Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis
Governor of Missouri Territory
In office March 3, 1807 – October 11, 1809
Preceded by	James Wilkinson
Succeeded by	Benjamin Howard
Born	August 18, 1774(1774-08-18) Ivy, Albemarle County, Virginia
Died	October 11, 1809(1809-10-11) (aged 35) Grinder's Stand, Hohenwald, Tennessee
Spouse(s)	none
Occupation	explorer, soldier, politician
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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, whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.

Biography

Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in the present-day community of Ivy.^[1] He was the son of Lt. William Lewis of Locust Hill (1733 – November 17, 1779),^[2] who was of Welsh ancestry, and Lucy Meriwether (February 4, 1752 – September 8, 1837), daughter of Thomas Meriwether and Elizabeth Thornton. (Thornton was the daughter of Francis Thornton and Mary Taliaferro). He moved with his mother and stepfather Captain John Marks to Georgia in May of 1780. His older brother Nicholas Lewis became his guardian. 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 dogs to go hunting. Even at his 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. It was also in the Broad River Valley that Lewis first dealt with a native Indian group. The Cherokee lived in antagonistic proximity to the white settlers, but Lewis seems to have been a champion for them amongst his own people. It was in Georgia that he met Eric Parker, who was the first to introduce him to the idea of traveling. At thirteen, he was sent back to Virginia for education by private tutors. One of these was Parson Matthew Maury, an uncle of Matthew Fontaine Maury. Parson Maury was a son of Charles Goodyear Maury who was Thomas Jefferson's teacher for two years. In 1793, Lewis graduated from Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University), joined the Virginia militia, and in 1794 he was sent as part of a detachment involved in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion.

In 1795 he joined the U.S. Army, as a Lieutenant, where he served until 1801, at one point in the detachment of William Clark, who would later become his companion in the Corps of Discovery.

On April 1, 1801, he was appointed as an aide by President Thomas Jefferson, whom he knew personally 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.^[3] 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".^[4] When Jefferson began to formulate and to plan for an expedition across the continent, he chose Lewis to lead the expedition.

Return and gubernatorial duties

After returning from the expedition, Lewis received a reward of 1,600 acres of land. He also initially made arrangements to publish the Corp of Discovery journals but for some unknown reason never hired an editor or provided any text for the promised publications. In 1807, Jefferson appointed him governor of the Louisiana Territory; he settled in St. Louis. Lewis's 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 encroachers which was not favorable to the rush of settlers looking to open new lands for settlements. but due to quarreling with local political leaders, approval of trading licenses, land grant politics, Indian depredations, excessive drinking and a slow-moving mail system, it appeared that Lewis was a poor administrator who failed to keep in touch with his superiors in Washington.^[5]

Civic

Lewis was a Freemason, initiated, passed and raised in Door To Virtue Lodge No. 44 in Albemarle, Virginia, between 1796 and 1797.^[6] On August 2, 1808, Lewis and several of his acquaintances submitted a petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in which they requested a 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.^[7]

Death

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. Lewis started out with the intention of traveling to Washington by ship from New Orleans but changed his plans while en route down the Mississippi and decided to make an overland journey via the Natchez Trace instead. The Natchez Trace was the old pioneer road between Natchez, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee. On October 10, 1809 he stopped at an inn on the Natchez Trace called Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) from Nashville, Tennessee. After he excused himself from 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. He died shortly after sunrise.

While modern historians generally accept his death as a suicide, there is some debate.^[8] Mrs. 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, Mrs. Grinder continued to hear him talking to himself. At some point in the night she heard multiple gunshots, and what she believed was someone asking 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's condition or the source of the gunshots. The next morning, she sent for Lewis's servants, who found him weltering in his blood but alive for several hours. Mrs. 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 her testimony is fabricated and the suicide advocates point to her testimony as proof of suicide. ^[8]

When Clark and Jefferson were informed of Lewis' death, both accepted it as suicide, but his family 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.

Memorials

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 died at the hands of an assassin. Today, the grave site is maintained by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

On October 7, 2009, about 2,500 people (Park Service estimate) from more than twenty-five states met at Lewis' grave on the 200th anniversary of his death. Lewis, who had not been publicly mourned when he died, was honored on that occasion with his first public memorial service. His life and achievements were acknowledged and some in the audience shed tears as the tragedy of his death was noted. Clark descendant Peyton "Bud" Clark, Lewis collateral descendants Howell Bowen and Tom McSwain, and Stephen Ambrose's daughter Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs spoke. A bronze bust of Lewis commissioned for the event was dedicated to the Natchez Trace Parkway for a planned visitor center at the grave site 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. A reenactment of Lewis' entry into Grinder's Stand was an official concluding event of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. Reenactors who participated in the official bicentennial marched to Lewis' grave in period uniform accompanied by drum and fife. The Lewis and Clark families, 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. Examples of plants Lewis discovered on the expedition were also brought from the Trail states and laid on his grave to honor him. The U.S. Army was also present through the 101st Airborne Infantry Band and its Army chaplain.

Legacy

Lewis never married. Although he died without legitimate heirs, he does have the putative DNA model haplotype for his paternal ancestors' lineage, which was that of the Warner Hall. He was also related to Robert E. Lee and Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, among others.^[9] He was related to George Washington by marriage: his first cousin once removed was Fielding Lewis, Washington's brother-in-law.^[10] He was also a second cousin once removed of Washington's on his father's side.

For many years, Lewis' legacy was overlooked, inaccurately assessed, and even tarnished by his alleged suicide. Yet his contributions to science, the exploration of the Western U.S., and the lore of great world explorers, are considered incalculable.^[4]

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.^[11]

Jefferson also stated 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's Woodpecker. 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. 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

References

• Fisher, Varis (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 (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.