On or near this date, the boats pass the Green River where the “Scuffletown” tavern attracts many Ohio river men. Pvt. Lepage enlists in the “corps of volunteers for North West Discovery”.[1]No known record exists of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac. Using information from travelers of the period and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one … Continue reading
Scuffletown Landing, 1930
Ohio River Portrait Project, Courtesy Kentucky Historical Society, https://www.kyhistory.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16602coll1/id/917/rec/193.
In 1803, Scuffletown Landing was a popular stopping place for Ohio river boatmen. Its name was derived from the frequent fights that broke out at Jonathan Stott’s tavern which operated from 1800 to 1804.[2]Leigh Ann Boucher, Henderson County, Kentucky Communities, https://hendersonkyhistory.com/LostCities1.htm, accessed on 24 December 2018.
Green River
Green River is in appearance at the mouth the finest of all the rivers we have seen that fall into the Ohio on the same side; and the Ohio is the finest at the mouth of that river. It is deep quite across and no shoals occur, except a small sand bar just within the mouth of Green River on the lower side, which is no impediment to its navigation.
—Thomas Rodney[3]26 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), … Continue reading
Pvt. Lepage Enlists
In a summary of extra pay awarded the men, Clark records Jean-Baptiste Lepage‘s enlistment as starting on 2 November 1803:
We the Subscribers do acknowledge to have received of [blank] the several Sums set opposite to our names, the Same being due us from the War department pursuant to an Act of Congress bearing date March 3rd 1807, entitled ‘an Act makeing compensation to Messrs. Lewis & Clark and their companions.
. . . .
Name Period of Service Monthly Rate Amount Jean Baptiste Lepage 2 Nov. 1803 to 10 Oct. 1806 5 [$]111.50[4]Donald Jackson citing Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | No known record exists of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac. Using information from travelers of the period and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one conjecture is that the captains were near the Green River on this date. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Leigh Ann Boucher, Henderson County, Kentucky Communities, https://hendersonkyhistory.com/LostCities1.htm, accessed on 24 December 2018. |
| ↑3 | 26 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 137. |
| ↑4 | Donald Jackson citing Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 2:378. |
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Discover More
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).