"What We Are About": Recently Discovered Letters of William Clark Shed New Light on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

"WHAT WE ARE ABOUT": RECENTLY DISCOVERED LETTERS OF WILLIAM CLARK SHED NEW LIGHT ON THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION

GARY E. MOULTON AND JAMES J. HOLMBERG

The Clark family has loomed large in Louisville history, most prominently the city's founder, George Rogers Clark. It was natural, then, for Louisville lawyer and historian Temple Bodley to devote his studies to the Revolutionary War hero and the west during that period. Moreover, Bodley was a collateral descendant of George Rogers, being the great-grandson of Jon- athan Clark (George Rogers's older brother) who was also a Revolutionary soldier and an interesting figure in his own right. Great-grandfather Jonathan was simply overshadowed by his more illustrious brothers, George Rogers and William of the Lewis and Clark expedition.X The Clark family had a large collection of papers, and Bodley became the inheritor and careful preserver of some of them. These papers were passed to descendants over the years before coming to Bodley but without clear record of their dispersement. Three of Jonathan's sons, Isaac, William, and George Washington, had portions of his papers. Bodley's father, William Stewart Bodley, married Ellen Pearce, a granddaughter of Jonathan, and in time they came into possession of some of Jonathan's papers, including at least a portion that had been given to Isaac. Temple Bodley inherited the manuscripts from his parents and his heirs from him, down to the present time.

GARY E. MOULTON iS professor of history and editor of the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. JAMES J. HOLMBERG is curator of manuscripts at The Filson Club.

1 Sources on the provenance of William Clark's new letters and back- ground information for the Clark and Bodley families are drawn from the records of The Filson Club and from general published materials, including The Filson Club History Quarterly. Personal interviews were conducted with Evelyn Dale (15 May 1991), a retired Filson Club staff member, and with William F. Stites (15 February 1989), one of the Bodleys' grandchildren.

The Filson Club History Quarterly Vol. 65, No. 3, July 1991 387 388 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July

William Clark The Filson Club

Other papers became separated from the family, some going to museums and historical societies, and others to unknown des- tinations. The bulk of Temple Bodley's own research collection, for instance, came to The Filson Club. Temple Bodley resided on West Oak Street at the time of his death in November 1940. Soon, his widow, Jane Edith Fosdick Bodley, and son, Temple, Jr., moved to a house on Bassett Ave- nue near Cherokee Park. Included among the family items going :•.•. i i i i• • ;jI¸ ..... :i ill, i I

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to the new residence were several trunks of family papers. The trunks were carefully stored in the attic and there they remained, largely forgotten, fur nearly fifty years. Edith died in 1950, and Temple, Jr., in 1968. Following the son's death, the family allowed Mrs. James Ruse, Temple, Jr.'s caregiver for many years, to remain at the Bassett Avenue house; she eventually moved to a nursing home in 1988. The time had come to put the contents of the house in order. In the fall of 1988 Bodley's grandchildren began their work. In the attic they found the trunks, just as Temple Bodley had probably packed them so many years before. In one trunk, wrapped separately and still folded along their original creases, were a group of letters labeled, "Old Clark Letters Chiefly Gen. Wm. Clarks." None of the family was aware of the contents of these trunks, and they were astonished to discover letters of explorer William Clark to his elder brother Jonathan. Recog- nizing the tremendous importance of these manuscripts, they separated them from the other family papers and deposited them in a bank safety box. The Filson Club soon learned of the papers, and a staff curator was allowed to examine the Clark letters. What he in part found were forty-seven original letters of William Clark spanning the years 1792 to 1811. Forty-two of them were addressed to Jona- than, three to another brother, Edmund, and two were sent to his nephew, John Hire Clark (Jonathan's son). Included among the batch to Jonathan were five letters dating from the period of the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803-1806--previously unknown letters that shed new light on the famed exploration.2 Temple Bedley undoubtedly was aware of William Clark's

2 The heirs to these papers, the grandchildren of Temple and Edith Bodley, have displayed both generosity and historical awareness in donating the letters to The Filson Club. What must have started as a simple chore of housecleaning turned into a day of golden discovery and eventually into a treasured acquisition by The Filson Club. In October 1990, this historic collection came to The Filson Club as the Jonathan Clark Papers- Temple Bodley Collection. The generous donors were: William A. Stuart, Jr., George Rogers Clark Stuart, James W. Stites, Jr., Ellen Stites Thurbor, Temple Bodley Stites, and William F. Stitos. 390 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July

Temple Bodley The Filson Club letters among the family papers--the label for the covering sheet is in his handwriting. In fact, he may have used the papers in the course of his reseal•ch and writing, although no citation has been found regarding them. And there is some evidence that Bedley had been thinking of The Filson Club acquiring the letters not long before his death. Nonetheless, it is difficult to explain the circumstances that lost these papers to history for all these years. It may be possible that Bodley's familiarity with his family's papers, his rou.tine association with historic manu- "1 •1£• • • i• ; jl, • , • • •, •

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I;•:::i'. !,,i],,'i : ,,i i,:11' :::, LJ. ,,:i i i,:11 •'•i':h }li•:L,•ri, I!iLi]lll 1991] Letters of William Clark 391 scripts of great importance -- many in his personal possession -- and his intimacy with Clark family matters and his focus on George Rogers Clark combined to lessen these letters' special significance in his estimation. Finally, although interest in the Lewis and Clark expedition has endured through the years, it was not until the 1960s that the public became particularly cap- tivated with the endeavor. Since that time historians and en- thusiasts have wanted to study every document related to the enterprise, no matter how seemingly remote. Bodley might be amazed at our preoccupation; Clark surely would. These cordial letters to an interested older brother give important insights into the famous exploration. Significantly, they augment our knowledge of events during the shadowy period previous to and during the winter encampment of 1803-1804, and they expand on later events of the expedition as well. While not significantly conflicting wi•ch previous interpretations, the letters do add interesting flavor to the familiar accounts from the captains' journals and from official correspondence. They are especially welcome for those periods when letters and diaries are either silent or non-existent. And they answer some nagging questions that historians have wondered about and argued over for years. Of those to survive and reach The Filson Club, the five that cover the period of the Lewis and Clark expedition are the subject of the present essay) Like any soldier away from home on distant duty, William Clark's first letter to Jonathan included the disappointing news that he had received no letters from friends or family. Writing from his winter ou.tpost opposite the mouth of the Missouri River, he hoped the next mail would bring words from loved ones. Within a few weeks he had his hoped-for letter. In mid-

3 The five letters under consideration are all original autograph letters signed by William Clark. The first is datelined "Opposit the Mouth of the Missourie December 16th 1803"; the second, "St. Louis 25th Feby. 1804"; the third, "Mouth of Missouri May 3td 1804"; the fourth, "Fort Mandan April the [blank]th 1805"; and the fifth, "St. Louis September 24th 1806." 392 The Filson Club History Quarterly • [July

December 1803, a few days after choosing the site of the party's winter camp of 1803-1804, Clark wrote Jonathan this long letter relating his experiences since the two parted on the banks of the Ohio River on 26 October. This is almost certainly Clark's first letter home and is one of the best of the expedition-related items. Clark is especially revealing about his health during this period. He experienced two illnesses on his trip down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. The first began a few days after he left Jonathan, when he was taken "Violent ill by a Contraction of the muskelur sistem." The pain continued several days but was cured by Lewis's careful attention. It was not clear from what Clark suffered, nor is there any indication of Lewis's treatment. This disorder was entirely unknown before the presentation of the letters.

The second illness was more severe. Clark described it as a "violent Pain in the Sumock & bowels," accompanied by an ob- struction in the intestine. The first bout of this condition started about 16 November and lasted until at least 28 November when the party reached Kaskaskia in modern Illinois where Clark got some relief.4 During this early period of the expedition the only record of the men's activities is an irregular journal kept first by Lewis and later by Clark, now called the Eastern Journal, and a letter from Lewis to Jefferson in mid December. Lewis first mentioned Clark's illness on 22 November, stating they made some soup for the much indisposed Clark from a prairie chicken brought in by one of the men. This was Lewis's best field substitute for bedside care and hot chicken soup. In spite of Lewis's attention, Clark did nat get relief until he reached Kaskaskia where he obtained some "Allous." Clark most probably meant aloes, a dark, bitter drug obtained from the

4 In the correspondence Clark says he had the condition for eleven days and that the party arrived at Kaskaskia on 29 November. That would mean that the ailment started about 18 November. Lewis's journal entry of 22 November gives the start of the illness as 16 November. Moreover, although references in the Eastern Journal are not clear on the matter, the entries seem to indicate that the party reached Kaskaskia on 28 November. 1991] Letters of William Clark 393 leaves of the aloe plant. This was a popular purgative of the time and is still used today. It is interesting that Clark suffered with this ailment for more than a week without recourse to the party's own medicinal supplies. The captains carried a store- house of purgatives--their customary cure for all sorts of medical complaints. It is particularly surprising that the drugs were not put to use when we find that Lewis got into the medical baggage on 14 November when he was suffering from a mild case of malaria, or fever and ague as it was called at the time. Lewis gave himself a dose of Rush's pills, one of his most fre- quently used laxatives. We can only wonder why the same remedy was not dispensed to Clark. Given the pill's powerful effect, we must assume that Clark was not given a dosage. Clark's illness was greater and of longer duration than previously suspected based on Lewis's brief mention. Even toward the end of February the captain recounted the illness in another letter to Jonathan, mentioned a recurrence of the symptoms in January, and noted that he still did not feel fully recovered. He believed himself entirely well at one point, but even in February still had bouts of the river disorder. Despite the illness Clark carried on with his soldiering and exploring duties during this time. While the party spent five days at the mouth of the Ohio River he made extensive surveys of the area. He copied these calculations into the Eastern Journal and wrote Jonathan of his determinations. He also visited "old fort Jefferson," which he found entirely overgrown with trees. Fort Jefferson, located a few miles below present Wickliffe, Ballard County, Kentucky, was of interest to both brothers. Their brother, George Rogers, had established it in 1780 and named it after Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia ; it was abandoned the next year. Clark had visited the place at least once before, in 1795, while on assignment for General :Anthony Wayne. Clark reported to Jonathan that a small settlement of Ameri• cans was established on the west side of the Mississippi in 394 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July

Spanish territory. Lewis was less divulging in his diary and did not reveal the settlers to be Americans but simply called them traders. The presence of Americans on the Spanish side would have been a sensitive subject since the Americans were clearly beyond United States territorial limits before the completion of the Louisiana Purchase. Clark's recounting of the trip up to this point to Jonathan yields additional insights into expedition matters. Some historians have assumed that Lewis preselected the site for the party's winter encampment opposite the mouth of the Missouri River on the Illinois side, a place now generally called Camp Dubois or Camp Wood, after the little river near the campsite. The idea that Lewis selected the location is based on an interpretation of his letter to Jefferson on 19 December 1803. In fact, Clark says that several places were recommended, appar- ently by Kaskaskia residents, and that "I determined to proceed on & fix on the Spot." A more careful reading of Lewis's letter now reveals that the captain did not actually state or even imply that he had preselected the location, but such a reading seemed logical before Clark's letter to Jonathan became known.5 Moreover, Clark furnishes a reason for Lewis's going over- land to meet with Spanish officials while he took charge of the party and moved upriver to locate the winter campsite. One historian thought that Lewis probably grew restless on beard the keelboat and that Clark was better suited to the management of beats and men. In some ways that view is berne out in stan- dard expedition procedures. During the trip Lewis was more likely to be ashore describing some new natural discovery, while Clark remained afloat, making maps and managing men- a division of labor based on training and temperament perhaps.

5 Lewis to Jefferson, 19 December 1803, Donald Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-185• (2d ed.; 2 vols.; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:147; Ernest S. Osgood, ed., The Field Notes of Captain William Clark, 1803-1805 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 3 n. 1; cf. Richard Dillon, Meriwether Lewis: A Biography (New York: Coward-McCann, 1965), 70. 1991] Letters of William Clark 395

Clark gave Jonathan a more prosaic reason: he was still too weak from his illness to ride a horse) Clark also filled in some gaps about himself and Lewis during this period in a letter to Jonathan on 25 February 1804. From 9 February to 21 March there are no regular diary entries by either Lewis or Clark. A letter from Lewis to Clark, some routine military orders to the men at Camp Dubois, and weather nota- tions in a special diary are the scant official record of the period and are of li.ttle help in tracing bhe captains' activities. It is known that the captains attended the transfer ceremony of Upper Louisiana to the United States on 9 and 10 March 1805: otherwise the men's movements are obscure. During part of this time Clark took residence at the home of the Chouteau family, prominent St. Louis merchants whom the captains relied on for aid and advice. When Captain Amos Stoddard, official representative of the United States, arrived on 24 February, the three American officers were treated to a grand dinner and parade at the home of the Spanish Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana, Carlos Dehault Delassus. Delas- sus had become quite hospitable to Lewis and Clark as the time for the official transfer grew near. The next day an entourage of Spanish officials, with Stoddard, Lewis, and Clark, inspected Spanish fortifications in the St. Louis area, which military officer Clark found to be in a wretched state. They then enjoyed another sumptuous dinner at the lieutenant governor's home, followed by another parade. Stoddard showed Clark his orders and revealed his plans for the temporary governance of the territory. Clark confided to Jonathan that he approved of Stod- dard's plans entirely. In May 1804, as preparations quickened for the explorers to get underway, Clark wrote Jonathan introducing Jean Pierre Chouteau (called Peter by Lewis and Clark). Chouteau had been an important advisor to the captains in St. Louis and would soon

6 David Lavender, The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis and Clark Across the Continent (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), 71. 396 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July

Bodley Home on Bassett Avenue The Filson Club be heading east on a mission for the explorers. Chouteau was leading a delegation of Osage Indians to Washington, D.C., to meet Jefferson and to establish a treaty between the two nations. Clark asked Jonathan to show Chouteau the same hospitality and courtesy in Louisville that he personally had received of the Chouteau family in St. Louis. Clark's letter of introduction was one of several copies. He sent a nearly identical one to William Croghan, husband of his sister Lucy, at their Locust Grove home near Louisville. Lewis sent a copy to his friend William Preston. Chouteau and the Osages must have gone east by way of Louisville and probably had the opportunity to experience the hospitality of Louisville's residents. Clark said that the letter would be handed to Jonathan by Chouteau, and thus it remained in Jonathan's papers all these years. The elevated language in the multiple letters, including phrases like "deservedly esteemed" and "promptitude and fi- •,' j, jl •,,• r i ¸if,!' f,, i¸ i¸ I. ,, J: , %,

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];,}llz$ •:': I[JLL! I!,'qi't, I,I]•' q":t:' I'N:,!" :L!J(I "]:,l';•i [)[ i I1:], ;!if, I; 1991] Letters of William Clark 397 delity," led one historian to conclude that the letters were ori- ginally drafted by Lewis, since Clark usually employed a more direct and simple English.T The explorers left their Wood River camp on 14 May 1804 and spent the summer and early fall ascending the Missouri River across the plains. In October they reached the country of the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians in present North Dakota, built a fort, and spent the winter. In the spring of 1805 they were ready to abandon Fort Mandan and set out into the unknown. The captains not only prepared for their own departure, but they also •Iuipped a detachment to carry important •oods back to Jefferson and others in the East. Included among the return- ing baggage were natural history specimens and Indian artifacts as well as an array of documents detailing their efforts thus far. Thepapers consisted of tables of weather observations and astro- nomical calculations, lists of Indian tribes and their situation, maps, letters, and the men's journals up to that point: Historians have been perplexed and in some disagreement in identifying the specific papers that composed this shipment and the destination of individual items. The most vexing ques- rio-. concerns the dispersement of the notebook journals and preliminary diary notes that Clark was sending back. Clark was much less precise and not nearly as thorough in documenting the cargo as modern investigators would wish. A letter in the new collection looks to clear up some of the mystery surrounding the disposition of the papers. Clark's letter is also not as instruc- tive as hoped since the date was left blank ; he probably penned the letter some time between 2 and 7 April 1806.s Knowing the

7 Clark to Croghan, 2.May 1804, Lewis to Preston, 3 May 1804, Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1:178-79; William E. Foley, "The Lewis and Clark Expedition's Silent Partners: The Chouteau Brothers of St. Louis," Missouri Historical Review 77 (January 1983): 131-46. Jackson had only a typed copy of Lewis's letter to Preston. The original has since come to The Filson Club and is a part of the Preston Family Papers-Joyes Collection. 8 Clark wrote William Croghan on 2 April and directed him to "my brother," that is, Jonathan, "to whom I have inclosed a Map and some sketches relative to the Indians." These are the very items that Clark was 398 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July exact date of the letter would help to place it in sequence with other correspondence of this period and give some sense to the priority of the documents, but that is not possible. Concerning the diaries, historians have generally agreed that Lewis and Clark sent Jefferson at least three of Clark's notebook journals, now called Codexes A, B, and C. But Clark had also been keeping another journal, a diary of rough notes written on scraps of letter-paper. He had begun those Field Notes, as they are called, on 13 December 1803, when he arrived at the Wood River camp and had written fairly consistently day-by-day (with large gaps in February and March 1804) until 14 May 1804, when the men started up the Missouri. From that point the notes become less thorough and appear to be first drafts for the notebook journals (Codexes A, B, and C). The convention has been to divide these Field Notes into two parts, one from 13 December 1803 to 14 May 1804 (called the Dubois Journal), and the other from 14 May 1804 to 3 April 1805 (called the River Journal), but Clark himself made no such neat division.9 These Field Notes were not discovered until 1953, and their provenance has been a source of some debate since that time. The important passage in Clark's letter to Jonathan that has bearing on the Field Notes and notebook journals is:

I also Send you... My notes in form of a journal and Some other papers, all of which I wish you to keep, and to Show them to those of My friends you think proper--those papers are in their original State and verry incorrect as you will observe in reading them, I should be verry glad to have them Copied and Connected--. I have no other Copy of those notes or papers they are the first Sketches which I made from which Copies have been taken with the necessary Correction's and Sent to the President of the united States & Secre-

sending Jonathan, so he had to have either written the letter to Jonathan by this time or at least have had a good idea of the contents of the items he was sending him. Other wording in the letter to Jonathan is similar to the phrasing in several letters the captains prepared between 1 and 7 April, so the order of the documents cannot be set precisely. See the letter to Croghan and other correspondence of this period in Jackson, ed., Letters o/ the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1:226-42. 9 The division was established by Ernest S. Osgood in his editing of Clark's Field Notes. Osgood, ed., The Field Notes of Captain William Clark, 1805-1805 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964). 1991] Letters of William Clark 399

tary at War-- I have also Sent to the president of the US My journal in its original State tho' much fuller and more explicit than those notes I send you, they will be kept by him untill my return. In many respects the wording seems clear and incontestable. Clark is sending Jonathan his notes in the form of a journal that are in their original state (the Field Notes comprising the Dubois and River journals), and Jefferson is to receive the fuller and more explicit journal (Codexes A, B, and C). In seeming opposition to this interpretation is the wording in other letters coming out of Fort Mandan at this same time. Clark wrote two letters to Jefferson and Lewis one before they departed. Clark's letters were a preliminary draft, dated 1 April, and a finished copy, dated 3 April. In both pieces he used this phrase to describe what he was sending Jefferson: "the notes which I have taken in the form of a journal in their original state." This appears to describe exactly the same Field Notes that seemed to be going to Jonathan. Lewis's letter of 7 April (the last clearly dated item out of Fort Mandan) adds to the confusion. He said to Jefferson: "herewith inclosed a part of Capt. Clark's private journal, the other part you will find inclosed in a seperate tin box. This journal is in it's original state, and of course incorrect...." Again, the phrases ring out in unison, "original state" and "incorrect," and seem to represent the Field Notes. Moreover, if the expedition proper did not start until 14 May 1804, then notes up to that point or any kept separately might be considered a "private journal." Does Lewis mean he is sending Jefferson a part of Clark's Field Notes (the River Journal, perhaps) and that the codexes are sealed in the tin box?I0 Records from the expedition show that the notebook journals

10 The letters are found in Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1:226-42. Osgood believed that Lewis's phrase "private journal" referred to the River Journal and that it was divided into two parts, one of which went into the tin box, and that these were the materials sent to Jefferson; he considered that Jonathan received the Dubois Journal. He also conjectured another copy of at least part of the Field Notes that are now lost• Osgood, ed., Field Notes, xix-xxi. 400 The Filson Club Histo•'y Quarterly [July were usually placed in tin boxes for safety, two to a box. C•lexes A and B are identical. They are marble-covered books, about 61/,2" by 31/•", and there were several of this sort among the captains' journals. Codex C is a leather-bound notebook, about 8" by 43/•', and it is one of only two such journals from the expedition. Understanding this procedure, one may speculate that the two parts which Lewis mentioned would be the leather- bound journal going as such, and the two marble-covered books going separately in the tin box. Clark was conscious of his writing deficiencies and was willing for Lewis to draft some of his letters. His apologies to Jefferson for the state of his journals most likely mean that he was em- barrassed by his poor writing and not necessarily by the journals' physical condition. Codexes A, B, and C would thus fit both his and Lewis's description. They were "private journals" in the sense that they should not be made public in such an unrefined state. They were "notes in form of a journal" and not finished pieces. And they were in their "original State" without having been rewritten into a polished form.n The disposition of the notebook journals and the Field Notes can now be understood in this way. Clark was sending Jonathan the complete set of his Field Notes (Dubois and River journals), that is, his "notes in form of a journal," along with other papers which are discussed below. When he said he had no other copies, he must have meant that he had no copies in his possession. He had made, however, "the necessary Correction's" and sent "Sketches" to Jefferson and to the secretary of war. Those "Sketches" would be the papers in addition to his journals, and Jonathan did receive nearly the same set of materials as sent to the president, also discussed below. And his journal "in its original State" sent to Jefferson would be the three notebook journals, Codexes A, B, and C. So what seemed reasonable at the outset appears to be so. The other letters simply cloud the

11 Gary E. Moulton, ed., Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (6 vols. to date, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983- ), 2:11. 1991] Letters of William Clark 401 issue and add confusion instead of clarity. The new letter to Jonathan seems to answer the question with some finality.]2 Besides the journal material, Clark sent Jonathan additional papers. Many of these items were the original documents from which copies were made and sent to Jefferson; they serve as testimony to the attention Lewis and Clark gave to duplicating and doubling materials in case of loss or accident,is This dis- closure alone is an important addition to our knowledge of the materials sent back from Fort Mandan. Among the papers Clark sent were letters, a map of the Missouri River and its affluents, a statistical view of Indians, a narrative sketch of the country, a summary statement of Missouri River landmarks, miscellane- ous descriptive memoranda, and other undescribed papers.14 Moreover, he also sent Jonathan one large red and two small white boxes containing samples of plains animal and plant life and native eultura! objects.•5 Again, these items nearly duplicate the materials sent to Jefferson, but a few are unique and may be classified as souvenirs to family and friends. Included in the boxes were the skins of antelopes, badgers, prairie dogs, buffa- loes, foxes, and jackrabbits. Clark also sent Indian wear and utensils, such as antelope-skin shirts and leggings, buffalo-skin moccasins, and horns from theantelope and bighorn,le Plants,

12 Using internal evidence in the Field Notes and notebook journals, much the same conclusions were made in ibid., 14-16, although it was assumed there that only a portion of the Field Notes went to Jonathan. 13 See Lewis's list of enclosures in Lewis to Jefferson, 7 April 1805, Jackson, ed., Legters o] Lewis and Clark, 1:234-36. 14 Among the letters was undoubtedly the present one under discussion. 15 These boxes were only hinted at until the discovery of these letters. In another letter from Fort Mandan Clark mentions a "red box containing some specimens and papers of consequence to my brother Genl. Jonathin Clark." The interim recipient of the cargo was previously not clear. His- torian Donald Jackson assumed that it was intended for Amos Steddard, commandant at St. Louis, who would then convey it to Jonathan. Clark's letter to Jonathan makes it clear that it was indeed going to Stoddard first. Clark to [Stoddard?], [1 April 1805], Jackson, ed., Letters o[ Lewis and Clark, 1:226-27. 16 Family tradition states that the horn of the bighorn was given to Frances "Fanny" Clark, Clark's sister. That item was passed to a descendant, R. C. Ballard Thruston, who eventually presented it to The Filson Club. 402 The Filson Club History Quarterly [July roots, and seeds of native species also made up part of the baggage, including Indian corn, Arikara tobacco seed, native tobacco mixture, some white sage, Jerusalem artichoke, and the purple coneflower (said to be an effective cure for "Mad Dog & Rattle Snake" bite). In the small white boxes he placed buffalo robes decorated with drawings that depicted Indian battles. Finally, he included some plum stones for Sarah Clark, Jonathan's wife, and a batch of minerals for Dr. Samuel Brown of Lexington, Kentucky. Also included in the boxes were some other interesting and historically illuminating items. For instance, Joseph Field sent a spoon made from the horn of a bighorn to his father, and John Shields, one of the few married men on the expedition, packed up a buffalo robe for his wife. York also sent two buffalo robes, one for his wife and one for "Ben." Until now it was not known that York was married at the time of the expedition. Moreover, in a biographical sketch of the man the author gave "Ben" as a possible first name for York.17 In other letters in this new collection, York and Ben are mentioned together in a number of circumstances. A final expedition-related letter clears up a minor mystery concerning another document of Clark's. The very evening of his arrival in St. Louis on 23 September 1806, Clark wrote a brief overview of the transcontinental expedition. It was probably another of the documents drafted by Lewis and copied by Clark. In this document he summarized the major events of the party and gave a general description of the new lands. This document has been known since that time, but the identity of the addressee was lost and has remained in question. It has been supposed that Clark sent the summary statement to his brother George Rogers Clark. The next day he penned another letter, one of the new items at The Filson Club, which served as a cover letter for the summary statement and which reveals that

17 Charles G. Clarke, The Men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition... (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1970), 38. 1991] Letters of William Clark 403 the summary was addressed instead to Jonathan. Moreover, in a postscript Clark suggested that Jonathan get the summary statement published. Jonathan did just that and it became the first capsule account of the expedition to reach a public eager for news about the expedition and about the new lands acquired under the Louisiana Purchase.18 This essay has addressed only the most obviously new or important aspects of .the expedition-peried letters. Other items in the collection also touch on related subjects. Clark writes often in later years of his slave York, who accompanied the captain on the transcontinental trip; he also mentions other members of the exploring party. He pens revealing words on his reaction to the death of Meriwether Lewis in 1809. And he gives some account of preparing the official report of the expedition, the book eventually written by Nicholas Biddle of Philadelphia and published in 1814. Many other subjects are also discussed, from Indian affairs to St. Louis and family news. The correspondence opens a wealth of information about Clark in the post- expedition years. From all these letters it is clear that Clark had great respect and affection for Jonathan. He reveals himself here as he does in no other correspondence now known. In time, the full range and import of the letters will be assessed. As seholars study and write about these materials, we will have an even greater understanding of the famed expedition and of the personal side of William Clark.

18 Clark to [George Rogers Clark?], Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1:325-30.