William Clark (explorer)

For other people named William Clark, see William Clark (disambiguation).

William Clark
4th Governor of Missouri Territory
In office July 1, 1813 – September 18, 1820
Preceded by	Benjamin Howard
Succeeded by	Alexander McNair
Personal details
Born	August 1, 1770(1770-08-01) Ladysmith, Colony of Virginia
Died	September 1, 1838(1838-09-01) (aged 68) St. Louis, Missouri
Spouse(s)	Julia Hancock Harriet Kennerly Radford
Relations	George Rogers Clark (brother)
Occupation	soldier, explorer, politician
Signature

William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in prestatehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri. Clark was a planter and slaveholder.

Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark led the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803 to 1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States. Before the expedition, he served in a militia and the United States Army. Afterward, he served in a militia and as governor of the Missouri Territory. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Early life

William Clark was born in Caroline County, Virginia, on August 1, 1770, the ninth of ten children of John and Ann Rogers Clark. His parents were natives of King and Queen County, and were of English and possibly Scots ancestry. The Clarks were common planters in Virginia, owners of modest estates and a few slaves, and members of the Anglican Church.

Clark did not have any formal education; like many of his contemporaries, he was tutored at home. In later years, he was self-conscious about his convoluted grammar and inconsistent spelling—he spelled "Sioux" 27 different ways in his journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition—and sought to have his journals corrected before publication. The spelling of American English was not standardized in Clark's youth, and his vocabulary suggests he was well read.

Clark's five older brothers fought in Virginia units during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), but William was too young. His oldest brother, Jonathan Clark, served as a colonel during the war, rising to the rank of general in the Virginia militia years afterward. His second-oldest brother, George Rogers Clark, rose to the rank of general, spending most of the war in Kentucky fighting against British-allied American Indians. After the war, the two oldest Clark brothers made arrangements for their parents and family to relocate to Kentucky.

William, his parents, his three sisters, and the Clark family's slaves arrived in Kentucky in March 1785, having first traveled overland to Redstone Landing in present-day Brownsville, Pennsylvania. They completed the journey down the Ohio River by flatboat. The Clark family settled at "Mulberry Hill", a plantation along Beargrass Creek near Louisville. This was William Clark's primary home until 1803. In Kentucky, his older brother George Rogers Clark taught William wilderness survival skills.

Military career begins

Kentuckians fought the Northwest Indian War against American Indians north of the Ohio River, who were trying to preserve their territory. In 1789, 19-year-old William Clark joined a volunteer militia force under Major John Hardin. Clark kept a detailed journal of the expedition, beginning a lifelong practice. Hardin was advancing against the Wea Indians on the Wabash River, who had been raiding settlements in Kentucky. In error, the undisciplined Kentucky militia attacked a peaceful Shawnee hunting camp, where they killed a total of eight men, women, and children.

In 1790, Clark was commissioned by General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, as a captain in the Clarksville, Indiana militia. One older source says he was sent on a mission to the Creek and Cherokee in the Southeast, whom the US hoped to keep out of the war. His responsibilities are unclear. He may have visited New Orleans at that time. His travels prevented him from participating in General Josiah Harmar's disastrous campaign into the Northwest Territory that year.

In 1791, Clark served as an ensign and acting lieutenant with expeditions under generals Charles Scott and James Wilkinson. He enlisted in the Legion of the United States and was commissioned as a lieutenant on March 6, 1792 under Anthony Wayne. On September 4, 1792 he was assigned to the 4th Sub-Legion. He was involved in several skirmishes with Indians during the continuing Northwest Indian War. At the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, Clark commanded a company of riflemen who drove back the enemy on the left flank, killing a number of Indians and Canadians. This decisive US victory brought the Northwest Indian War to an end. In 1795, Clark was dispatched on a mission to New Madrid, Missouri. Clark also served as an adjutant and quartermaster while in the militia.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Main article: Lewis and Clark Expedition

William Clark resigned his commission on July 4, 1796 and retired due to poor health, although he was only 26 years old. He returned to Mulberry Hill, his family's plantation near Louisville. While assigned to Lewis' unit, Lewis and Clark grew to respect each other.

In 1803, Meriwether Lewis recruited Clark, then age 33, to share command of the newly formed Corps of Discovery, whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, establish trade with Native Americans and the sovereignty of the US. They were to find a waterway from the US to the Pacific Ocean and claim the Oregon territory for the United States before European nations did. Clark spent three years on the expedition to the Pacific Coast. A slave owner known to deal harshly with his slaves, he brought York, one of his slaves, with him. York did manual labor in extreme weather and received no compensation. The indigenous nations treated York with respect, and many of the Indians were interested in his appearance, which "played a key role in diplomatic relations".

Although Clark was refused rank when Jefferson asked the Senate to appoint him, at Lewis' insistence, he exercised equal authority, and continued the mission. Clark concentrated chiefly on the drawing of maps, the management of the expedition's supplies, and leading hunting expeditions for game.

Indigenous nations and war

In 1807, President Jefferson appointed Clark as the brigadier general of the militia in the Louisiana Territory, and the US agent for Indian affairs. At the time, trade was a major goal and the US established the factory system. The government and its appointees licensed traders to set up trading posts in Indian territory. Indian relations were handled in what became the War Department. Clark set up his headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri.

There he became a member of the Freemasons, a secret fraternal group. The records of his initiation do not exist, but on September 18, 1809, Saint Louis Lodge No. 111 issued a traveling certificate for Clark.

During the War of 1808, he led several campaigns, among them in 1814, one along the Mississippi River, up to the Prairie du Chien-area. He established the short-lived Fort Shelby, the first post in what is now Wisconsin. Soon, the post was captured by the British. When the Missouri Territory was formed in 1813, Clark was appointed as the governor by President Madison. He was reappointed to the position by Madison in 1816, and in 1820 by President Monroe. When Missouri became a state in 1820, Clark was defeated in the election for governor by Alexander McNair.

In 1822, Clark was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs by President Monroe, a new position created by Congress after the factory system was abolished. Clark remained in that position until his death; his title changed with the creation of the Office of Indian Affairs in 1824 and finally the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1829, both within the War Department. From 1824 to 1825, he was additionally appointed surveyor general of Illinois, Missouri and the Territory of Arkansaw.

Though Clark tried to maintain peaceful relations with indigenous nations and negotiated peace treaties, he was involved in President Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy. This included "his duty to oversee removal". He managed retaliation against Black Hawk and those allied with him in the Black Hawk War, when hostilities arose between them and the Americans. Clark issued "an extermination order", which he gave to Lewis Cass, a man who played a central role in Jackson's removal policy.

Marriage and family

After returning from his cross-country expedition, Clark married Julia Hancock on January 5, 1808, at Fincastle, Virginia. They had five children: Meriwether Lewis Clark, Sr. (1809–1881), named after his friend and expedition partner; William Preston Clark (1811–1840); Mary Margaret Clark (1814–1821); George Rogers Hancock Clark (1816–1858), named after Clark's older brother; and John Julius Clark (1818–1831), named after his oldest brother Jonathan and Clark's wife.

After Julia's death in 1820, William Clark married her first cousin, Harriet Kennerly Radford. They had three children together: Jefferson Kearny Clark (1824–1900), named after the president; Edmund Clark (1826–1827); and Harriet Clark, named after her mother (dates unknown; died as child). His second wife Harriet died in 1831.

Clark died in St. Louis on September 1, 1838 at age 68. He was buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery, where a 35-foot (11 m) gray granite obelisk was erected to mark his grave. The cemetery has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Legacy and honors

• In 2001, President Bill Clinton elevated Clark to a Captain in the US Army posthumously. Descendants of Clark were there to mark the occasion.

• 2004 rededication of the obelisk: Although his family had established endowments to maintain his grave site, by the late 20th century, the grave site had fallen into disrepair. His descendants raised $100,000 to rehabilitate the obelisk. They celebrated the rededication with a ceremony May 21, 2004, on the bicentennial of the start of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The ceremony was attended by a large gathering of Clark's descendants, reenactors in period dress, and leaders from the Osage Nation and the Lemhi band of the Shoshone.

• The western American plant genus Clarkia (in the evening primrose family Onagraceae), is named after him, as are the cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki), and Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), a large passerine bird, in the family Corvidae. All were species which Clark identified during the expedition. The Clark's grebe "Aechmophorus clarkii" was not named for William Clark, but for J.H. Clark who collected the first specimen.

• He is included on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
• Counties were named in his honor in the following states: Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, and Washington.
• The Clarks River in western Kentucky is named for him, as is the Clark Fork in Montana and Idaho, and the Clarks Fork Yellowstone River in Montana and Wyoming.
• The United States Navy Polaris nuclear submarine USS Lewis and Clark was named for him and Lewis.
• The Clark Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River between West Alton, Missouri and Alton, Illinois, was named after him.
• Lewis and Clark Community College in Metro East was named for the explorers.
• Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon was named after Lewis and Clark.

General references

• Buckley, Jay H. William Clark: Indian Diplomat. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. ISBN 0-8061-3911-1.
• Foley, William E. Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8262-1533-5.
• Jones, Landon Y. William Clark and the Shaping of the West, New York: Hill and Wang, 2004. ISBN 0-8090-9726-5.

External links

• The Journals of Lewis and Clark, hypertext, American Studies at the University of Virginia.
• The Journals of William Clark, Missouri History Museum
• Works by William Clark at Project Gutenberg
• Biography from Indiana Historical Bureau
• William Clark --View Videos

Political offices
Preceded by Benjamin Howard	Governor of Missouri Territory 1813–1820	Succeeded by Alexander McNair (statehood)