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Posted on 09/25/2010 1:18:49 AM PDT by Palter
Famous Explorer's Relatives Deny Suicide Talk, Seek to Dig Up Body
Meriwether Lewis conquered rivers, mountains and bears leading the Lewis and Clark Expedition across 8,000 miles of wilderness from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back.
Two centuries later, relatives of Mr. Lewis are having a tough time moving his remains down 80 miles of paved Tennessee highway from a national park to a forensic lab.
Mr. Lewis's body rests beneath a 20-foot-high stone monument at milepost 385.9 of the Natchez Trace Parkway. A plaque next to the gravesite states that it was here, in 1809, three years after his epic journey, that his life drew "mysteriously to its close."
Many historians believe Mr. Lewis, who was governor of the Louisiana Territory at the time of his death, committed suicide after wrestling with depression, drug addiction or some other malady. Others have speculated that he was murdered.
About 200 descendants have petitioned the federal government to dig Mr. Lewis up, hoping that modern science will exonerate a historical figure whose legacy they believe was tarnished by his ambiguous death.
"He could very well have become presidential material," asserts Howell Bowen, a 75-year-old nephew four generations removed, who grew up and lives in Mr. Lewis's hometown of Ivy, Va. He calls the suicide hypothesis preposterous.
A recent letter from the U.S. Department of the Interior turning down the exhumation request is just the latest in a string of rejections handed down to the Lewis family—all distant relatives of Mr. Lewis's sister Jane, because the explorer didn't marry or have children.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Ongoing, maybe of interest.
Meriwether Lewis was portrayed by Fred MacMurray in 1955 and by Chevy Chase in 2003. He has suffered enough indignity at modern hands.
There being no current compelling reason to dig up the old fellow, let him rest in peace.
wiki: "In the late 1980s, college professor and author Clara Rising hypothesized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation"
wsj cont...: "Digging up notable Americans to solve mysteries isn't without precedent. President Zachary Taylor was exhumed in 1991, nearly 150 years after his death, to determine whether he had been poisoned..."
"The family had a breakthrough in 2008, when then-Assistant Interior Secretary Lyle Laverty wrote that given "the unique circumstances of the death of Meriwether Lewis," and the "overwhelming support'' of descendants, an exhumation was "appropriate and in the public interest.But in April, before preparations for the exhumation were complete, the agency reversed its decision, arguing that department policy couldn't be ignored. Following up last month, Assistant Interior Secretary Thomas Strickland instructed the family, "Please consider this a final decision on this matter."
Anyone else recognize Obama appointee Strickland? He was a two-time big-time loser to Sen. Allard in Colorado.
Or at least until he and the rest of the commie bastards running the show in DC are sent packing in 2012.
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Be sure to take one of the Old Trace drives, where you will get a feel of what it was like in earlier days. There is an interesting Natural History Museum in Hohenwald, Tenn. the death place of the explorer Meriwether Lewis and a monument to him, and even an Amish community.
And in 2010 we care, why?
For the same reason you decided to read this article, I guess.
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It’s “what if” history.
Here is a guy whose entire family had anxiety and depression issues. He goes off on the greatest adventure in American history and never shows a single moment of weakness. He comes back, and ends up with a political hand-me job as governor of New Orleans.
His anxiety and depression....along with stupid business dealings....dig him into a deep pit in just a year or two. There’s no doubt over what happened in the final hour of his life. Captain Clark, who had absolute trust and compassion in his associate would have gone after any man alive if there would have been even a mere suggestion of such a crime.
Here’s the “What If” situation. There are two other scenarios which could have played out totally different.
What if....Lewis had turned down the governor’s job and quickly turned back for a second expedition along an entirely different route? He would have stayed busy and kept his problems at bay. He could have gone numerous expeditions and probably lived a long and hearty life.
What if....Lewis had returned to Virginia and wrote the volumes of books on the expedition, and by the 1830s, been elected as President of the United States?
We are left with the only true five-star saga of true American adventure, and Meriwether Lewis as a guy with demons in his mind constantly upon return to real life.
Because someone read "The Navigator"
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And by the way, do any of you Tennesseans out there know if Grinders Stand has any connection to Grinders Switch? Too bad Minnie P. isn't around to tell us!
With all due respect to the descendants interested in clearing his name (or more likely assuaging their legacy embarrassment), shouldn't you be privately raising the funds and doing this yourself? I know we learned about the Lewis and Clark expedition in school and I don't believe that lesson ended with news of Lewis' suicide. As it is, taxpayers are already on the hook for $3.2 million to improve the burial site.
Maybe not for you, but two bullet wounds - one in the head and one in the chest - raise plenty of doubt for me. The Natchez Trace was a dangerous place in the 19th century.
President Taylor's grave is not managed by the Department of the Interior is it?
“Here is a guy whose entire family had anxiety and depression issues.”
I am a descendent of Lewis’ and I can vouch for the strain of depression and anxiety in that side of the family.
Thanks Pharmboy.
How could someone commit suicide by shooting themselves in the head AND in the back - especially in the days of non-repeating firearms?
They should exhume the body.
‘Meriwether Lewis was portrayed by Fred MacMurray in 1955 and by Chevy Chase in 2003. He has suffered enough indignity at modern hands.’
In 1955 Fred MacMurray was known as a serious actor with a career 26 years old at that time, including ‘Double Indemnity’, ‘The Apartment’ and ‘The Caine Mutiny’. Nearly all of his Disney comedies and ‘My Three Sons’ which stereotyped him were well in the future. He gave a substantial and nuanced performance as Jefferson’s protege, the educated Easterner partnered with Charlton Heston, as the frontier military man. MacMurray’s portrayal was no indignity.
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