Meriwether lewis biography timeline project
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He became captain in 1800. He learned to manage the family’s plantation, Locust Hill, as well as the people enslaved to work his lands. As they traveled, Lewis kept maps of rivers and beaver habitats. Jefferson tasked Lewis’s expedition with contacting and learning more about these Native groups, mapping the area, and taking notes on the animals and plants they encountered along the way.
Congress looked to the U.S.
Army for suitable members of the expedition. The president arranged for Lewis to move to Philadelphia to study wayfinding and medicine. While historians disagree on the exact details of Lewis’s death, most agree that his life was an important contribution to American history. As a governor, his laws and policies set the tone for the next century of American settlement in the west.
Born in 1774, Lewis’s life started as America was becoming a country.
Lewis was found injured badly, dying after sunrise.
Meriwether Lewis was buried in an unmarked grave. Jefferson rewarded Lewis for his hard work with 1,600 acres of public land which fell under his care as well as the family plantation in Virginia.
They taught him about medicinal herbs and berries.
After having no formal education until age thirteen, Lewis' mother and stepfather sent him to school. Meriwether Lewis. They also agreed to publish the Corps of Discovery journals.
Lewis was a Freemason, raised in the Albemarle, Virginia lodge.
Lewis and Clark spent much of the journey representing America in peace talks and trade with leaders of the Native people groups they met. This region stretched from present-day Louisiana to Montana and was already home to many Native Americans. His inconsistency in writing and communication strained his relationship with officials in Washington, D.C.
His journey with the Corps of Discovery cost Lewis a significant amount of his own money, which he expected the government to pay back.
A year later, Jefferson appointed Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory. Soon after, his mother remarried and moved the family to Georgia. One of his commanding officers happened to be William Clark.
President Thomas Jefferson appointed Lewis to be his aide.
Wilson, friend of Lewis and well known ornithologist erected a fence and marker for his gravesite.
Two stamps were created with Lewis and Clark to commemorate the expedition. John Hinde Curteich, Inc, 2001.
Additional Resources
“Interactive Lewis and Clark Trail.” PBS LearningMedia.
Unfortunately, Lewis never made it to D.C. Part way through his journey, on October 11, 1809, an innkeeper found him dead in his room in Tennessee. Lewis, now a 28-year-old captain, well versed in military and outdoor skills, seemed well suited to lead the team.