# Olin D. Wheeler, The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904 (1904), vol. 1: the pages on Lewis's death at Grinder's Stand — SECONDARY (includes Wheeler's extract of the 1849-50 "Report of the Lewis Monumental Committee" and the later local traditions of murder collected in 1903-04)

CITATION: Olin D. Wheeler, The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904: A Story of the Great Exploration across the Continent in 1804-06 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904), vol. 1, chapter on the "Lewis monument" / death of Lewis (printed pages are not marked in this OCR; the passage lies between the running heads visible in the text).
URL fetched: https://archive.org/download/trailoflewisclar01whee/trailoflewisclar01whee_djvu.txt (Internet Archive item trailoflewisclar01whee)
DATE FETCHED: 2026-09-14
TRANSCRIPTION: OCR of the 1904 printed book; OCR errors NOT corrected; runs of spaces collapsed. Wheeler quotes Wilson's letter (from Coues) and "in part" the 1849-50 committee report, and reports the recollections of Mrs. Anthony (daughter of Polly Spencer, a servant at Grinder's in 1809) and of other Lewis County, Tennessee, residents gathered by his correspondents in 1903-04. These later traditions are hearsay of 1903-04, not primary evidence of 1809, and are saved only because the report may need to cite what the murder tradition consisted of.

---- VERBATIM TEXT (OCR of the scan) ----

6i 


He left Washington July 5, 1803, Harper’s Ferry July 8th, 
and Pittsburg August 31st. At Pittsburg he experienced 
exasperating delay in the completion of a boat in which he 
was to navigate the Ohio River to Louisville. He passed 
Wheeling September 9th, was at Cincinnati from September 
28th to October 3d, and reached St. Louis in December. 
He went overland from Louisville to St. Louis via Kaskaskia, 
while Clark went down the Ohio with his men and the boats. 

That Lewis’s journey down the Ohio was not altogether a 
picnic is shown by the fact that below Wheeling and at 
Marietta he was obliged to use oxen to drag his boat over 
the shoals. He says of these horned assistants: “I find 
them the most efficient sailors in the present state of navi¬ 
gation of the rivers, although they may be considered rather 
clumsy.” 

Lewis was present at the formal transfer of Upper 
Louisiana from the Spanish to the French, at St. Louis, 
March 9th, and from the French to the United States, 
March 10, 1804, and so probably were Clark and the others 
of the party. 

Soon after the return of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 
1806, Lewis was made Governor of Louisiana Territory, — 
March 3, 1807, — succeeding General and Governor James 
Wilkinson, “that faithless servant of his country,” as Capt. 
H. M. Chittenden well characterizes him, and this position 
he held at the time of his death. 

The most interesting question in connection with Lewis 
now is regarding his death. Did he commit suicide, or was 
he murdered? 

I extract from Jefferson’s memoir of Captain Lewis that 
which bears upon this subject: 

Governor Lewis had, from early life, been subject to hypo¬ 
chondriac affections. It was a constitutional disposition in all 
the nearer branches of the family of his name, and was more 


62 


The Trail of Lewis and Clark 


immediately inherited by him from his father. They had not, 
however, been so strong as to give uneasiness to his family. 
While he lived with me in Washington, I observed at times sen¬ 
sible depressions of mind; but, knowdng their constitutional 
source, I estimated their course by what I had seen in the family. 
During his W^estern expedition the constant exertion which that 
required of all the faculties of body and mind suspended these 
distressing affections; but, after his establishment at St. Louis 
in sedentary occupations, they returned upon him with re¬ 
doubled vigour, and began seriously to alarm his friends. He 
was in a paroxysm of one of these when his affairs rendered it 
necessary for him to go to Washington. He proceeded to the 
Chickasaw Bluffs, where he arrived on the sixteenth of Septem¬ 
ber, 1809, with a view of continuing his journey thence by water. 
Mr. Neely, agent of the United States with the Chickasaw 
Indians, arriving there two days after, found' him extremely 
indisposed, and betraying at times some symptoms of a derange¬ 
ment of mind. The rumours of a war with England, and appre¬ 
hensions that he might lose the papers he was bringing on, 
among which were the vouchers of his public accounts, and the 
journals and papers of his W^estern expedition, induced him here 
to change his mind, and to take his course by land through the 
Chickasaw country. Although he appeared somewhat relieved, 
Mr. Neely kindly determined to accompany and watch over him. 
L^nfortunately, at their encampment, after having passed the 
Tennessee one day’s journey, they lost two horses, which obliging 
Mr. Neely to halt for their recovery, the governor proceeded, 
under a promise to wait for him at the house of the first white 
inhabitant on his road. He stopped at the house of a Mr. 
Grinder [or Griner], who not being at home, his wife, alarmed 
at the symptoms of derangement she discovered, gave him up 
the house, and retired to rest herself in an out -house, the gover¬ 
nor’s and Neely’s servants lodging in another. About three 
o’clock in the night he did the deed which plunged his friends 
into affliction, and deprived his country of one of her most 
valued citizens, whose valour and intelligence would have been 
now employed in avenging the wrongs of his country, and in 
emulating by land the splendid deeds which have honoured her 
arm_s on the ocean. It lost, too, to the nation the benefit of re¬ 
ceiving from his own hand the narrative now offered them of his 
sufferings and successes, in endeavouring to extend for them the 
boundaries of science, and to present to their knowledge that 
vast and fertile country which their sons are destined to fill with 
arts, with science, with freedom and happiness. 


Organization and Personnel 


63 


To this melancholy close of the life of one whom posterity 
will declare not to have lived in vain, I have only to add that 
all the facts I have stated are either known to myself or com¬ 
municated by his family or others, for whose truth I have no 
hesitation to make myself responsible; and I conclude with 
tendering you the assurances of my respect and consideration. 

Th. Jefferson. 

Mr. Paul Allen, Philadelphia. 

Dr. Coues discusses this matter very fully, giving, besides 
Jefferson’s version, additional evidence upon both sides of 


Moccasins and Shoe-buckle Used by Captain Lewis. 


it, and he deeides, very sensibly, that unless a more conclu¬ 
sive case ean be made out, Lewis’s name should no longer 
rest under the eloud that the suieide theory had cast upon it. 

The old military road known as the “Natehez Trace,” 
whieh had been, originally, an Indian trail and was, in 1801, 
expanded into a public road by the United States, extended 
from Nashville, Tenn., to Natefiez, Miss., and beyond, and 
was one link in a system of “traees,” or primeval roads, 
from the Atlantic coast settlements to the interior of the 


64 


The Trail of Lewis and Clark 


West and South, in the earlier settlement of the country. 
The taverns or stations on those primitive roads were lonely, 
rude affairs, and in many cases were said to be kept by 
robbers and ruffians. Such was the case with the Grinder 
stand, some seventy odd miles southwest from Nashville, 
where Lewis died. 

Besides Jefferson’s statement, the act of suicide is based 
upon a story told in i8io by Alexander Wilson, the orni¬ 
thologist, which is an improbable tale told to him by Mrs. 
Grinder, wife of the tavern-keeper. Coues gives the letter 
as dated at Natchez, Mississippi Territory, May 28, 1811. 
In George Ord’s “Life of Wilson,’’ in American Ornithology, 
vol. i., now before me, I find the letter, dated Natchez, 
May 18, 1810, addressed to Alexander Lawson, and the part 
relating to Lewis is as follows : 


Next morning (Sunday) I rode six miles to a man’s, of the 
name of Grinder, where our poor friend Lewis perished. In the 
same room where he expired, I took down from Mrs. Grinder the 
particulars of that melancholy event, which affected me ex¬ 
tremely. This house or cabin is seventy-two miles from Nash¬ 
ville, and is the last white man’s as you enter the Indian country. 
Governor Lewis, she said, came hither about sunset, alone, and 
inquired if he could stay for the night; and, alighting, brought 
his saddle into the house. He was dressed in a loose gown, white, 
striped with blue. On being asked if he came alone, he replied 
that there were two servants behind, who would soon be up. 
He called for some spirits, and drank a very little. When the 
servants arrived, one of whom was a negro, he inquired for his 
powder, saying he was sure he had some powder in a canister. 
The servant gave no distinct reply, and Lewis, in the mean¬ 
while, walked backwards and forwards before the door, talking 
to himself. Sometimes, she said, he would seem as if he were 
walking up to her; and would suddenly wheel round, and walk 
back as fast as he could. Supper being ready he sat down, but 
had eaten only a few mouthfuls when he started up, speaking 
to himself in a violent manner. At these times, she says, she 
observed his face to flush as if it had come on him in a fit. He 
lighted his pipe, and drawing a chair to the door sat down, saying 


65 


Organization and Personnel 

to Mrs. Grinder, in a kind tone of voice, “Madam, this is a very 
pleasant evening.” He smoked for some time, but quitted his 
seat and traversed the yard as before. He again sat down to 
his pipe, seemed again composed, and casting his eyes wistfully 
towards the west, observed what a sweet evening it was. Mrs. 
Grinder was preparing a bed for him; but he said he would 
sleep on the floor, and desired the servant to bring the bear 
skins and buffalo robe, which were immediately spread out for 
him; and it being now dusk the woman went off to the kitchen, 
and the two men to the barn, which stands about two hundred 
yards off. The kitchen is only a few paces from the room where 
Lewis was, and the woman being considerably alarmed by the 
behaviour of her guest could not sleep, but listened to him walk¬ 
ing backwards and forwards, she thinks, for several hours, and 
talking aloud, as she said, “like a lawyer.” She then heard the 
report of a pistol, and something fall heavily to the floor, and 
the words ‘ ‘ O Lord! ’ ’ Immediately afterwards she heard another 
pistol, and in a few minutes she heard him at her door calling 
out, “0 madam! give me some water, and heal my wounds L The 
logs being open, and unplastered, she saw him stagger back and 
fall against a stump that stands between the kitchen and room. 
He crawled for some distance, and raised himself by the side of 
a tree, where he sat about a minute. He once more got to the 
room; afterwards he came to the kitchen door, but did not speak; 
she then heard him scraping the bucket with a gourd for water ; 
but it appears that this cooling element was denied the dying 
man! As soon as day broke and not before, the terror of the 
woman having permitted him to remain for two hours in this 
most deplorable situation, she sent two of her children to the 
barn, her husband not being at home, to bring the servants; 
and on going in they found him lying on the bed ; he uncovered 
his side, and showed them where the bullet had entered; a piece 
of the forehead was blown off, and had exposed the brains, 
without having bled much. He begged they would take his 
rifle and blow out his brains, and he would give them all the 
money he had in his trunk. He often said, “I am no coward; 
but I am so strong, so hard to die." He begged the servant not 
to be afraid of him, for that he would not hurt him. He ex¬ 
pired in about two hours, or just as the sun rose above the trees. 
He lies buried close by the common path, with a few loose rails 
thrown over his grave. I gave Grinder money to put a post 
fence around it, to shelter it from the hogs, and from the wolves; 
and he gave me his written promise he would do it. I left this 
place in a very melancholy mood, which was not much allayed 

VOL. I, — 5. 


66 


The Trail of Lewis and Clark 


by the prospect of the gloomy and savage wilderness which I 
was just entering alone. 

Those who are inclined to accept Wilson’s story, aside 
from Mrs. Grinder’s relation to it, should first read Audu¬ 
bon’s narration of his experience with Wilson in i8io, as 
given on pages 30-33 of the Life of Audubon, edited by his 
widow and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 
in order to judge the better as to its entire reliability. 

The various stories of this sad event are, naturally 
enough, widely discrepant in detail and conclusive of noth¬ 
ing. In all of them, Neely; the guardian, is absent hunting 
horses at the supreme moment and the so-called guardian¬ 
ship proves a farce. 

Although Jefferson does not so state, it is understood 
that Lewis had a misunderstanding with the Government 
about his accounts, and this it is stated is what preyed upon 
his sensitive nature and mind and finally forced him to self- 
destruction. 

It is a matter for regret that Jefferson did not par¬ 
ticularize more as to his sources of information regarding 
Lewis’s death and the precise reasons for his conclusion, 
for there is no doubt that the weight of his name alone 
has given the suicide theory a force it otherwise would not 
possess. 

Mrs. Goodlett expresses the belief of the family, as 
follows : 

Of course it will ever be shrouded in mystery, but my father, 
Mr. Charles Meriwether, visited his aunt, Meriwether Lewis’s 
mother, about 1820. She was then eighty years old, but re¬ 
markably vigorous in mind and body, rode around the country 
on horseback like a girl, my father said, and was fond of talking 
of her son. She said his letters, written to her before starting on 
his trip home were full of love and affection, and so hopeful of 
a good time with his old friends, that she never entertained the 
idea for a moment that he had committed suicide. The theory 


67 


Organization and Personnel 

that the family have ever advanced is that he was murdered by 
his Spanish servant who was traveling with him on horseback, 
to take charge of his baggage and to care for his horses. We 
suppose that traveling together for a long distance, it is probable 
that Meriwether Lewis, being of a social and confiding nature, 
had spoken to the Spaniard of the valuable papers and maps he 
was carrying to Virginia; — and knowing that the Governor of 
the State would not travel without plenty of money, that the 
avaricious and treacherous nature of the servant got possession 
of him and he determined to possess himself of what valuables 
Captain Lewis had. The servant was never afterwards heard 
from, nor were the papers. 

Why should a man in the zenith of his glory, with everything 
to live for, looking forward to a visit to his beloved mother, 
sure of a warm welcome from his patron and dear friend, the 
President, and of the grateful appreciation of his countrymen, 
kill himself if he was sane? His family can attest to the fact 
that there was no insanity in his branch of the family. 


R. T. Quarles of Nashville, Tenn., corresponding secre¬ 
tary of the Tennessee Historical Society, and also a de¬ 
scendant of the Lewis family, corroborates Mrs. Goodlett’s 
statement that the family belief is that Lewis was murdered 
by his body servant, stating that not only did the Captain 
have in his possession quite a sum of money, but also family 
jewels of far greater value. 

Mrs. Goodlett is, without doubt, I think, in error as to 
the servant and papers. In Jefferson’s Complete Works p 
there is a letter from Jefferson to the President of the United 
States dated Monticello, November 26, 1809. In this he 
refers to two trunks that “Maj. Neely,” the Indian agent, 
has and to two more in care of Captain Russel, at Chickasaw 
Bluffs, belonging to Lewis. The first two contained “ public 
vouchers, manuscripts of his Western journey and private 
papers” ; the others, Pernier, Lewis’s servant, said contained 
Lewis’s private property. These came into Jefferson’s 


^ Vol. V., p. 480. 


68 


The Trail of Lewis and Clark 


possession. Pernier said that Lewis owed him $240 for un¬ 
paid wages. 

Correspondence with B. R. A. Scott of Galveston, Texas, 
and his wife, and with Mrs. S. E. Shelton of Waco, Texas, 
has developed some facts of interest. Mrs. Shelton and 
Mrs. Scott are both great-nieces of Captain Lewis and Mr. 
Scott is more remotely related to him. After referring to 
the family belief that Lewis’s servant had murdered him 
and disappeared with his personal effects, Mrs. Shelton adds : 


After a lapse of years, perhaps as many as thirty, he [the 
servant] sent a trunk of papers to my grandmother, Mrs. William 
H. Moore, nee Mary Garland Marks, a half sister of Meriwether 
Lewis. In this trunk was a will, in which Lewis made her his 
heiress to lands, of the extent of which I am ignorant, but which 
are now in the midst of the city of St. Louis. Such a long time 
had elapsed before she recovered the papers that the property 
had passed into other hands and she compromised her claim for 
six thousand dollars. 

The late Chief Justice Moore of Texas, son of the Mrs. 
William Moore mentioned by Mrs. Shelton, informed Mr. 
Scott that his father, William Moore, had at one time, on 
the Mississippi River, recognized some personal property of 
Governor Lewis, a gold watch as he recalls it, in the pos¬ 
session of a man whom he supposed to be the Spanish servant 
who had travelled with Lewis, and that he secured the watch 
at once and Mr. Scott thinks that branch of the family still 
retains it. 

Mrs. H. M. Conklin of Corpus Christi, Texas, and a 
great-niece of Captain Lewis, writes me that “the gun Uncle 
Meriwether used in the expedition was given to my father, 
Col. J. M. Moore. It was sunk in a boat with many other 
relics when the Federal gunboats attacked this place in 
1862.” 

In 1843, the Tennessee Legislature formed Lewis County, 


Organization and Personnel 69 

in Captain Lewis’s honor, and, in 1848, it appropriated five 
hundred dollars to ereet a monument over his grave. His 
remains rest in the centre of this county. 

The “Report of the Lewis Monumental Committee” to 
the Tennessee General Assembly — 1849-50 — announcing the 
completion of the monument, says in part: 

The impression has long prevailed that under the influence 
of disease of body and mind — of hopes based upon long and 
valuable services — not merely deferred but wholly disappointed 
— Governor Lewis perished by his own hands. It seems to be 
more probable that he died by the hands of an assassin. 


We thus have the opinions of the Lewis family and that 
of a committee of the Tennessee General Assembly directly 
opposed to that of the President. 

On September 6, 1891, there appeared in the Nashville, 
Tenn., American, an article relating to the death of Captain 
Lewis by “ John Quill,” otherwise James D. Park, a lawyer of 
Franklin, Tenn., much of which is reproduced by Dr. Coues 
in his discussion of this subject. Through the kindness of 
Hon. E. C. Lewis of Nashville, I have been supplied with 
a reprinted galley proof of this Park communication, a copy 
of the American containing it being unobtainable. The 
American has since reprinted the article. 

Mr. Park seems to have as thoroughly investigated the 
whole matter as was then possible and his conclusion was 
that Lewis had been murdered and robbed. He says in part : 

It has always been the firm belief of the people of this region 
that Gov. Lewis was murdered and robbed. The oldest citizens 
now living remember the rumors current at the time as to the 
murder, and it seems that no thought of suicide ever obtained 
footing here. The writer recently had an interview with Mrs. 
Christina B. Anthony, who lives some two miles from the Lewis 
grave, and has lived all her life of 77 years in the neighborhood. 
She says that old man Grinder kept a “stand” for travelers 


Organization and Personnel 71 

on the Natchez Trace. Polly Spencer, whom she knew well 
before her death about forty years ago, was a hired girl at 
Grinder’s, when Gov. Lewis was killed. Polly had often told 
the circumstances of the murder so far as she personally knew 
them. 

She was washing dishes in the kitchen after supper with some 
of the females of the family when they heard a shot in the room 
where Capt. Lewis was sleeping. All rushed into the room and 
found him dead in his bed. Capt. Lewis being fatigued from his 
journey, had retired immediately after supper. His only com¬ 
panion, she said, was a negro boy, who was attending to the 
horses in the barn at the time. Old Grinder, who was of Indian 
blood, was at once suspected of the murder, ran away, was cap¬ 
tured at Cane Creek, brought back and tried, but the proof not 
being positive, he was released. Only 25 cents was found on 
the person of Capt. Lewis after he was shot. 

Old Grinder soon afterwards removed to the western part of 
the State, and it was reported in his old neighborhood had 
bought a number of slaves and a farm and seemed to have plenty 
of money. Before this he had always been quite poor. 

Mrs. Anthony says the people always believed old Grinder 
killed Mr. Lewis and got his money. She had never heard of the 
theory of suicide until the writer mentioned it to her. Mrs. 
Anthony was a young married woman, boarding with the father 
of Polly Spencer when Polly told her these circumstances. Mrs. 
Anthony thus heard an ear-witness, so to speak, relate the story 
of the murder, which is pretty direct evidence. She is a bright, 
active, and intelligent old lady, and has for many years kept the 
little hotel at the hamlet of Newburg, the county seat of Lewis 
County, which is just two miles east of the monument. 

Others living in Lewis and adjoining counties have been con¬ 
versed with, who remember the general belief at the time, that 
Grinder killed his guest for the purpose of robbery. He must 
have observed that Capt. Lewis was a person of distinction and 
wealth; that he was almost alone, and that he probably had 
money with him. It seems incredible that a young man of 35, 
the Governor of the vast Territory of Louisiana, then on the 
way from his capital to that of the nation, where he knew he 
would be received with all the distinction and consideration 
due his office and reputation, should take his own life. His 
whole character is a denial of this theory. He was too brave 
and conscientious in the discharge of every duty, public and 
private; too conspicuous a person in the eyes of the country, 
and crowned with too many laurels, to cowardly sneak out of 


72 


The Trail of Lewis and Clark 


the world by the back way, a self-murderer. This idea was 
doubtless invented to cover up the double crime of robbery and 
murder and seems to have been the only version of his death 
that reached Mr, Jefferson and other friends in Virginia. 

Mr. Park’s version does not aecord very well with 
Wilson’s account in some important particulars, which is 
by no means any reflection on the former. 

In 1899, hoping to obtain additional matter from Mr. 
Park, I wrote to him at Franklin, and received in reply a 
letter from his father. Dr. J. S. Park, announcing his son’s 
death in 1897. I quote a sentence: “The further my son 
investigated the matter the more certain he believed that 
Lewis was murdered.” 

The Army Alagaztne, in 1894, reprinted from the Southern 
Magazine an article on the death of Captain Lewis, by 
Verne S. Pease. It is opposed to the idea of suicide, but 
whether based upon original investigation or upon Mr. 
Park’s paper does not appear. It is an extremely readable 
paper, but quite variant, in many ways, from any other 
discussion of the event which I have seen, and gives as 
facts many details not found elsewhere. 

He gives old man Grinder and his family a very hard 
name ; states that he was practically under the surveillance 
of the whole neighborhood; that “a white servant girl, 
famous for her fine cooking [presumably Polly Spencer], was 
kept on the place, and the fame of the stand for dinners soon 
reached from one end of the trace to the other” ; that “the 
sudden mysterious disappearance of several rich planters” 
travelling along the trace in that locality was ascribed to 
Grinder and his accomplices. He also stated that Grinder 
burned his house and fled the very night of Lewis’s death, 
and that a coroner’s inquest rendered a verdict of guilty of 
“murder at the hands of Joshua Grinder,” after listening to 
the testimony of Polly Spencer and others. 


Receipt Showing Payment of a Protested Bill of Governor Lewis's by General 
Wm. Clark, after the Death of Lewis. 


73 


74 


The Trail of Lewis and Clark 


It is now, undoubtedly, too late definitely and absolutely 
to decide this question. The evidence on both sides, so far 
as we have it, is circumstantial, contradictory, and inde¬ 
terminate. Certainly the preponderance of testimony is 
hardly in favor of suicide. It seems a little odd, if Governor 
Lewis really suffered seriously from a recurrence of his old 
malady, that his family descendants know or, at least, say 
nothing of it and do not offer that as an excuse — a sufficient 
one truly — for the supposed act of suicide. 

It seems strange too, that after passing through such 
discouragements and obstacles as beset him on his explora¬ 
tion, when there were periods during which one said to be 
so afflicted might well have become disheartened and done 
a rash act, Lewis succumbed to a supposed reappearance of 
a distressing malady when scarcely yet in the prime of life 
and when life held so much for him. It does not seem 
probable, but it may have been possible. 

I cannot, however, but believe that time and the name 
of Jefferson have given a fictitious weight to the theory of 
suicide, and that now, considering the uncertain nature of 
the evidence, the time has come to give Governor Lewis the 
full and unreserved benefit of the doubt and relieve his name 
and fame of the imputation heretofore resting upon it. 

The Lewis monument is made of Tennessee marble, is 
twenty and one half feet in height, and the broken column 
is two and one half feet in diameter at the base. 

There are four different and appropriate inscriptions on 
the plinth, one on each side, which I reproduce exactly as 
given in Mr. Park’s article, as shown by the galley proof : 

{West Face) 

MERIWETHER LEWIS 
Born near Charlottesville, Va., Aug. i8, 

1774, died Oct. ii, 1809, aged 35 years. 


Organization and Personnel 75 

{South Face) 

An officer of the Regular Army. Com¬ 
mander of the expedition to the Oregon 
in 1803-1806. Governor of the Terri¬ 
tory of Louisiana. His melan¬ 
choly death occurred where 
this monument now 
stands, and under 
which rest his mor¬ 
tal remains. 

{East Face) 

In the language of Jefferson: “His cour¬ 
age was undaunted. His firmness and 
perseverance yielded to nothing but 
impossibilities. A rigid disciplinar¬ 
ian, yet tender as a father to those 
committed to his charge; honest, 
disinterested, liberal, with a 
sound understanding, and a