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

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"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 disperse- ment. 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 L1 I;ii ii iI iiii •i ¸ II [ I Ill Z' ] • i }]Iz::I • I• I •]II: I ; II•I :ILi[I I • • I I •]I•IiiIiI ]• ;II I• Ii !I I•' r] h !I i Ii I• II !llll I i :II Ill I • I •I : lqJ•:II•l I• I•lhI[ I: I• !:' : ] III !I !IIi I I•IIl " I (II:l; >:If •! I: 1!i': • !ll I i !! :I I ] i I I• I L I: • I j ]!I Ill • I IJ. IIi : 1 :II•ii .I• l: q' ]I[I• i }2 ] •J•l•I k • : I I I Z . ¢ • • I I I I • I • 11 1 1 • • ] I I I • • I I i : • i • •" I I I I I ] I I i ] I• I 1991] Letters of William Clark 389 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 un- known 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, • , • • •, • Ih I • : I,'%:1r ,•:':,,!/: :!, I•m:i;', iliii,,'lr 1!,,' :;i1:11'! 1!!: 1 'll' < '•1:i11• .!,,,•, k i::! II • h ilJ IV, I ' I I::L'¸ IX I;1•'1. J•II ¸' ]'IIili"; i!'bl",• ¸ ;:1•':1 li•l• I';id:"•q¸•¸ i]1 h•' : ilil <t, !1; i i ii; I! ,111,1 ',,,ii1• Ii._:, £111!llll;IU!: :!qi :ilzlTilll II :- i,,,i, : i ,iJ!,,! !.:,,ill!i:!7! ii:i ! -'•:], ' hi:::,:: i•: i ', iql•!Li I LII:L! I:,Ji, 7 h:,! i,, J/ In]:,l. ii.-,,t '1i, I'il ,,li I Ill':, •L:'!;il :L; "li, !,:1,'1'• I/ ' I''!:• I 'i" !,i I, :lii :';, n,'!f/ I, •- 7: i-, ,I il'kHl: I,:, i:4[i;i II Iii: <i1' i;i111 !:ili •:- 1:;: ,,i 1 i,' ,' ];qt],l.!:• t,, h[bt,>li'< :'q :1 :h,-,' •,,ii' [: rii;•', 1, i:, •J1,!,' hii I•,,*,:]Jl::• '• r;mLil;•l'Jl::, ",,•ittl 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 im- portant 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.
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