Meriwether Lewis

On 11th October, 1809, at the predawn hours, Meriwether Lewis was found dead in Tennessee at the Grinder’s Inn succumbing to gunshot wounds. The cause of his death still remains a mystery. He was buried near Grinder’s Stand.

In 1848, a monument was erected over his grave by the State of Tennessee.

Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18, 1774 in Albemarle County, Virginia, in the Lewis family estate in Locust Hill to Lt. William Lewis and Lucy Meriwether Lewis as their first son and second child.

His father served in the Continental Army as a lieutenant and died of pneumonia in November 1779 while his mother was a famous herb doctor. His parents were originally cousins. The family had good relation with Thomas Jefferson’s family since long and Jefferson knew Lewis since his childhood.

After six months of his father’s death, his mother married Captain John Marks, a retired army officer.

In May 1780 his mother and stepfather moved to Georgia along with their three children and settled in the Goosepond Community in Wilkes County, (now known as Oglethorpe County), along the Broad River. They managed a 1,000 acre plantation.

John Hastings Marks, his half-brother was born in 1785 and Mary Garland Marks, his half-sister was born in 1788.

In 1794 he was appointed in the Virginia Militia and sent in a detachment to control the Whiskey Rebellion.

In 1795 he was appointed as an Ensign (equivalent to present day Lieutenant) by the U.S. Army. He served the Frontier Army for six years and became a captain in 1800. William Clark his companion in the famous ‘Lewis and Clark Expedition’ was his commanding officer at Fort Greenville.

On 1st April 1801, President Jefferson inducted him as personal secretary. Lewis was a staunch Republican as President Jefferson.

Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition of the Pacific Northwest lands near the Missouri River in the west of Mississippi. The Congress gave its consent for the expedition in 1803 making it the first transcontinental military exploration initiated by the U.S. government.

Jefferson was the first person who taught him about navigation. He later went to Philadelphia to learn from skilled cartographers and astronomers.

His contributions to science, the exploration of the Western U.S., and the lore of great world explorers, are considered incalculable.

The 1803 Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States. Lewis along with Clark described and sketched the flora and fauna of the region and described the native inhabitants.