether Lewis at Find a Grave Retrieved on February 20, 2008
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lewis, Meriwether". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

• Meriwether Lewis on The History Channel
• Meriwether Lewis Park and Burial Site
• Meriwether Lewis's grave on Find-A-Grave
• Lewis and Clark at C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History

Lewis Clarke was an ex-slave who published his experiences in his work, Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke.

Lewis Garrand Clarke was born in Madison County, Kentucky, seven miles from Richmond, in 1812. Depending on the source, Clarke's birth year is listed as 1812 or 1815. He is best known for his narrative, Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke, During a Captivity of More Than Twenty-Five Years, Among the Algerines of Kentucky, One of the So Called Christian States of America, which was dictated by himself.^[1]

In the beginning of his narrative, Clarke expounds upon his slave and plantation-owning grandfather, Samuel Campbell. Campbell took a mistress in a female slave named Mary who, according to Clarke, was half white. They had one daughter, Letitia Campbell before Campbell married. Clarke's father was a Scottish weaver who came to America for the American Revolution. He had married once before but his wife died and left him two sons. He attended the Battle of Bunker Hill and remained active until the end of the war effort. Campbell promised Clarke's father that Letitia would be free in his will, and with this promise, Clarke's father married her around 1800.^[2]

Clarke's father died when Clarke was either 10 or 12 years old after receiving a devastating wound leaving him disabled, possibly paralyzed. Even when promised freedom, Letitia did not receive it and stayed enslaved as Clarke claims Campbell's heirs destroyed the will. During this time, Clarke fell into the hands of his grandfathers children, being the property of William and Betsy Benson, who treated him brutally. After Clarke learned he would be sold in New Orleans, Clarke fled to Ohio and across Lake Erie into Canada in 1841.^[3] On arriving in Canada:

"When I stepped ashore here, I said, sure enough I am free. Good heaven! what a sensation, when it first visits the bosom of a full grown man - one, born to bondage - one, who had been taught from early infancy, that this was his inevitable lot for life."

He published Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke around 1846; and travelled about giving lectures on his experiences as a slave. It was during one of those travels that he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was so impressed by Clarke and his story that she would base the character George Harris in her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin on Clarke.

While Clarke was not travelling, he lived in Warren County, Pennsylvania before moving over the New York border to the town of Busti, New York in 1850, where he worked as a farm hand on the farm of David Storum, the father-in-law of African-American abolitionist Jermain W. Loguen.^[4] After the end of the Civil War, he returned South and died on December 16, 1897 in Louisville, Kentucky. His body lay in state at the Kentucky State Capitol on order of Governor Bradley, and he was subsequently buried in Westwood Cemetery in Oberlin, Ohio.

See also[link]

• Slave Narrative

References[link]

[1] [2] [3]

External links[link]

• Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke, During a Captivity of More than Twenty-Five Years, Among the Algerines of Kentucky, One of the So Called Christian States of North America. Boston: David H. Ela, Printer, 1845.

Clay Straus Jenkinson (born February 4, 1955 in Dickinson, North Dakota) is an American humanities Rhodes scholar, Danforth Scholar, and author. He is currently the director of the The Dakota Institute, where he co-hosts public radio's The Jefferson Hour, and creates documentary films, symposiums and literary projects. He also lectures at Dickinson State University and Bismarck State College.

Life[link]

Jenkinson was born in Dickinson;^[1] his father was a banker and his mother a schoolteacher. Although the family moved quite often when he and his sister were children, Jenkinson grew up mostly in Dickinson in southwest North Dakota. He graduated from Dickinson High School in 1973 and then attended the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. He graduated in 1977 with a degree in English, and was then a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.

At the age of 50, Jenkinson returned to North Dakota as a permanent resident in 2005 and resides in Bismarck. He is currently the Director of The Dakota Institute through The Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, Chief Consultant to The Theodore Roosevelt Center through Dickinson State University, Distinguished Humanities Scholar at Bismarck State College, and a columnist for the Bismarck Tribune. He is James Marsh Professors-at-Large at the University of Vermont.^[2]

Jenkinson has one daughter, Catherine Missouri, from his marriage ending in 1997. Catherine was named after the Little Missouri River, which Jenkinson has said he finds poetic.

Portrayal of Jefferson[link]

He first achieved fame for his portrayal (first-person historical interpretation) of Thomas Jefferson. As co-founder of the modern Chautauqua movement,^[3] Jenkinson has also portrayed Sir Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift, J. Robert Oppenheimer, John Wesley Powell, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Theodore Roosevelt, and Meriwether Lewis.^[4]

Jenkinson's public portrayals take the form of lengthy monologues followed by Q & A sessions as the character (in costume) featured for that performance. At the end of his performances, he steps out of character and answers questions as himself. Another performance variation is represented by his nationally syndicated radio show, The Thomas Jefferson Hour:^[5]

While staying resolutely in character, Mr. Jenkinson permits Jefferson to answer audience questions on a broad range of historical subjects and comment carefully on contemporary social and political topics.

On November 15, 2006, Clay appeared as Jefferson on The Colbert Report with two other Jefferson impersonators, Bill Barker and Steven Edenbo.

Awards[link]

In 1989, Jenkinson became one of the first winners of the nation’s highest award in the humanities, the Charles Frankel Prize. The National Endowment for the Humanities once described Jenkinson as, “A leader in the revival of Chautauqua, a forum for public discussion about the ideas and lives of key figures in American history.” Others who have received this award include Ken Burns, Bill Moyers and Charles Kuralt.This year, Jenkinson received the Robert J. Laxalt Writer of the Year Award from University of Nevada-Reno. Jenkinson was a senior fellow for the Center for Digital Government, based in California, and was scholar-in-residence at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon from 2002–2006, and Roosevelt scholar-in-residence at Dickinson State University from 2005-2008.

Publications[link]

Books[link]

• The Character of Meriwether Lewis: Explorer in the Wilderness
• Message on the Wind: A Spiritual Odyssey on the Northern Plains
• Becoming Jefferson's People: Re-Inventing the American Republic in the Twenty-First Century
• Theodore Roosevelt in the Dakota Badlands: An Historical Guide
• A Free and Hardy Life: Theodore Roosevelt's Sojourn in the American West
• A Vast and Open Plain: The Writings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804-1806
• For the Love of North Dakota and Other Essays: Sundays with Clay in the Bismarck Tribune
• The Bill Of Rights And Beyond Thomas Jefferson's Perspective
• Lewis and Clark in Iowa

Documentaries[link]

• When the Landscape is Quiet again: the Legacy of Art Link

References[link]

External links[link]

• Thomas Jefferson Hour.org - official site
• Dakota Sky Education.com - Jenkinson's informational website
• Clay Jenkinson column - The Bismarck Tribune - 02-Oct-2005
• Prairie Public.org - Clay Jenkinson at 50 - 04-Feb-2005
• Dickinson State University - faculty directory