The Murder of Meriwether Lewis
The Natchez Trace National Parkway in middle Tennessee is a
patchwork of level wooded forests and rolling plains that attracts
hundreds of thousands of tourists to the state each year to
drive along one of the nation’s oldest and most colorful
highways.
Like most American roads in the early frontier, the Parkway
began as an ancient Indian trail, which was widened through
the years by colonists and travelers using the overland routes
to the Mississippi River.
In 1803, then-President Thomas Jefferson, who saw the value
of an overland route in the southeastern interior, allocated
funds and soldiers to develop the highway. The appropriate deals
were made with the Chickasaw Nation and it was widened it to
accommodate wagons and heavy carts.
The highway soon became one of the most dangerous and notorious
in America. Rogue Indians and outlaws would often raid or kill
travelers and many who took the Natchez Trace were never heard
from again and the outlaws, who preyed upon travelers, would
rise to fame in American criminal history for their brutality
and viciousness.
One particular place of interest on the Tennessee Parkway is
a small cabin near Hohenwald, TN. Here an incident took place
that remains unexplained and the investigation is still considered
open by the federal courts – a case that involves one of
the nation’s first native heroes and a man, who’s
life, historians say, can only be described as an enigma.
Meriwether Lewis was born on Aug. 18, 1774 near Charlottesville,
VA He spent his youth in Oglethorpe, Ga., where he became a
proficient outdoorsman and learned from the Native American
tribes in the region. Lewis returned to Virginia for his education,
but family finances forced him to leave his studies and, like
most young men of his era, pursue a career in the military.
At age 20, he enlisted in the troops called up by President
George Washington to help put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Lewis
proved to be such a valuable asset to the troops and volunteered
into the Regular Army. During his enlistment, he renewed a childhood
friendship with fellow officer Thomas Jefferson. The two became
extremely close and endured much in the often under-funded Continental
Army.
When Jefferson was elected President in 1801, he quickly chose
Lewis as his personal secretary. He lived at the White House
and served the President in a variety of matters of national
importance, including the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1803, Congress approved an exploration for the first overland
route to the Pacific Ocean. President Jefferson, who felt his
friend was growing bored with his position, placed Lewis in
charge of organizing the expedition. As preparations began,
Capt. Lewis chose former Army colleague Capt. William Clark
to accompany him on the journey west and the two would forge
a partnership that would capture the American imagination. It
took more than a year to get everything together and the team
assembled for the undertaking. A couple of times it looked as
if the trek would never begin, but perseverance on the part
of Lewis and Jefferson finally brought everything together.
On May 14, 1804, the expedition left St. Louis, Mo. with marching
orders to cross the vastly unexplored American region and find
a route to the Pacific Ocean. The rivers, which were believed
to offer a navigable way west, did not provide the water route
to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark’s men had to adapt to the
changing country and found the vastness of it unbelievable.
It was not, they soon discovered, going to be an easy trek.
The crew faced unbelievable hardships in what would become a
two-and-a-half year journey through the wilderness of western
North America. They lived off the land and stayed focused on
their mission in spite of everything mapping all they could
on the journey.
When Lewis and Clark returned to St. Louis on Sept. 23, 1806,
city residents were shocked at first, but then wildly welcomed
the returning crew to the city. Many, including President Jefferson,
had believed Lewis and Clark’s team to have died on the
journey and had given them up for dead. Lewis, Clark, and the
remaining members of the expedition soon left St. Louis and
traveled to Washington, D.C., where they filed their official
reports.
Lewis was credited with holding the group together against unbelievable
odds and surviving the quest. His fellow team members gave descriptions
of the country that bordered on unbelievable for the geologists
and scientists of the day. Lewis, however, had kept remarkable
journals and, from these, American cartographers got their first
view of the western frontier. The fame that was thrust upon
Lewis and Clark was both intoxicating and intimidating to them.
The party’s journey into the exotic wilderness of North
America was written about in newspapers throughout the nation
and Europe.
While Captain William Clark rejoined his command and assumed
a military post, Meriwether Lewis found himself coming to terms
with being America’s first major celebrity since the Revolutionary
War. Lewis, who was given to dark moods, soon resigned his commission
from the Army and took an appointment from Jefferson to become
Governor of the Louisiana Territory. As it is in any era, the
fame had its downside in that it created enemies for Lewis and
President Jefferson’s political foes saw a way to get at
the President through Lewis.
After three years as Governor of the Louisiana Territory, some
questions were raised concerning Lewis’ financial accounts
that offended his sense of honor. Even though Lewis knew that
political intrigue was behind the accusations. It added to Lewis’
feeling that he was cut off from the mainstream of Washington
culture and hated to have to depend on President Jefferson and
his other friends to defend his honor. After thinking on it
for a while, Gov. Lewis decided to travel to the Capitol and
clear his name.
In 1809, Lewis and a party of men crossed the Mississippi River
and marched to the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. Although notoriously
dangerous, the party of men accompanying Lewis was believed
to be able to provide ample security for the Governor. Lewis
had packed papers, money and other things that he needed, which
were carried by pack mules on the journey.
The men moved at a steady pace and eventually came to a point
on the Natchez Trace where they were going to turn north to
get to Nashville. The trip was uneventful to that time and noting
had been encountered to cause them worry. Lewis and his company
finally arrived at a place called Grinder’s Inn near Hohenwald.
Nashville was still a good distance away and the party decided
to stop for the night rather than risk a night march that could
have attracted trouble. The Inn Lewis stopped at wasn’t
much, but it, at least, afforded him a roof over his head and
a plane to camp his men. Mrs. Grinder had graciously received
her guests. Cash money was hard to come by and she welcomed
the opportunity. Her husband was nowhere to be seen and she
reportedly told one of the party members that he was off hunting.
Satisfied that everything was secure, Lewis unpacked and prepared
for a night’s sleep.
Around 3 a.m. the morning of Oct. 11, 1809, the silence of the
night was torn apart by two shots that were believed to have
come from the vicinity of Lewis’ cabin. They heard cries
for help that soon became unbearable to the occupants of the
cabin. Mrs. Grinder supposedly summoned a servant and went to
investigate the noise. They found the famous explorer lying
in his bed bleeding heavily and hovering near death. A quick
look at the wounds showed he had been stabbed and shot twice.
No one was near by or reportedly had witnessed anyone near the
cabin. The loss of blood and the wounds were too much for Lewis
and he died within hours of the incident. He was rather hastily
buried in a cemetery plot next to Grinder’s Inn off of
the Natchez Trace.
When news of Lewis’ violent death reached Washington, the
men in Lewis’ party were intensely questioned about the
incident, but none knew what had happened up to the time he
was discovered bleeding in the cabin. Authorities then questioned
Mrs. Grinder and her servant about the incident and discovered
there was something not right with their explanations. Both
were telling differing stories that called their character into
question. While one story told that the pair had found Lewis
in that condition, Mrs. Grinder had also told a federal investigator
"they had found Lewis alive with bullet wounds to his head
and chest and the explorer busily engaged in cutting himself
from head to foot with a razor."
Because of the quick burial and the lack of forensic knowledge
in those days the official cause of death was questionable and
listed as unknown.
When the reports of the incident were filed in the District
of Columbia and the summation concluded suicide as an explanation.
Lewis’ colleagues became enraged, called them lies and
immediately contested their credibility. For the report to have
played out like it was delivered, Lewis would have had to shoot
himself in the chest with a single-shot black powder pistol,
gone through the tedious process of loading it, shoot himself
again in the head, and then pick up a razor and start mutilating
himself, while bleeding from already mortal wounds and crying
out for help. Not only did it seem humanly impossible to do,
but, had he actually committed suicide, Gov. Lewis’ knowledge
of firearms and military experience meant he would have been
much more efficient at it.
Lewis’ supporters argued that not much was known about
Mrs. Grinder and her husband, who was supposedly absent the
entire time Lewis’ party was camped at the Inn. It also
didn’t make sense to them that on a highway as infamous
as the Natchez Trace, Grinder would leave his wife alone at
night where any outlaw or Indian party could attack. In any
event, numerous personal items of Lewis’ were missing,
including a reported trunk that was believed to be carrying
money and personal papers, which also contained his memoirs
that were to be published and documents that would have exonerated
him from the charges in Washington. The incident was more than
suspicious to Lewis’ supporters and they refused to believe
he killed himself.
President Jefferson said very little about the results of the
investigation, but had on occasion related that Lewis suffered
from a type of "hypochondria" and was given to "black
moods". The questions surrounding his death, however, remained
and the mystery of what happened that night at Grinder’s
Inn quickly slipped into the history books unanswered.
Almost immediately following his death, strange occurrences
began happening at Grinder’s Inn. Doors on the cabin where
Lewis died would open and slam in the middle of the night, a
man would be seen at the well, but suddenly disappear when approached.
People also reported seeing an unexplained light near the grave
of the explorer and travelers often stated they felt an uneasy
presence at the sight and would move on in the dark of night
on a dangerous road rather than stay at the Inn. Even the Indians
and outlaws, who earned notorious reputations for their exploits
against travelers, feared the site and would go out of their
way to avoid it and the strange voices that emanated from the
grounds seeming to call for help that people would answer only
to find no one there.
No one ever heard anything from the Inn’s former owners.
Former because the Grinders had somehow seen a "sudden
change in their fortunes" and moved to west Tennessee where
they bought a large farm and many slaves. No one knew where
this sudden wealth came from nor asked and the two simply passed
into oblivion to never be heard from again.
Although the suicide theory held up for many years, later occurrences
called it into question. Reports allege that the explorer’s
gold watch mysterious surfaced in Louisiana and around 20 years
later a trunk containing the personal papers and memoirs of
Meriwether Lewis was anonymously delivered to his relatives.
There was no return address or anything that would point to
who had sent it.
Those in the Gordonsburg and Hohenwald communities protected
the grave of America’s most famous explorer over the years.
In the 1920s, the U.S. Congress made the Natchez Trace Parkway
into a National Park. During this time, the Tennessee Legislature
had the body of Lewis exhumed and made a positive identification
of it by using descriptions of the wounds in the investigators’
reports filed in 1810 in D.C. After more than 110 years, experts
were able to match the body being examined with the reports
that were file. They reinterred the body of Meriwether Lewis
in the Grinder’s site, concreted over the grave to protect
it from looters, and erected a rounded granite pillar to mark
the place where the explorer had fallen. The Grinder cabin was
eventually restored by the National Park and tourists can today
see where one of the nation’s greatest mysteries took place.
*********
Beginning in 2003, the United States is expected to hold activities,
ceremonies and events commemorating the bicentennial of the
Lewis and Clark Expedition. As to the demise of the famed explorer
in Tennessee, experts have recently been investigating that
October night in 1809 and continue to draw differing conclusions.
Medical authorities have said through the years that the conditions
described by President Jefferson could indicate Lewis may have
suffered from manic depression and may have been prone to suicidal
tendencies.
In making the case for suicide, historians studying the case
later suggested Lewis could have killed himself because he was
mentally ill, suffering from syphilis, or was a drug addict,
which was not uncommon in those day, but very little proof has
been provided to back up the claims. Other scholars believe
those are easy answers and still hold to the theory that the
explorer was murdered. Many investigative experts from 1809
to today continuously assert the evidence tends to support that
theory and the Grinders knew far more than they ever told authorities.
There was little, if no, evidence that could have supported
a case against the Grinders in court and suppositions based
upon what was told to authorities was the only way any conclusions
could have been made about the incident.
Since that night, visitors to the place where Lewis lost his
life have reported strange occurrences and events, which have
also earned Grinder’s Inn a reputation as a "haunted
house" and has become a part of the local folklore, especially
around Halloween. Government officials say the strange occurrences
can be easily explained and frown upon the visits by so-called
"paranormal experts," who wish to study the site.
Officials attribute the strange sounds to the wind and trees
or active imaginations. The stories, however, continue to endure
all these generations late. The Inn and the "haunting"
have been featured in numerous publications and broadcast programs.
Meriwether Lewis wasn’t the only member of the famous expedition
to be buried in Tennessee. The other veteran of the Expedition
to find his way to Tennessee was an individual, who was a former
slave known as "York Clark." He was owned by Capt.
William Clark and accompanied him on his westward mission where
he surprised the expedition by becoming a vital part of the
famous trek. Western Indian tribes had never seen a black man
and were fascinated with him. York proved to be a skillful negotiator
and helped the expedition on many occasions with the sometimes-hostile
Native American tribes. He often fascinated the tribal leaders
with his feats of strength and agility and most wanted to touch
him to see if his color was permanent. In fact, York proved
such an asset to the crew that Clark gave him his freedom when
they returned for his service on the Expedition. After a short
time with Clark, York moved to a free Black colony in Tennessee
where he later died during a cholera epidemic that swept the
village. The Lewis and Clark Expedition is getting more recognition
these days from historians and archaeologists, who are in the
process of locating all of the campsites of the expedition across
America and marking them.
In 1996, the mystery of what happened to Meriwether Lewis became
the center of a national controversy again when James Starr,
a George Washington University law professor and forensic expert,
started a movement to exhume the body of Lewis to try and determine
once and for all if the explorer was murdered or, in fact, killed
himself.
Starr got the support of Tennessee Congressman Bob Clement and
other leaders to approach the National Park Service to get the
permits necessary to exhume the body. Starr had been previously
successful in using modern techniques to prove the identity
of the body of outlaw Jesse James and believes he can answer
the questions surrounding Lewis’ death with the same methods.
Lewis County District Attorney Joe Baugh presented the case
to a coroner’s jury and won their request to exhume the
body. The organized effort got Secretary of the Interior Bruce
Babbitt to support the investigation and he was expected to
lobby the National Park Service to allow it. In addition, Starr
began a search for Lewis’ descendants and mailed over 170
letters to locate next of kin for permission.
While some park officials support the exhumation, The NPS’s
official stance has maintained that the bones of Meriwether
Lewis are over 100 years old and on Federal land, making them
an archaeological resource that should not be tampered with
by anyone.
Upon getting the information needed, however, Starr presented
his case to U.S. District Judge Thomas Higgins in Nashville.
Judge Higgins ruled that law, not history, would decided on
the exhumation. Judge Higgins stated:
"While the court appreciates the interest of the family
members and academic interests of these other gentlemen, these
are not the driving forces."
Higgins went on to say he must decide whether the government
brought the case to a federal court in time. If it is proven
they did, then the question is whether or not a Lewis County
prosecutor must pursue exhuming the body only through the Park
Service.
If Starr is successful in getting the body of Meriwether Lewis
exhumed, he would test Lewis’ hair for evidence of substance
abuse and his bones to see if bullet-hole angles conform to
those of self-inflicted wounds.
That is where the case stands and NPS officials are still determined
that his body will not be disturbed again. Meriwether Lewis
was a man whose impact on post-revolutionary America is hard
to explain in today’s terms. His sacrifice and efforts
gave a young nation the vision to extend its boundaries to the
west coast and proved Americans were capable of accomplishing
what was then believed to be impossible.
Grinder’s Inn off of the Natchez Trace Parkway is a beautiful
place worth seeing. There are other graves located in the cemetery
where Lewis’ monument stands, but perhaps none so lonely
as his or as commanding of attention from visitors. Most visitors
to the site are surprised to find such a prominent American’s
grave in such an out-of-the-way.
