# Nashville Democratic Clarion, 20 October 1809: the first newspaper notice of Lewis's death — FRAGMENTS ONLY (SUMMARY + phrases quoted by secondary authors) CITATION (primary): The Democratic Clarion (Nashville, Tenn.), Friday 20 October 1809 (microfilm: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, roll 113; Nashville Public Library, Nashville Room). Not digitized in Chronicling America (Library of Congress) as of the fetch date; no open scan found (archive.org has no title match). CITATIONS (secondary texts used here): (A) Tony L. Turnbow, "The Man Who Abandoned Meriwether Lewis," We Proceeded On 38:2 (May 2012), pp. 20-31 (text and nn. 29, 38); (B) Kira Gale, "A Cold Case Mystery," We Proceeded On 42:4 (Nov. 2016), pp. 22-28 (text, caption, n. 22); (C) John Danisi and Thomas C. Danisi, "Uncovering Jefferson's Account of Lewis's Mysterious Death," We Proceeded On 38:4 (Nov. 2012), text and n. 12; Thomas C. Danisi, Uncovering the Truth about Meriwether Lewis (2012), p. 236, is said by (C) to print it. URL fetched: https://lewisandclark.org/wpo/pdf/vol38no2.pdf ; vol42no4.pdf ; vol38no4.pdf (text extracted with PyMuPDF) DATE FETCHED: 2026-09-14 TRANSCRIPTION: FRAGMENT. The Clarion's text was NOT obtained. What the secondary authors report: (A) the Clarion's story followed the Neelly account but added that Lewis "also suffered knife or razor wounds to the throat and 'hams'"; the same issue carried an advertisement placed by Neelly (dated 3 Oct. 1809, about a horse thief, Van Meter); (C) quotes the Clarion's eulogy: "he [Lewis] was a pupil of the immortal Jefferson - by him he was reared ... was instructed in the tour of the sciences ... was introduced to public life ... [was] to command". Chuinard (WPO 17:4, Nov. 1991, p. 5) and Cutright (WPO 12:1, 1986) summarize later garbled reprints ("cut his arm and neck and ham with a razor"). NOTE: The National Intelligencer's 27 Nov. 1809 notice (saved separately) prints an "Extract of a letter from a gentleman, dated Nashville, Tennessee, 18th October, 1809" whose wording matches Brahan's 18 Oct. letters; that Washington text is probably NOT the Clarion's. ---- (A) Turnbow, WPO 38:2 (May 2012), verbatim as extracted ---- wrote a letter to President Jefferson, the same date as the Neelly letter, essentially repeating the facts stated in the Neelly letter.38 The Nashville Democratic Clarion published a news story based upon the same account (adding its own detail that Lewis also suffered knife or razor wounds to the throat and “hams” or misspelling for “hands”). That story was picked up by other papers across the nation. It is likely that witnesses who had seen Lewis’s body reported the additional wounds, but the Clarion account otherwise matches the Neelly letter, suggesting a common source. The same issue contains an advertisement from Neelly, implying or confirming his contact with the paper. The Neelly version of events—put forward through the newspaper account, the report to Captain Brahan, and the letter to President Jefferson—was quickly established as the official and accepted version of Governor Meriwether Lewis’s death. [Turnbow's note 38:] contingent upon good behavior. The Democratic Clarion, 20 October 1809, microfilm, Nashville Public Library Reference Room, Nashville Public Library, Nashville. The inventory of Lewis’s possessions included an old razor box but the razor was apparently missing. Memorandum of Lewis’s Personal Effects, Thomas Freeman, 23 November, 1809, Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854, ed. Donald Jackson, (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1962), pp. 470-472. ---- (B) Gale, WPO 42:4 (Nov. 2016), verbatim as extracted (text, then caption, then note 22) ---- announcement placed in the Nashville, ­Natchez, and New Orleans newspapers. It appeared in the same issue of the Nashville Democratic-­Clarion (October 20) that reported the death of Governor Lewis. The announce- ment was dated October 3. The young thief had been apprehended and was being taken to jail in Nashville.22 This plays a role later on, because everything we think we know about the last days of Meriwether Lewis Route from Fort Pickering to Nashville. KIRA   GALE Newspaper ad, October 20, 1809, from the Nashville Demo- cratic Clarion, placed by Neelly. TENNESSEE STATE LIBRARY ARCHIVES, MERIWETHER LEWIS COLLECTION Nashville jail for two months and until his fine of $10 and prose- cution costs were paid. The newspaper advertisement said that Van Meter was a resident of Virginia. Nashville Democratic-Clarion, Octo- ber 20, 1809 (Tennessee State Archives).     James Neelly went to extraordinary lengths in getting signed tes- timony from area residents and paying for ads in the three leading regional newspapers. Thomas Danisi did not acknowledge the exis- tence of the advertisement placed in the same October 20 issue of the Nashville Democratic Clarion which announced the death of Meri- wether Lewis. It disproves his theory. Danisi says Neelly and Lewis ---- (C) Danisi & Danisi, WPO 38:4 (Nov. 2012), verbatim as extracted (text, then note 12) ---- Jefferson's view of his friend's death, Democratic Clarion, a newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee, wrote in 1809: "he [Lewis] was a pupil of the immortal Jefferson - by him he was reared ... was instructed in the tour of the sciences ... was introduced to public life ... [was] to command a projected exploring party to the north west coast." 12 Jefferson was also the central person who was kept informed by many correspondents 12Democratic Clarion, October 20, 1809, microfilm roll 113, Tennessee State Library, Nashville, Tennessee; Danisi, Uncovering the Truth about Meriwether Lewis, 236. ---- UPDATE ---- The complete text of the Clarion's 20 Oct. 1809 notice (obituary + eulogy + Gray's Elegy lines) was afterwards obtained as reprinted, datelined "NASHVILLE, Oct. 20.", in the Kentucky Gazette (Lexington), 31 Oct. 1809, p. 3, col. 1 (Chronicling America sn82014783), and is transcribed from the page images in sources/1809-10-31_kentucky_gazette_reprint_of_clarion_20oct1809.md. That file supersedes this one for the wording of the death account. Note the actual wording: "cut his neck arm and ham with a razor" (not "throat"). Neelly's Van Meter advertisement (Gale) and the Nashville microfilm citations remain only here.