Meriwether Lewis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Meriwether Lewis
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Portrait by Charles Wilson Peale
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| 2nd Governor of the Louisiana Territory | |
| In office March 3, 1807 – October 11, 1809 |
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| Appointed by | Thomas Jefferson |
| Preceded by | James Wilkinson |
| Succeeded by | Benjamin Howard |
| Commander of the Corps of Discovery | |
| In office 1803–1806 |
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| President | Thomas Jefferson |
| Preceded by | Corps commissioned |
| Succeeded by | Corps disbanded |
| Private Secretary to the President | |
| In office 1801–1803 |
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| President | Thomas Jefferson |
| Preceded by | William Smith Shaw |
| Succeeded by | Lewis Harvie |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 18, 1774 Locust Hill Plantation, Albemarle County, Colony of Virginia (now Ivy, Virginia) |
| Died | October 11, 1809 (aged 35) Hickman County, Tennessee, U.S. (now near Hohenwald, Tennessee) |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wounds |
| Occupation | Explorer, soldier, politician |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | Infantry |
| Years of service | 1795–1807 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Legion of the United States 1st United States Infantry Regiment |
| Commands | Corps of Discovery; see above. |
Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with William Clark.
Contents
Early life and career
Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18, 1774 in the present-day community of Ivy, Virginia. He was the son of William Lewis and Lucy Meriwether. After his father died of pneumonia in November 1779, he moved with his mother and stepfather Captain John Marks to Georgia.
Even at an early age, Lewis was interested in natural history, which would develop into a lifelong passion. His mother taught him how to gather wild herbs for medicinal purposes. During his time in Georgia he enhanced his skills as a hunter and an outdoorsman. He would often venture out in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with only his dog to go hunting.
At age 13, Lewis was sent back to Virginia for education by private tutors. His father's older brother Nicholas Lewis became his guardian.
In 1795, Lewis joined the United States Army. By 1800 he rose to the rank of captain, ending his service in 1801.
On April 1, 1801, Lewis was appointed as Secretary to the President by President Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson began to plan for an expedition across the continent, he chose Lewis to lead the expedition. Meriwether Lewis recruited William Clark, his former commanding officer, to share command of the expedition.
Expedition west
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After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Thomas 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". In addition, Jefferson placed special importance on declaring U.S. sovereignty over the Native Americans along the Missouri River.
The two-year exploration by Lewis and Clark was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. When they left Fort Mandan in April 1805 they were accompanied by the 16-year-old Shoshone woman, Sacagawea, the wife of the French-Canadian fur trader, Toussaint Charbonneau. The Corps of Discovery made contact with many Native Americans.
After crossing the Rocky Mountains, the expedition reached the Oregon Country and the Pacific Ocean 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. They demonstrated the possibility of overland travel to the Pacific Coast.
Return and gubernatorial duties
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 Corps of Discovery journals, but had difficulty completing his writing.
In 1807, Jefferson appointed him governor of the Louisiana Territory; he settled in St. Louis.
As governor, Lewis established roads and furthered Jefferson's mission as a strong proponent of the fur trade. He negotiated peace among several quarreling Indian tribes.
Death
On September 3, 1809, Lewis set out for Washington, D.C.. He carried his journals with him for delivery to his publisher. He intended to travel to Washington by ship from New Orleans, but changed his plans while floating down the Mississippi River from St. Louis. He disembarked and decided instead 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). Robbers often preyed on travelers on that road.
According to a lost letter from October 19, 1809, to Thomas Jefferson, Lewis stopped at an inn on the Natchez Trace called Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Nashville on October 10. After dinner, he retired to his one-room cabin. In the predawn hours of October 11, the innkeeper's wife, Priscilla Griner, heard gunshots. Servants found Lewis badly injured from multiple gunshot wounds. He died shortly after sunrise. Money that Lewis had borrowed from Major Gilbert Russell at Fort Pickering to complete the journey was missing.
Three inconsistent accounts are attributed to Mrs. Griner, who left no written testimony. According to one of them, three men followed Lewis up the Natchez Trace, where he pulled his pistols and challenged them to a duel. She heard voices and gunfire in his cabin about 1:00 am. She then found it empty with a large amount of gunpowder on the floor.
Lewis's relatives maintained it was murder. A coroner's inquest held immediately after his death as provided by local law did not charge anyone with any crime. The jury foreman kept a pocket diary of the proceedings, which disappeared in the early 1900s.
Memorials
Lewis was buried near present-day Hohenwald, Tennessee, near his place of death. At first, the grave was unmarked. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge designated Lewis's grave as the fifth National Monument in the South.
In 2009, the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation organized the first national memorial service at his grave site. A bronze bust of Lewis was dedicated at the Natchez Trace Parkway for a planned visitor center at the gravesite.
Legacy
Postage stamps
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was celebrated on May 14, 2004, the 200th anniversary of its outset, by depicting the two on a hilltop outlook: two companion 37-cent USPS stamps showed portraits of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. A special 32-page booklet accompanied the issue in eleven cities along the route taken by the Corps of Discovery. An image of the stamp can be found on Arago online at the link in the footnote.
Flora and fauna
The plant genus Lewisia (family Portulacaceae), popular in rock gardens and which includes the bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva), the state flower of Montana, is named after Lewis, as is Lewis's woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) and a subspecies of the cutthroat trout, the westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi). Also named after him in 1999, is Lewisiopsis tweedyi which is a flowering plant and sole species in genus Lewisiopsis (in the family Montiaceae). In 2004, the American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Lewis & Clark' (selling name Prairie Expedition) was released by North Dakota State University Research Foundation in commemoration of the Lewis & Clark expedition's bicentenary; the tree has a resistance to Dutch elm disease.
Geographic names
Geographic names that honor him include:
- Lewis County, Kentucky
- Lewis County, Tennessee
- Lewis County, Missouri
- Lewis County, Idaho
- Lewis County, Washington
- Lewisburg, Tennessee
- Lewiston, Idaho
- the U.S. Army fort Fort Lewis, Washington, the home of the US Army 1st Corps (I Corps)
- Lewis and Clark County, Montana, the home of the capital city, Helena
- Lewis and Clark Pass (Montana)
- Lewis and Clark National Forest
- Lewistown, Montana
- the Lewis Range of Montana's Glacier National Park
- Lewis Avenue in Billings, Montana
- Gates of the Mountains Wilderness, a day use campground north of Helena, Montana's Meriwether Picnic site
- Lewis and Clark Caverns, a cave between Three Forks and Whitehall, Montana
- Seaside, Oregon has numerous landmarks, museums, and a "Lewis and Clark Avenue" devoted to both of the explorers. This small city is also known as being the end of their journey to the Pacific Coast.
- Fort Clatsop, Oregon was the encampment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the Oregon Country near the mouth of the Columbia River during the winter of 1805–1806. Located along the Lewis and Clark River at the north end of the Clatsop Plains approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Astoria, the fort was the last encampment of the Corps of Discovery, before embarking on their return trip east to St. Louis. An exceptional reproduction of the fort and museum now resides on the site. See more ar the Wikipedia article titled"Fort Clatsop".
- Lewis and Clark State Park, a state park located in Williams County, North Dakota near Williston which is a part of the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department system.
Academic institutions
- Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, was named for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
- Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho, was named for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
- Lewis and Clark Community College, Godfrey, Illinois, was named for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The campus lies about 11 miles upstream from the Corps of Discovery's departure point.
- Lewis & Clark High School, Spokane, Washington, was named for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
- Meriwether Lewis Elementary School, Albemarle County, Virginia was named for Meriwether Lewis, who was born nearby. The school board voted to rename the school in early 2023, despite 85% of community members voting to retain the name.
- Meriwether Lewis Elementary School, Portland, Oregon was named for Meriwether Lewis.
- Lewis and Clark Elementary School, Missoula, Montana was named for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
Interesting facts about Meriwether Lewis
- Lewis was the great-great-grandson of David Crawford, a prominent Virginia Burgess and militia colonel.
- Three U.S. Navy vessels have been named in honor of Lewis: the Liberty ship SS Meriwether Lewis, the Polaris armed nuclear submarine USS Lewis and Clark and the supply ship USNS Lewis and Clark.
- In 1965, Lewis was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
- Lewis and Clark appear on the gold Lewis and Clark Exposition dollars minted for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1904 and 1905. The coins survive in relatively small numbers.
See also
In Spanish: Meriwether Lewis para niños
