Meriwether Lewis - Hohenwald, Tn
Posted by: 
fatcat161
N 35° 30.658 W 087° 27.625
16S E 458248 N 3929807
Meriwether Lewis along with William Clark led the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. His life was cut short on October 11, 1809. He was intered here.
Waymark Code: WM7K5E
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 11/03/2009
Views: 9
?On October 10, 1809, Lewis was traveling along the trace en route from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., where he hoped to straighten out his affairs as Governor of Louisiana Territory and conduct other business. That morning, his traveling companion, Maj. James Neelly, had remained behind to look for two lost packhorses. Lewis and the two servants accompanying him stopped for the night at an inn named Grinder's Stand. In the early hours of the morning, Lewis died of two gunshot wounds, apparently self-inflicted. Neelly, arriving later that morning, buried his body nearby.
Except for a "post fence" built in 1810, the gravesite remained unmarked until 1848. That year, the State of Tennessee erected a broken column, symbolizing Lewis' untimely death at the age of 35.
Marker text:
Meriwether Lewis 1774-1809
Beneath this monument erected under Legislative Act by the State of Tennessee, A.D. , 1848, reposes the dust of Meriwether Lewis, a Captain in the United States Army, Private Secretary to President Jefferson, Senior Commander of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Governor of the Territory of Lousiana.
In the Grinder House, the ruins of which are still discernable, 230 yards South of this spot, his life of romantic endeavor and lasting acheivement came tragically and mysteriously to its close on the night of Oct. 11, 1809.
The report of the Committee appointed to carry out the provisions of the Monument Act, contains these significant statements:
"Great care was taken to identify the grave. George Nixon, Esq., an old Surveyor, had become very early aquainted with the locality. He pointed out the place; but to make assurance doubly surethe grave was re-opened and the upper portion of the skeleton examined and such evidence found as to leave no doubt of the place of interment."
Group that erected the marker: Legislature of the State of Tennessee
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Highway 20
Hohenwald, Tn USA
38462
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