At Wheeling in present West Virginia, Lewis re-supplies and gives the crew a day to rest. He writes a letter to President Jefferson, purchases another pirogue to help carry the load, and meets with Doctor William Patterson who offers to come along. He dines, and later has dessert, with Thomas Rodney.
Northern Pike
Esox lucius
Drawing by Timothy Knepp of the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Dinner and Dessert
I dined at Mr. Zanes with the Major and Shields and Captain Lewes on the Great Ohio pike which was not dressed yesterday, and I found it to be a very good kind of fish; and we had a cleaver diner. Mr. Linsey, a lawyer, and Doctor [blank] were introduced to us there . . . . went on board Captain Lewes’s barge to eat watter millons . . . .
—Thomas Rodney[1]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), 51.
Letter to Jefferson
Wheeling, September 8th 1803.
I have been compelled to purchase a pirogue at this place in order to transport the baggage which was sent by land from Pittburgh [Pittsburgh], and also to lighten the boat as much as possible. On many bars the water in the deepest part does not exceed six inches. I have the honour to be with the most perfect regard and sincere attatchment Your Obt. Servt.
MERIWETHER LEWIS. Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.[2]Lewis to Thomas Jefferson, Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., Donald Jackson, ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:122.
Dr. Patterson Joins
Wheeling, September 8th 1803.
I here also met with Dr. Patterson the son of the professor of mathematicks in the University of Philada. he expressed a great desire to go with me I consented provided he could get ready by three the next evening he thought he could and instantly set about it; I told the Dr. that I had a letter of appointment for a second Lieut. which I could give him but did not feel myself altogether at liberty to use it as it was given me by the President to be used in the event of Mr. Clark’s not consenting to go with me
—Meriwether Lewis
Notes
| ↑1 | 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), 51. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Lewis to Thomas Jefferson, Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., Donald Jackson, ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:122. |
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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).