Meriwether Lewis


 * "Lewis" redirects here. For more uses of the name "Lewis", see Lewis (disambiguation)

Meriwether Lewis was a well-known American explorer, soldier, politician, and naturalist, best known as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery along with William Clark. The mens' mission was to explore the Louisiana Territory, establish trade and power over the Native Americans near the Missouri River, and to claim the Pacific Northwest and Oregon Territory for the United States before any country in Europe. When studying plants, Lewis mainly studied seed plants.

Biography
Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in the community of Ivy to Lt. William Lewis of Locust Hill, who was of Welsh ancestry, and Lucy Meriwether, daughter of Thomas Meriwether and Elizabeth Thornton. In May 1780, Lewis moved with his mother and stepfather, Captain John Marks to Georgia. His older brother, Nicholas, became his legal guardian. Together, they settled along Broad River in the Goosepond Community within Broad River Valley in what is now Oglethorpe County.

While residing in Georgia, Lewis's enhanced his skills in hunting and as an outdoorsman. He would sometimes venture off into the middle of the night during winter with only his dogs and go hunting. Even at an early age Lewis was interested in natural history, which developed into a lifelong passion. His mother taught him how to gather herbs for medicinal purposes. It was also at the Broad River Valley where Lewis dealt with a Native American group, the Cherokee. In Georgia, Lewis also met Eric Parker, who introduced him to ideas of traveling. At thirteen years of age, Lewis was sent back to Virginia to be educated by private tutors. One of these tutors was Parson Matthew Maury, one of the uncles of Matthew Fontaine Maury who was a son of one of Thomas Jefferson's tutors. In 1793, Lewis graduated from Liberty Hall and joined the Virginia militia. A year later, in 1794, Lewis was sent as part of a detachment involved in stopping the Whiskey Rebellion.

From 1795 to 1801, Lewis was a Lieutenant of the U.S. Army, at one point in the same detachment as William Clark, who later became his companion during the Corps of Discovery.

On April 1, 1801, Lewis was appointed as an aide by Thomas Jefferson, whom Lewis had personally known through the Virginia society in Albermarle County. He lived in the presidential mansion, and often conversed with several political figures in politics, art, and other circles. He was originally to provide information on the politics of the U.S. Army, which had seen a decrease in Federalist officers as a result to the Judiciary Act of 1801 passed by John Adams.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

 * For more information, see Lewis and Clark Expedition

Lewis was selected by Thomas Jefferson to lead the Corps of Discovery. Lewis accepted, and sent a letter to William Clark to accompany him. Clark accepted, and the two set off in July 1803. During the time, Lewis discovered several plant and animal species. See List of species described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition for more details.

Return and gubernatorial duties
After Lewis's return from the expedition, he received a reward of 1,600 acres (6.5 km²) of land and in 1807 Jefferson appointed him governor of the Louisiana Territory; he settled in St. Louis. He also made arrangements to publish his Corps of Discovery journals, but had difficulty in the completion of writing them. He died in 1809 on his journey to deliver these journals to a publisher in Washington.

Lewis's record as an administrator is mixed. He created roads and was a strong member of the fur trade. His position was to protect the west from encroachment, which was unfavorable to several settlers looking to open new land for settlement. But because of his quarrels with local political leaders, controversy over his approvals of trading licenses, land grant politics, Indian attacks, excessive drinking, and a slow-moving mail system, it appeared that Lewis was a poor administrator. He also did not keep in touch with his superiors in Washington.

Civic
Meriwether Lewis was a Freemason, and from 1796 to 1797 was initiated, passed, and raised in Door to Virtue Lodge No. 44 in Albemarle. On August 8, 1808, Lewis and several acquaintances submitted a petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. In it, they requested to establish a lodge in St. Louis. He was nominated and recommended to serve as the first Master of the lodge, which was officially warranted on September 16, 1808 as Lodge No. 111.

Death
On September 3, 1809, Lewis set off towards Washington, D.C., where he hoped to resolve issues on the denied payment of drafts he had drawn against the War Department while serving as the first U.S. governor of the Louisiana Territory. Some also say that Lewis took his journals along with him for delivery to be published. He began intending to travel to Washington by a ship in New Orleans, but while travelling down the Mississippi River from St. Louis, he changed his plans, deciding instead to make an overland journey by the Natchez Trace, an old road between Natchez, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee, and then head east to Washington. On October 10, 1809, Lewis stopped at an inn, the Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Nashville. After leaving from dinner, Lewis went to his bedroom, and during the predawn hours of October 11, the innkeeper heard gunshots. Servants of the inn found Lewis badly injured from several gunshot wounds; one was to the head. He died shortly after sunrise.

Most modern historians regard Lewis's death as a suicide, but there is some debate. Mrs. Grinder, the wife of the tavern-keeper, claimed that Lewis had acted very strange the night before his death. She had said that during dinner, Lewis stood and paced the room talking to himself in a similar manner of talking to a lawyer. She observed his face to flush as if it had come on him in stress. After he retired for the evening, Mrs. Grinder continued to hear Lewis talking to himself. At some point during the night, she heard gunshots, and what she believed was a person asking for help. Mrs. Grinder claimed that she was able to see Lewis through the slit of the door, crawling back into his room. She never explained why, at the time, that she didn't investigate the gunshots and Lewis's condition. The following morning, Mrs. Grinder sent for Lewis's servants. They found him severely wounded and bloody, with part of his skull gone, but he managed to live for several hours. Mrs. Grinder's testimony is held as an argument from both sides of the murder-suicide debate. The murder advocates point to five conflicting testimonies as evidence that Mrs. Grinder's testimony is fabricated, and the suicide advocates point to her testimony as proof of suicide.

When Clark and Jefferson received word of Lewis's death, they accepted the conclusion of suicide. His mother and relatives, on the other hand, contended Lewis was murdered. A few years later, a court of inquiry explored whether they should charge the husband of the tavern-keeper with Lewis's death. This inquiry was dropped because there was a lack of evidence or a motive.

Between 1993 and 2010, several descendants of Lewis's sister, Jane, sought to have Lewis's body exhumed for forensic analysis to try determining whether his death was suicide or murder. A coroner's jury in Tennessee recommended exhumation, but since Lewis was, and still is, buried in a national park, the National Park Service must approve. In 1998, they refused the request, citing possible disturbance to the bodies of over 100 pioneers buried nearby. The Department of Interior approved the exhumation in 2008, but that decision was rescinded in 2010 upon reviews of policy, and the Department stated that their last decision is final. It is making improvements to the grave site and visitor facility.

Memorials
Lewis was buried near Hohenwald, Tennessee, near the place he died. The State of Tennessee put up a monument over his grave in 1848. The Tennessee State Commission charged with locating Lewis's grave and putting up the monument wrote in its official report that Lewis was likely murdered. Currently, the site of the grave is maintained by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

From October 3 to October 7, 2009, the Lewis and Clark Heritage Foundation organized a commemoration of Lewis in conjunction with their 41st yearly meeting. It was the first national memorial service located at his grave site. On October 7, at the 200th anniversary of Lewis's death, about 2500 people (Park Service estimate) from more than 25 of the 50 states gathered at his grave. During the commemoration, Lewis's life and achievements were acknowledged. Speakers at the commemoration included William Clark's descendant, Peyton "Bud" Clark, Lewis's collateral descendants Howell Bowen, Tom McSwain, and Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs. A bronze bust of Lewis was dedicated to the Natchez Trace Parkway for a visitor center expected to be opened at the gravesite area. The District of Columbia and governors of 20 states sent flags which were flown over state capital buildings to be carried to Lewis's grave by residents of states associated with the Lewis and Clark Trail.

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

Legacy
For many years, Lewis's legacy was overlooked, incorrectly assessed, and somewhat tarnished by his possible suicide, but his contributions to science, the exploration of the Western United States, and the lore of several great world explorers, are considerably incalculable.

Four years after the death of Lewis, 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."

Jefferson had also stated that Lewis had a "luminous and discrimination intellect."

The genus Lewisia was named in honor of Meriwether Lewis by Frederick Traugott Pursh and so is Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) by John Edward Gray. Several U.S. counties have been named in honor of Lewis in Idaho, Kentucky, Montana Tennessee, and Washington. Cities have also been named in his honor, such as Lewisburg, Tennessee and Lewiston, Idaho. The U.S. Army fort, Fort Lewis in Washington was named after Lewis as was Lewis Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona. A day use campground at the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness north of Helena, the Meriwether Picnic site is named in his honor as well, and a cave: Lewis and Clark Caverns, located between Three Forks and Whitehall, Montana. Machines have also been named after Lewis, including the US Navy Polaris nuclear submarine USS Lewis and Clark.

The standard author abbreviation   Lewis    is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.