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By Topic: Missouri | |
Saturday, August 02, 2008Were lead mines the reason Meriwether Lewis was murdered?The immense fortunes to be had in lead mining operations south of St. Louis may have been the reason Meriwether Lewis was murdered. Captain Amos Stoddard reported to Congress that “no part of the world furnished lead ore in greater quantities and purities.” Lead was used to make bullets for guns; and Congress voted to reserve and lease all land containing lead in the territory. William Carr, the federal land agent, said that the profits from the leasing and sale of public lands could pay for almost the entire $15 million cost of the Louisiana Purchase within a few years. But after the U. S. acquired the territory, the lead district became the scene of raging “mineral wars,” with armed groups battling for control. The chief troublemaker was John Smith T., a relative of General James Wilkinson.
When Meriwether Lewis was appointed Governor of Louisiana Territory he wrote to William Clark appointing him Brigadier General of Louisiana Territory. In this letter of March 13, 1807, he wrote “It is my wish that every person who holds an appointment of profit or honor in that territory and against whom sufficient proof of the infection of Burrism can be adduced, should be immediately dismissed from office without partiality favor or affection, as I can never make any terms with traitors.” He named three men, one of whom was John Smith T. The three men had set off down the Mississippi to join Aaron Burr in his planned invasion of Mexico, but had turned back upon learning of President Jefferson’s denouncement of Burr as a traitor. Posted by Kira Gale on 08/02/2008 at 09:02 AM GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Missouri • (2) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us |
Friday, May 30, 2008Aaron Burr, Meriwether Lewis and the Burr-Wilkinson Conspiracy, Part 3Lewis and Clark receive new appointments Clark went immediately to St. Louis, arriving there in April, 1807 to take up his duties. They were all concerned about having a dependable military officer in charge of the region, in light of the recent Burr conspiracy and threats of war. Lewis remained in the east, while Frederick Bates, the new Territorial Secretary, assumed Lewis’s duties as Acting Governor. 1807: Returning to the Upper Missouri In June, a joint military-commercial expedition of 102-108 people started up river under the command of Sgt. Nathaniel Pryor and Auguste Pierre Chouteau to deliver the Mandan Chief Sheheke, his wife and child, and the family of interpreter Rene Jessaume back home to their villages on the Knife River in North Dakota. (Sheheke: Mandan Indian Diplomat by Tracy Potter, pp 138-150) They were attacked by about 650 Arikara warriors in South Dakota on September 9th. Four men were killed and nine wounded; George Shannon, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, ultimately lost his leg from this battle. The expedition turned back and another attempt wouldn’t be made until 1809. Clark at Big Bone Lick Lewis seeks a wife: the drawbacks of St. Louis St. Louis was a town of about one thousand residents, which for years it had been under the rule of French and Spanish governments. For the last two years it had been under the corrupt administrations of General Wilkinson and Aaron Burr’s brother-in-law, Joseph Brown, the Secretary of the Territory. It was not only a center of intrigue regarding conspiracies to invade Spanish territories, it was also a center of land speculation and quarreling factions. It was almost the only American or French town in all of Louisiana Territory, a land which encompassed hundreds of miles of Indian Country, from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and the Canadian border. In the event of war with Britain, France or Spain and their Indian allies—wars which were routinely predicted in the newspapers of that time—St Louis would be attacked. In short it was a dangerous place to live, on the edge of a great frontier.
Lewis was concerned about presenting the scientific information and discoveries accurately. He spent the months of April, May and June in Philadelphia working on his field notes, and attending the monthly meetings of the American Philosophical Society. He made arrangements with horticulturists, botanists, and artists regarding the seeds and dried plant specimens he had brought back. He discussed his numerous scientific findings with experts. He sat for his portraits by Charles Willson Peale and Charles St. Memin. He was still settling accounts with the War Department accountant, providing receipts and explanations of expenses, and running errands for Jefferson at local stores. He was also having fun attending parties, being with friends, and looking for a wife. Lewis writes a policy paper It was called “Observations and reflections on the present and future state of Upper Louisiana, in relation to the government of the Indian nations inhabiting that country, and the trade and intercourse with the same. By Captain Lewis.” It was included in Biddle’s edition of the Lewis and Clark Journals, published in 1814. Lewis also later used parts of it in a letter to the Secretary of War and as an article in The Missouri Gazette. The Burr Treason Trial (July-October) Wilkinson himself narrowly escaped indictment for treason, by a 7 to 9 vote of the grand jury (The Burr Conspiracy by Thomas Abernathy, page 241). He was a witness in the trial, and was less than credible according to all accounts. Jefferson was passionately interested in convicting Aaron Burr for treason. In the end, the verdict delivered by the Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, concluded that Burr was not guilty of treason—that is, of levying of war against the United States—although he was probably guilty of planning to invade Spanish territory. The government lost heart in pursuing the lesser charge, and the matter was dropped. En route to his new life in St Louis By late November Meriwether and his brother Reuben were in Fincastle. Reuben was moving to St. Louis also. Another traveling companion was Meriwether Lewis’s personal valet, John Pernier, a free mulatto. Pernier had been a servant in Jefferson’s White House. Wages for him were noted in Jefferson’s financial records for parts of 1804 and 1805. (“On the Death of Meriwether Lewis’s Servant” by Donald Jackson published in the The William and Mary Quarterly in July, 1964, pp 445-448). Pernier was present at the scene of Lewis’s death on October 11, 1809, as they were traveling together back to Washington on the Natchez Trace. Lewis wrote his mother on February 15th, 1808 that he was in Louisville and that Reuben was already en route to St Louis “in a flat bottomed boat with my baggage and carriage.” He wrote “I have for near two months been traversing this state in various directions in order to seek for and secure by every necessary arrangement the lands belonging to myself and Mary & John Markes.” [his mother’s children by her second husband] Lewis Starts a Newspaper “Those who wish to subscribe to the MISSOURI GAZETTE, are respectively informed that a subscription book is open at this Office. A capable Editor is employed, and a number of Gentlemen have volunteered to devote their leasure hours in writing on such subjects as will enrich its columns. Essays on Indian antiquity, Mines, Minerals, and an account of the Fur-Trade, with Topographical Scetches will be diligently sought after. Lewis had hired a Louisville printer, Joseph Charless, to go to St. Louis and start the first newspaper to be published west of the Missouri River. To be continued…
Posted by Kira Gale on 05/30/2008 at 10:24 AM GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Missouri • PEOPLE • Aaron Burr • James Wilkinson • Meriwether Lewis • William Clark • NATIVE AMERICAN • (1) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us |
Aaron Burr, Meriwether Lewis and the Burr-Wilkinson Conspiracy, Part 2The “missing months” of 1806-07 After the expedition members arrived in St. Louis on September 23, 1806, looking like “Robinson Crusoes in buckskin” as one observer put it, there was a round of parties and celebrations as Lewis and Clark began making their way back east to Washington, D.C.. But soon their paths separated as Clark pursued personal matters, and Lewis continued to perform his duties as a government official. Meriwether Lewis now emerges from the historical record as the true commander of the expedition, because all of the post-expedition responsibilities fell upon him. It was up to him to make the official report to the President; to escort the Mandan Chief Big White and his entourage to Washington; to settle the expedition’s financial accounts with the government, and to arrange for the men to be paid in cash and land. It was also his responsibility to publish their journals, maps, and scientific observations. It is easy to forget that he was a young man, 32 years old, who had just returned from a three and a half year grand adventure and that he was anxious to get back to his home in Charlottesville,Virginia, to see if his mother was still alive, and to be reunited with his family and friends. The last part of the return journey On October 30th they were in Vincennes, Indiana visiting William Henry Harrison, the Governor of Indiana Territory. When they reached Louisville, Kentucky, they celebrated their return at a dinner party on November 8th at Locust Grove, the home of William Clark’s sister Lucy and her husband William Croghan. Clark and York remained behind in Louisville visiting family and friends, while the rest of the group continued on to Washington by two different routes. Chouteau and the Osages traveled east to Lexington, Kentucky, and from there to Washington; while Lewis’s party headed south towards the Cumberland Gap. (All of the places mentioned in this blog are featured in my book, Lewis and Clark Road Trips, which has195 destinations east of St Louis.) A gift to Virginia Clark visits his girlfriend in Fincastle Turmoil in Washington and New Orleans On November 27, 1806 Jefferson finally issued an order for the arrest of his former Vice-President and his allies, after receiving a hysterical letter from Wilkinson warning of the filibuster. Wilkinson estimated Burr’s force at 1,000-1,500 men, while it was actually between 60-100 men. Wilkinson and Burr and many others had been plotting the invasion of the Spanish Southwest for months (if not decades), but Wilkinson turned on his colleagues and switched sides. The Neutral Ground Agreement In October, 1806 Wilkinson avoided a war with Spain by making a private deal with General Simon Herrera, to withdraw his Mexican troops back across the Sabine River. Their “Neutral Ground Agreement,” signed on November 5, 1806, established a no-man’s land between the two countries. The 40 mile wide strip of land subsequently became a haven for outlaws, pirates and filibustering expeditions until the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 settled the boundary issues. Wilkinson thus managed to please both his Spanish paymasters and the President, while sacrificing his friend and fellow conspirator, Aaron Burr. Years later it was proven that Wilkinson had been receiving payments from the Spanish Government since 1787. Although charges of secret payments were widely alleged at the time, it was never conclusively proven until the Spanish archives were opened. After betraying Burr, Wilkinson sent a representative to the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico asking for payment of 121,000 pesos for stopping the invasion, but the request was refused. He did, however,—in typical Wilkinson fashion—manage to sell a report and maps of his messenger’s trip to the American government for $1,750. Wilkinson betrays Burr and his fellow conspirators The eventful year of 1807 Aaron Burr, meanwhile, had been arrested at Bayou Pierre near Natchez, Mississippi on January 10th. Several balls were given in his honor as he awaited trial in the Mississippi territorial court at Washington, Mississippi. No one believed that Burr planned to separate the western states, and many local citizens were in favor of invading Spanish territories. On February 4, 1807 the grand jury refused to indict him. The next day, fearing for his life, Burr fled from arrest by Wilkinson’s men. A $2,000 reward was offered for his capture. He was caught on February 13th and brought to Richmond, Virginia in March, where he stood trial for treason on August 7, 1807. To be continued…
Posted by Kira Gale on 05/30/2008 at 09:53 AM GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Mexico • Missouri • New Orleans • Virginia • PEOPLE • Aaron Burr • James Wilkinson • Meriwether Lewis • William Clark • NATIVE AMERICAN • (2) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us |
Monday, April 28, 2008The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12
The Mississippi ran backwards After the February 7th earthquake, boatmen reported that the Mississippi actually ran backwards for several hours. The force of the land upheaval 15 miles south of New Madrid created Reelfoot lake, drowned the inhabitants of an Indian village; turned the river against itself to flow backwards; devastated thousands of acres of virgin forest; and created two temporary waterfalls in the Mississippi. Boatmen on flatboats actually survived this experience and lived to tell the tale. Getting over cracks As the general area experienced more than 2,000 earthquakes in five months, people discovered that most of crevices opening up during an earthquake ran from north to south, and when the earth began moving, they would chop down trees in an east- west direction and hold on using the tree as a bridge. There were “missing people” who were most likely swallowed up by the earth. Some earthquake fissures were as long as five miles. Strange Earthquake Phenonema Sand boils: The world’s largest sand boil was created by the New Madrid earthquake. It is 1.4 miles long and 136 acres in extent, located in the Bootheel of Missouri, about 8 miles west of Hayti, Missouri. Locals call it “The Beach.” Other, much smaller, sand boils are found throughout the area. Seismic tar balls: Small pellets up to golf ball sized tar balls are found in sand boils and fissures. They are petroleum that has been solidified, or “petroliferous nodules.” Earthquake lights: Lights flashed from the ground, caused by quartz crystals being squeezed. The phenomena is called “seismoluminescence.” Warm water: Water thrown up by an earthquake was lukewarm. The authors speculate that shaking caused the water to heat up and/or quartz light heated the water. Earthquake smog: The skies turned dark during an earthquake, so dark that lighted lamps didn’t help. The air smelled bad, and it was hard to breathe. The authors speculate it was a smog containing dust particles caused by the eruption of warm water into cold air. Loud thunder: Sounds of distant thunder and loud explosions accompanied earthquakes. Animal warnings: People reported strange behavior by animals before the earthquakes. They were nervous and excited. Domestic animals became wild, and wild animals became tame. Snakes came out of the ground from hibernation. Flocks of ducks and geese landed near people.
The earthquakes were preceded by the appearance of a great comet, which was visible around the globe for seventeen months, and was at its brightest during the earthquakes. The comet, with an orbit of 3,065 years, was last seen during the time of Ramses II in Egypt. In 1811-1812, it was called “Tecumseh’s Comet” (or “Napoleon’s Comet” in Europe). Tecumseh was a Shawnee Indian leader whose name meant “Shooting Star” or “He who walks across the sky.” He was given this name at birth. A great orator and military leader, Tecumseh organized a confederation of Indian tribes to oppose the takeover of 3 million acres of Indian lands, which were obtained by the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809. His brother, a religious leader called “The Prophet,” had gained fame when he foretold the total eclipse of the sun on June 16, 1806. (They had learned about it in advance from a team of visiting astronomers.) During this time, the Governor of Indiana Territory William Henry Harrison—worried about The Prophet’s popularity—had challenged him to produce a miracle. After the day of the “Black Sun” the brothers had no trouble attracting followers. A Black Sun was said to predict a future war. On September 17, 1811 there was another solar eclipse—which, again, was predicted by The Prophet. The brothers’ center of operations was at Prophet’s Town, located near the junction of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers in northern Indiana. Tecumseh was traveling and recruiting warriors among the southeastern tribes, when Governor Harrison attacked Prophet’s Town with over a 1,000 men on November 6, 1811, a pre-emptive strike by the U. S., which marked the beginning of “Tecumseh’s War.” On December 16th, when the earthquakes began, Tecumseh was at the Shawnee and Delaware Indian villages near Cape Girardeau, 50 miles north of the epicenter at New Madrid. The earthquakes continued as he traveled back to Prophet’s Town, arriving there in February, 1812. Tecumseh’s followers lost the Battle of Tippecanoe, but they continued to fight as allies of the British during the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. Tecumseh was killed in battle in Canada in 1813. He is honored as one of the greatest of Indian leaders, both in the United States, and in Canada, where he is considered a national hero.
The first steamboat travel on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers took place during the New Madrid earthquakes. The New Orleans set out from Pittsburgh on October 20, 1811 bound for New Orleans. Captain Nicholas Roosevelt had brought along his young wife, their 2 year old daughter, and a Labrador dog. Ten days after leaving Pittsburgh, his wife Lydia gave birth to a son in Louisville, Kentucky. They waited a while for her to recover, and for the water to rise prior to crossing the dangerous waters and coral reef at the Falls of the Ohio. On the night before the day of the earthquake, December 16th, the steamboat was anchored near Owensboro, Kentucky, about 200 miles east of New Madrid, Missouri. Their dog, Tiger, insisted on staying in the cabin with them instead of sleeping on the deck. Without realizing it, they were heading straight towards the epicenter of the greatest earthquake in American history. Their steamboat, intended to be an advertisement for steam travel, was thought instead to be the cause of the earthquake by many who saw it. At Henderson, Kentucky, where no chimneys were left standing, they stopped to visit their friends, the painter John James Audubon and his wife Lucy. Floating in the middle of the Ohio River they were protected from the earthquake tremors shaking the land, but not from the hazards of falling trees, disappearing islands, and collapsing river banks. After entering Indian Territory on December 18th, they were chased by Indians who figured the “fire canoe” had caused the earthquake, but they managed to escape capture by outrunning them. They even had a small cabin fire that night which they managed to put out. Thousands of trees were floating on the waters of the Mississippi as they approached New Madrid on December 19th, three days after the earthquake. They found that the town of New Madrid had been destroyed. They didn’t dare to stop and pick up a few survivors, for fear of being overrun, and they were without supplies. Most alarming was the fact that they had not seen a boat ascending the river in three days. They saw wrecked and abandoned boats. It was undoubtedly a miracle that they survived and kept on going. They tied up at one island, and the island sank during the night. Their dog, Tiger, alerted them to oncoming tremors. On December 22nd, they encountered the British naturalist John Bradbury on a boat at the mouth of the St. Francis River, who told them the town of Big Prairie was gone. They arrived at Natchez, Mississippi on December 30th and celebrated the first marriage aboard a steamboat on December 31st, when the steamboat engineer married Lydia’s maid! They arrived at New Orleans on January 10th, 1812, safe and sound, after traveling 1,900 miles from Pittsburgh on the first steamboat to travel the western waters. Highly Recommended Reading The source of most of this material is from The Earthquake America Forgot: 2,000 Temblors in Five Months…And It Will Happen Again! by Dr. David Stewart and Dr. Ray Knox. (1995, Gutenberg-Richter Publications, 375 pages). The authors are geoscientists, specializing in earthquakes. The book is one of the most fascinating I have ever read; it is factual and entertaining, and crammed with every imaginable bit of relevant information, great stories, photos, maps and illustrations. Call the publishers at 1-800-758-8629 to order this and The New Madrid Fault Finders Guide by the authors. Posted by Kira Gale on 04/28/2008 at 09:00 PM GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Missouri • New Madrid Earthquakes • PEOPLE • NATIVE AMERICAN • Tecumseh • War of 1812 • (4) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us |
Monday, January 28, 2008What happened to Sacagawea’s children?
The earliest probate court records of St. Louis were discovered in an old safe at the courthouse last fall, containing guardianship proceedings regarding Sacagawea’s children.The story made the Fox News broadcast in St Louis on January 21, 2008. The record, shown here, is of an Orphans Court hearing held on August 11, 1813. William Clark’s name is added to the document, substituted for the name of the original guardian, John Luttig, who was the company clerk of the Missouri Fur Company. What’s the story behind this? Lewis and Clark fans know that Toussaint, also known by his nickname “Pompey,” or as Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, was born on February 11, 1805 at Fort Mandan near Bismarck, North Dakota. This would make him 8 ½ years old. However, William Clark was not in St Louis at the time the hearing was held. He would have known the precise age of his adopted son, who was already living in St Louis and attending a boarding school.The father, Toussaint Charbonneau, Sr. was also not “deceased” though he was believed to be so at the time. He lived until about 1840. Toussaint and Sacagawea and their son Pompey came to St. Louis in 1809 with Manuel Lisa and Pierre Chouteau, who had successfully delivered the Mandan Chief, Sheheke, or Big White, back to his village in North Dakota where the Charbonneau family was living. William Clark had requested they bring Pompey to St Louis where he would provide for his education when he was old enough to go to school. The Charbonneau family lived in Florissant, the town next to St Charles, for a year or more before returning home. They went back up river with Manuel Lisa in 1811, leaving their six year old son in William’s Clark’s care. Sacagawea’s Death at Fort Manuel in 1812 Sacagawea died on Fort Manuel in Kenel, South Dakota on December 20, 1812. The Orphan Court record confirms that it was Sacagawea, rather than Charbonneau’s other Shoshone wife, who died at Fort Manuel. John Luttig wrote in his journal on Sunday, December 20, 1812: "this evening the wife of Charbonneau a Snake Squar, died of a putrid fever, she was a good and the best Women in the fort, aged abt 25 years she left a fine infant girl." The little baby girl, Lisette, and an Indian woman to care for her, must have been brought down to St Louis by Lisa’s men as they retreated back to St Louis after Fort Manuel was attacked by Indians allies of the British during the War of 1812.The attack occurred sometime after March 5, 1813, the last date of entry in Luttig’s Journal. According to Richard Oglesby’s biography of Manuel Lisa, fifteen men of the Missouri Fur Company died in the attack. Was Lisette named for Manuel Lisa? It’s a possibility. Luttig’s Journal of a Fur Trading Expedition 1812-13 is very interesting to read. The 1920 version is available on the internet. Here’s the link: http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/html/Luttig/ The Missouri Fur Company expedition retreated down river to St Louis, stopping to build Fort Lisa near the site of Council Bluffs, where Fort Atkinson was later built, north of Omaha, Nebraska. Fort Lisa became the westernmost fort defending the American frontier during the War of 1812. Lisa returned and made his headquarters there in 1814, appointed as a special Indian Agent by William Clark. I published a booklet, Defending the Western Frontier: Manuel Lisa and the War of 1812 in the Omaha-Council Bluffs Area, based on a paper I gave at the Missouri Valley History Conference in 1999. I will blog at other times about the children, and also about the War of 1812 out west. Posted by Kira Gale on 01/28/2008 at 04:51 PM GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Forts/Trading Posts • Missouri • North Dakota • PEOPLE • NATIVE AMERICAN • Pomp/Jean Baptiste Charbonneau • Sacagawea • Sheheke/Big White • War of 1812 • (4) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us |
A recent reading of a biography, Frontier Swashbuckler: The Life and Legend of John Smith T. by Richard Steward, provides a plausible motive for an assassination, because John Smith T. was going to Washington on business also.
The New Madrid earthquakes were the biggest earthquakes in American history. They occurred in the central Mississippi Valley, but were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal, and Washington D. C. President James Madison and his wife Dolly felt them in the White House. Church bells rang in Boston. From December 16, 1811 through March of 1812 there were over 2,000 earthquakes in the central Midwest, and between 6,000-10,000 earthquakes in the Bootheel of Missouri where New Madrid is located near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. 
Tecumseh’s Comet and the Battle of Tippecanoe 
The first steamboat on the western waters survived the earthquakes 
“The court appoints William Clark Guardian to the infant children of Toussaint Charbonneau deceased, to wit, Toussaint Charbonneau a boy about the age of ten years old and Lisette Charbonneau a girl about one year old.”—Orphans Court record, St Louis, August 11, 1813 |
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