Lewis

Lewis Meriwether Lewis LEWIS, Meriwether, explorer, born near Charlottesville, Virginia, 18 August, 1774; died near Nashville, Tennessee, 8 October; 1809. He was a great-nephew of Fielding Lewis, noticed above, and inherited a fortune frown his father, who died when the son was a child. Meriwether, who was of a bold and adventurous disposition, left school at eighteen years of age, and in 1794 volunteered in the troops that were called out to quell the whiskey insurrection in western Pennsylvania. He entered the regular service in 1795, became captain in 1800, and in 1801-'3 was private secretary to President Jefferson, who in the latter year recommended him to congress to command an exploring expedition across the continent to the Pacific. He set out in the summer of 1803, accompanied by his associate, Captain William Clark, and a company that was composed of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers, two Canadian boatmen, an interpreter, a hunter, and a Negro servant of Captain Clark. They began to ascend Missouri river in the spring of 1804, passed a second winter among the Mandans in latitude 47º 21' N., and on 7 April, 1805, continued to ascend the Missouri until the middle of July, lewis, missouri, jefferson, clark, near, meriwether, made, expedition, columbia, captain, began, august, ascend, years, winter, western, two, tennessee, september, river, reached, president, passed, out, october, new, mountains, men, left, journey, firmness, explorers, entered, died, congress, called