Clark Family Moved From Kentucky to Indiana to Missouri
Biography of Clark
A version of this article by James J. Holmberg appeared inThe Encyclopedia of Louisville:
William Clark, explorer, soldier, and authorities official, was built-in on Baronial 1, 1770, at the Clark homestead in Caroline Canton, Virginia. He was the ninth of ten children and youngest of six sons of John and Ann (Rogers) Clark. Clark received some formal schooling in Virginia. When he was fourteen the family moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky, settling at "Mulberry Hill," well-nigh three miles southeast of Louisville. William pursued a more "applied" education at this betoken, becoming proficient in surveying, cartography, wilderness living, and operating a plantation. Past the time he reached xx-one he was a planter, surveyor, frontiersman, and soldier. A military career seemed a natural occupation for Clark. All five of his older brothers had served in the Revolutionary War, including the "Hannibal of the West" George Rogers Clark, and two (John Jr. and Richard) had died in the service of their state. William grew upwardly hearing tales of his brothers' and their contemporaries' military exploits. He might take served under his brother George in a 1786 militia trek against the Wabash River Indians, simply it is certain that he served in John Hardin's 1789 expedition against the White River Indian towns, Charles Scott's 1791 trek against the Ouiatanon Indian towns, and assisted with the defence force of the settlements against Indian assault. His abilities were recognized by his commanders and received praise.
On March vii, 1792, he received a second lieutenant'southward committee in the infantry of the regular army. Clark went on recruiting duty, and in September was assigned to the 4th Sub-legion of the U.S. Army. General Anthony Wayne was preparing a campaign against the Northwestern Indians in Ohio and Indiana at this time, and Clark served under his command for the next 4 years. In June 1793 Clark led a mission to the Chickasaw Bluffs (nowadays Memphis, Tennessee) to bring artillery and ammunition to the Chickasaw in order to keep them allied to the U.S. rather than defecting to the Castilian. In September 1793 Clark was placed in command of a rifle corps and during the winter of 1793-94 commanded a disengagement at Vincennes. In the spring and summer of 1794 Wayne launched his campaign against the Indians. Clark was placed in command of a supply train and successfully defended it against an Indian attack. He commanded a burglarize company in the American victory at Fallen Timbers in Baronial and was present at the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. It was in tardily 1795 or early 1796 that he met and became friends with Meriwether Lewis, a inferior officer under his command. The appeal of a war machine career had begun to fade for Clark and he decided to resign in order to pursue concern opportunities, assist his brother George with his tangled legal and financial diplomacy, help run the family unit's plantation, and due to poor wellness. Before resigning he went on one more mission southward; this time to New Madrid, where he protested to Castilian officials the fortification of Chickasaw Bluffs. Clark resigned his committee as a start lieutenant of infantry on July 1, 1796, and returned domicile to "Mulberry Colina." He was frustrated in his plans for a mercantile career, largely due to family responsibilities, and peculiarly due to blood brother George's tangled affairs. For the next few years he traveled thousands of miles on business, specially on behalf of his brother, visiting St. Louis, New Orleans, Baltimore, Washington, and Virginia. Much of what George Rogers Clark retained was due largely to his brother'due south efforts. Clark continued an interest in armed forces matters. On May 28, 1800, he was commissioned captain of a troop of cavalry in the Jefferson Canton militia, 33rd Regiment of Kentucky militia.
In July 1803 Clark received an invitation that changed his life and secured his identify in history. His friend and former subordinate, Captain Meriwether Lewis, then private secretary to President Thomas Jefferson, invited Clark to bring together him as co-commander of an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Clark accustomed in July and began recruiting men in Louisville and Clarksville (where he had moved a few months before). On October 14, Lewis reached Louisville and on October 26, the co-commanders and the nucleus of the Corps of Discovery set off downwards the Ohio on a journeying lasting for the next 3 years. During that historic venture Clark played an of import role in its success. He and Lewis complemented each other's talents; he was an effective negotiator with Native Americans encountered; faithfully kept a journal; and almost invariably his practical, gregarious temperament served the trek well.
Following the expedition'southward September render to St. Louis, the captains' connected on to Louisville, and somewhen Washington. They were met with praise, and frequently banquets and balls, from St. Louis to Washington. On February 27, 1807, his resignation as a showtime lieutenant in the artillery (he had been denied the promised captain's commission in the infantry, and instead received a 2d lieutenancy in the artillery and in February 1806 had been promoted to first lieutenant) was accepted. Jefferson's proposal to secure a lt. colonel'due south commission in the army for him was denied. Instead, as a advantage for his services, he received a commission every bit brigadier general of the Louisiana Territory militia and was appointed main Indian amanuensis for the territory. Clark also received double pay for the period of the trek and a 1,600 acre land grant. In September 1807 he supervised a fossil dig at Big Bone Lick in Boone Canton, Kentucky, for Thomas Jefferson.
Clark settled permanently in St. Louis in June 1808, and was an important figure in Missouri diplomacy for the adjacent thirty years. Within a couple of months of arriving he traveled up the Missouri River eastward of present day Kansas City and established Fort Osage. Much of his time was occupied with government business, particularly Indian affairs. He likewise caused state and attempted to reap some of the benefits of commercial trade in the borderland town. Following the death of his close friend and partner in discovery Meriwether Lewis in Oct 1809, the task of publishing their expedition journals fell to him. Knowing that his strengths lay in other areas, he retained Nicholas Biddle to edit them. He answered extensive questions from Biddle and had expedition fellow member George Shannon aid Biddle equally necessary. They were published in 1814.
In 1813 Clark was appointed territorial governor of Missouri, and retained the post until Missouri became a state. During the War of 1812 he organized the defense force of Missouri and led an expedition up the Mississippi River to Prairie du Chein, where he built a fort. Due to the expiration of the militia'due south enlistments he was forced to return to St. Louis, and the garrison left backside later surrendered to the British. Both as governor of Missouri Territory and as superintendent of Indian affairs (a position he causeless as governor and retained subsequently leaving that office) he negotiated ofttimes with Native American delegations from diverse tribes. He was well respected and trusted by the Indians, who called him the Red Headed Chief. While doing what he could for the Indians' eventual acculturation and assimilation, he worked to extinguish their land claims and further open up the West for white settlement. Over the years he acquired a big collection of Native American and natural history artifacts that he displayed in his boondocks domicile, office, and country estate "Minoma." He was defeated for governor of the state of Missouri in 1820. President Monroe appointed him surveyor full general of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, 1824-25, and he founded Paducah, Kentucky, in 1827. His later years were marked by some fiscal difficulties and physical and mental decline, but he continued his habits of hospitality until his death. Clark died in St. Louis on September 1, 1838, and was buried on his nephew John O'Fallon's estate "Athlone" in what his son Meriwether Lewis Clark identified equally the "Font Hill" vault. His remains and those of other Clarks were reinterred in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis on October 23, 1860.
While in the Eastward in 1807, Clark renewed his acquaintance with Judith (better known as Julia) Hancock (1791-1820) of Fincastle, Virginia. They married in Fincastle in January 1808. They had five children: Meriwether Lewis, William Preston, Mary Margaret, George Rogers Hancock, and John Julius. Julia Clark died at "Fotheringay," the Hancock family manor in Montgomery County, Virginia, on June 27, 1820. Clark married her cousin Harriet Kennerly Radford (1788-1831), the widow of Dr. John Radford, on November 28, 1821, in St. Louis. They had 2 children: Jefferson Kearny and Edmund.
John Loos. "A Biography of William Clark, 1770-1813." Ph.D. dissertation, Washington Academy, 1953; Jerome O. Steffen,William Clark: Jeffersonian Man on the Frontier (Norman 1977); James J. Holmberg. "William Clark." In Christy H. Bond,Gateway Families (Boston 1994), 178-ninety. Louise Phelps Kellogg. "William Clark." InDictionary of American Biography (New York 1930) four:141-44.
Since publication of theEncyclopedia two biographies of Clark have been published:William Clark and the Shaping of the West by Landon Y. Jones andWilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark by William E. Foley.
Source: https://lewisandclarkinkentucky.org/kentucky-people/william-clark/biography-of-clark/
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