Claire Åkebrand

Who is William Clark?

My name is William Clark. I was born on the first day of August 1770, into a Virginia plantation family of ten children. I was the ninth child. All of my brothers have fought in the Revolutionary War. My older brother George Rogers Clark was a great hero of the American Revolution in the West. When I was fourteen years old, my family and I moved to a new plantation in Kentucky and here I spent the majority of my life. My family owned many slaves. One of the slaves became a life-time companion to me. His name was York. He and I were around the same age. York accompanied me on many voyages including my famous expedition with Meriwether Lewis to the unmapped west.

I had a lot of useful skills when I went on the expedition. I learned a lot of these from my older brother George. He taught me wilderness skills and natural history. When I was nineteen years old, I joined the Kentucky militia and later on, I joined the regular army, where I was promoted to lieutenant. Serving in the army was very strenuous and difficult, but I learned a lot of new things. In the army, I learned how to build forts, draw maps, and lead pack trains through enemy country and to fight Indians where they lived. At one point I attained the rank of captain. During this period of time I got to know Meriwether Lewis. While in the army, we developed a strong friendship.

One of the most important things I have ever done in my life was to go on an expedition through the West to explore the area which no white man had ever seen, to discover new plants and animals and to find out more about the Indians who lived there. This voyage has been named after my dear friend Meriwether Lewis and me.

I was very helpful during the expedition because I had a many excellent skills. In addition, I had great mental and physical strength. I was a six feet tall red-head with a strong and muscular frame. Though I did not have a lot of formal education, I had practical skills. My schooling was prematurely interrupted and as a result I was not a proficient speller. However, I was well prepared for the expedition. Many experiences in my life had qualified me in sharing command with Lewis in this voyage through the Northwest to the Pacific.

During the expedition I drew maps of the areas we explored and kept careful compass records. I measured distances. The maps that I made included notes on plants and animals. One of my maps became very important to the United States as it started expanding westward. During the expedition, I met many Indians and I was very good at getting information from them, which I wrote down and drew in my journal. After the expedition was over I received 1,228 dollars and 1,600 acres of land. Furthermore, I was appointed as Brigadier, General of Militia and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Upper Louisiana.

January 5, 1808, I was married to Julia Hancock in Fincastle, Virginia. Julia and I started our own family. We named our first son Meriwether Lewis Clark, after my dear friend Meriwether Lewis, who died soon after the expedition. Julia and I had five children together. My only daughter died when she was still a child and my wife passed away at age twenty-eight. I remarried. My second wife was Julia’s cousin. It was a happy marriage.

Since the expedition I have had many different responsibilities and professions. I have been a father, a husband, the governor of the Missouri Territory and have had various other important occupations. My life was full of duty and adventure and I managed to do all of these things in only sixty-eight years. I died of natural causes on the first day of September 1838 in St. Louis.

Annotated Bibliography

Anderson, Irving. Lewis & Clark. The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. Online. Available: http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/wclar.html. 17 Nov. 2005.

Irving Anderson gives an extensive and positive biography of William Clark. He does not go into a lot of detail about Clark’s experiences on the expedition, but one can get a basic understanding of the major events and the most important experiences in Clark’s life.

Morris, E. Larry. The Fate of the Corps. What Became of the Lewis and Clark Explorers after the Expedition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

Morris talks about what happens to the Corps members after the expedition. He tells about William Clark as a governor of Missouri Territory, Clark’s concerns about his friend Meriwether Lewis, the death of loved ones, Clark’s involvement in the fur trade, his career as an Indian agent and superintendent of Indian affairs, his wife Julia, his children, his maps, his relations with Indians and his involvement in slavery. This book gives a decent amount of details about William Clark’s personal and public life.

Jones, Y. Landon. William Clark and the Shaping of the West. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.

 Jones’ writings and careful research on William Clark serves as a great help to understanding William Clark before the expedition. The book goes into a lot of detail about Clark’s time in the military prior to his great voyage. Jones’ dedicates a whole chapter to Clark’s career as a lieutenant, where he also met Meriwether Lewis. It gives insight to Clark’s personality and his feelings about the future after his military career. Jones spends two chapters speaking of Clark’s experiences on the expedition. During these chapters one may gain deeper insight into Clarke’s family relationships and his affections toward certain individuals. Overall, the book portrays Clark as an ambitious, strong, affectionate and sometimes harsh character.

Lewis and William Clark, abridged by Brandt, Anthony with afterword by Viola, J. Herman. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. National Geographic Adventure Classics.

Washington: National Geographic Society, 2002. Brandt does an excellent job at making the journals of Lewis and Clark accessible to the reader. Since the actual journals can be challenging to read, this book helps give the reader a clearer picture of the explorers’ observations, as William Clark’s misspellings are corrected and explanations accompany the selected journal entries. This book is an excellent source for looking directly into the minds of Lewis and Clark. The journals give information on Clark’s sicknesses, his birthday, his meetings with various Indians, Clark providing medical care, saving Charbonneau’s life and many other experiences. It is a very accessible path into the Lewis and Clark journals.

Foley, E. William. Wilderness Journey. The Life of William Clark. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1938.

Foley’s motives in writing a book about William Clark are to shed a broader understanding of Clark’s story, as not enough has been said about him. He portrays Clark as a mysterious and well accomplished man. He does not say much about the expedition, but concentrates mostly on Clark’s life before and after the voyage. Foley writes about Clark as a slave-owner. The book is a useful source for understanding Clark’s personality and background more. Overall, it presents a positive picture of Clark as am ambitious, enduring, determined, persevering and encouraging individual.