Frances Hunter

blog of the author To the Ends of the Earth

 

Frances Hunter's Journal
April 2007

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April 25, 2007: Cave-In-Rock and Fort Jefferson

Beneath the giant statue of Clark by Felix de Weldon

On our second day following the trail of George Rogers Clark, our group started the day on the Belvedere in Louisville, a beautiful pedestrian plaza that overlooks the Ohio River. Jim gave us a talk about Clark as the founder of Louisville. After planning his strike at the British at Fort Harrod, Clark went to Virginia and Pennsylvania and recruited about 150 men into a secret expeditionary force that later became known as the Illinois regiment.

Together with about 80 civilians, Clark and his men came down in May 1778 from Pennsylvania and landed at the Falls of the Ohio. The presence of the settlers helped Clark conceal his true purposes, and the regiment was able to help the settlers get set up on Corn Island in the middle of the Ohio (the island is now underwater). This was the founding of the settlement that became known as Louisville.

As an interesting footnote, Jim also told us about the ferries that once crossed over to the Indiana side in the early days. Two of these ferries had Lewis & Clark connections. One was operated by the Floyd family, which gave Charles Floyd to the Expedition. Another ran from Locust Grove, the Croghan estate and home of Lucy Clark Croghan, George and William's sister.

A few weeks after arriving at Corn Island, Clark and his men headed downriver in canoes. Now it was our turn to retrace his journey by modern means.

For anyone thinking of following this itinerary, I have to say that we had too much driving planned today and not enough stops, though what we did see was fun. Leavenworth, Indiana, has a stupendous overlook of the Ohio. We hit it just in time to see thick fog rising from the river. It was lovely to watch it burn off to reveal barges plying their trade.

Early morning fog on the Ohio River

 

The rest of the morning we wove our way through small river towns until we finally arrived at Cave-In-Rock State Park in far southern Illinois. We nooned it with a surprisingly good lunch of chicken-fried steak at the park restaurant and Jim filled us in with tales of early river pirates and outlaws. Cave-In-Rock had been a landmark on the river since at least 1729, and would have been known to George Rogers Clark and later to Lewis & Clark and other river explorers. Bad men such as Sam Mason and the Harpe Brothers used the cave to ambush and attack pioneers traveling the river.

The cave itself is the stuff of every kid's Mark Twain fantasies, a huge deep cavern in a cliff far above the river, with a hole in the top for light and a secondary cavern that could be used for sleeping or hiding. I was horrified to learn that in 1962, the evidence of 10,000 years of human habitation was shoveled wholesale out of Cave-In-Rock and thrown away so a scene could be filmed here for the execrable epic film How the West Was Won. What a short-sighted waste!

Photos of Cave-In-Rock

We crossed back into Kentucky on a ferry and proceeded on. If you need a bathroom break, you could do worse than Smithland, where the Cumberland River empties into the Ohio. The Gower House, an old tavern and hotel dating from the 1820s, is an interesting ruin. The Marquis de Lafayette stayed here during his famous 1824-25 tour of the United States. You can also take in a neat folk art statue of Kentucky statesman Henry Clay here, carved from a single log.

The gigantic "Cross at the Confluence" at the site of old Fort Jefferson is a project of about 50 local churches and is visible from the tri-states of Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois

Our last and best stop of the day was at the site of old Fort Jefferson near Wickliffe. Clark established Fort Jefferson in 1780 to guard the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi from Spanish incursions coming upstream and Revolutionary War deserters going downstream. Free land was offered to settlers to come to Fort Jefferson, and Clark and others expected a major river town to develop here, as happened in places like Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis.

Instead, Fort Jefferson was abandoned after only about a year, becoming another might-have-been in the life of George Rogers Clark. What happened? Evidence shows that the settlers built a stockade and put in crops in the summer of 1780. However, the fort was harried by the Chickasaw Indians in alliance with the British. In August, the Chickasaws burned the corn crop and killed most of the livestock. Then malaria and flu hit with a vengeance. By the end of 1780, most of the settlers had left, tired of famine, sickness, and Indian attacks. The place flooded in 1781 and was evacuated by June of that year.

Good article about Fort Jefferson

We stayed tonight at an excellent hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in Paducah. Applebee's next door made for an easy dinner.

April 19, 2007: George Rogers Clark and the Revolutionary War in the West

When we were doing the research for To the Ends of the Earth, we discovered that George Rogers Clark, William Clark's older brother, was one of the most significant figures in the winning of the Revolutionary War and the expansion of Americans into the West. He was also one of the most tragic figures in American history. But today he is little known outside of Kentucky and Indiana, where he spent his declining years. Until we started this project, my only knowledge of him came from his portrayal in John Jakes' great book, The Rebels.

In this next series of posts, I'll share our experiences and thoughts as we followed George Rogers Clark's Revolutionary campaign trail last fall. We took our trip with an excellent tour company called HistoryAmerica, with whom we've traveled several times. This time our historian-guide was Jim Holmberg, the curator of special collections at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville. Jim is an expert on the history of the Ohio River Valley and on the Clark family. He's also extremely knowledgable and genuinely nice.

Fort Harrod and Blue Licks

Our first day was spent exploring and learning about the early settlement of Kentucky. From our home base in Louisville, we headed east for Harrodsburg. In many places the modern-day highways were built directly atop the old pioneer traces that originally linked these two settlements. Along the way Jim Holmberg filled us in with interesting stories about the founders of Kentucky, their adventures, and the Indian wars that defined the era. This is a topic about which I still have much to learn.

Old Fort Harrod, Kentucky

The big stop of the morning was Fort Harrod, a reconstruction of the first settlement in Kentucky. Harrodsburg was founded in 1774 by James Harrod and was almost immediately abandoned during Lord Dunmore's War. Kentucky was then part of the colony of Virginia, and Dunmore's War was a British punitive expedition against the Shawnee and Mingo Indians, who had taken violent umbrage with settlers moving in to modern-day West Virginia and Kentucky. At age 22, George Rogers Clark had his first military experience in Dunmore's War.

In 1775, Harrod and about 50 intrepid frontiersmen--mostly surveyors and hunters--restarted Harrodsburg, laid out a town, and began to raise corn. Clark spent some time roving around the woods and rivers of Kentucky before attaching himself to Harrodsburg, which was badly in need of a leader. Despite their youth, Clark and his friend Gabriel Jones were chosen to represent Harrodsburg to the Virginia colonial assembly in Williamsburg.

Liz at the heroic memorial built in the 1930s

Pioneer cemetery. A nearby centograph reads To the Wilderness Dead "Those without graves ... Unknell'd .. uncoffin'd and unknown"

Clark was the driving force behind the construction of Fort Harrod, a palisaded fort to which the settlers could run in the event of an Indian attack. The fort concept was absolutely critical to the survival of this, and any other, frontier settlement. Inside, we saw how the settlers carried on their daily lives with demonstrations and exhibits of the schoolhouse, weaver, basketmaker, and blacksmith. By 1777 there were about 80 men in Harrodsburg along with two dozen women, over fifty children, and a number of black slaves.

Recreation of the cabin and desk where George Robers Clark planned his brilliant strike at the British in 1778

In one of the corner blockhouses, George Rogers Clark planned his 1778 campaign against the British. Tiny Fort Harrod was under a desperate siege by Indians with British backing, and the conventional wisdom held that the West was lost to the fledgling United States. Someone forgot to tell Clark. There is a great account of this event in James Alexander Thom's book From Sea to Shining Sea.

Great pictures of Old Fort Harrod

Next, we headed north past Shaker Village, Lexington, and Paris to Blue Licks State Park. We also headed forward in time from the beginning of the Revolution to the end, when this beautiful spot was the site of a devastating battle in August 1782. Ten months after Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown, the war in the West was still in full swing.

Enjoyed a yummy buffet lunch in the visitors' center and then visited the small museum on the premises, which included mastodon bones and Indian artifacts excavated from the park. Then we trekked to a neat old bridge that overlooks the pretty Licking River and the battle site.

As Jim related, Blue Licks, named after a nearby salt lick, was a major debacle for the Kentucky militia. In early August, the notorious Tory renegade, Simon Girty, organized a combined force of about 300 Shawnee, Iroquois, and Mingo to attack Bryan's Station and Lexington. A small force of British rangers under Captain William Caldwell also marched with the Indians.

The attack was very well planned. Half the force would hide at Blue Licks while the other half attacked Bryan's Station. When the rescue forces poured out of Lexington to pursue the raiders, they would really be led into a trap at Blue Licks.

Mary & Liz at Blue Licks, Kentucky

This was exactly what happened. About 180 Kentuckians under the leadership of the most prominent men in the area set off in hot pursuit of the Indians. Daniel Boone, in command of Fayette county militia, became alarmed when he noticed how obvious the Indians' trail was. But he was overruled by other militia leaders who wanted to continue the pursuit.

The result was disaster. When the trap closed on the Kentuckians, 72 were killed, including some of the most important leaders of the settlements. Boone escaped but his son, Israel, was killed.

The political fallout in the battle's aftermath marked the beginning of Kentucky's disillusionment with George Rogers Clark. Clark was the leader of the state militia, and although he was nowhere near the battle site, Kentuckians were bitterly disappointed that he hadn't somehow prevented the disaster. Clark organized a massive punitive raid into the Ohio country in November 1782 in which five Shawnee villages were destroyed. This expedition is generally considered the last engagement of the Revolutionary War.

Good article about the Battle of Blue Licks

After viewing the mass grave and monument to the Blue Licks dead, it was back to Louisville and a nice dinner at a riverside restaurant called Captain's Quarters.

April 12, 2007: The Clark Brothers

In the next week or so I am going to begin a series of journal entries about our trip last fall in which we followed in the historic footsteps of George Rogers Clark. Between one thing and another, I have yet to post my photos and thoughts about this great trip -- but get ready, it's on the way!

Today, when he's remembered at all, George Rogers Clark may be referred to first as the brother of William Clark. But once it was quite the reverse. As a Revolutionary War general, Clark was second only to George Washington in his impact on the future of the American nation. After all, his exploits led directly to the acquistion of the Northwest Territory: the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. It's impossible to imagine what the country might have looked like without Clark.

There's a great website of George Rogers Clark information and resources at the Indiana Historical Bureau.

If you want to know patriotism, check out the page about the Clark siblings. Besides George and William, there were four other Clark brothers and four sisters, and all lived to adulthood. All of the brothers besides William served in the Revolution (Billy, born in 1770, was too young). Jonathan and Edmund fought in the southern theater and became prisoners of war when Charleston fell to the British. Both survived and became respected men of property in Virginia and Kentucky.

But the family was not to be spared the ultimate sacrifice. The year 1784, when Billy was 14, must have been a terrible one for the Clarks. The Revolution was finally over, and the family was preparing for their long-anticipated move from Virginia to the Kentucky frontier. Then, the close-knit clain was hit hard by the deaths of two brothers. Dick, age 24, disappeared on the trace between Louisville and Vincennes. Despite desperate searching, he was never seen again. The family finally had to presume him drowned or killed or captured by Indians. His fate remains unknown. John, age 27, wasted away from consumption as the family got ready for the move, a victim of the barbaric treatment he received as a prisoner of war on a British hulk ship during the Revolution.

After years of war capped by this double tragedy, the move to Kentucky and the hard work and activity to build a new homestead must have come as a welcome relief to the Clarks.

April 5, 2007: Hurt

The Johnny Cash recording of the song "Hurt" may be one of the single most powerful vocal recordings ever made. During the writing of this book, I also found it extraordinarily meaningful in regards to Meriwether Lewis, his tormented final days, and his relationship with William Clark. If you have never heard it or seen the video, check it out at this YouTube link: Johnny Cash's Hurt.

Where the Bodies Are Buried

Cemeteries really don't hold particular interest for me, but I do like to know what happened to historic figures after the limelight faded away, and a gravesite can tell a lot of the tale. Here is what I know of the final resting places of the major figures in To the Ends of the Earth.

The "broken shaft" monument to Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis - As detailed in our book, Meriwether Lewis died of gunshot wounds along the Natchez Trace on October 11, 1809 at the age of 35. Lewis was staying at a roadside inn called Grinder's Stand, and the circumstances of his death remain mysterious. Lewis was buried near the stand. A few months later, his friend ornithologist Alexander Wilson traveled to the Trace and paid the Grinders to put up a fence around the grave to keep hogs from digging up the body. (According to some accounts, this had already happened.)

In the 1840s, the state of Tennessee erected a "broken shaft" memorial over the grave, at which time the body was exhumed and supposedly identified. Though the memorial has been refurbished several times, this is where Lewis continues to rest today. The site is now a stop along the magnificent Natchez Trace Parkway.

"His life is written in the history of his country."

William Clark - Unlike Lewis, Clark lived to a ripe old age for his era. He had remained vigorous, fully engaged in his work as an American diplomat to the Indians, and attractive until about age 64, when it appears that he suffered a stroke. Though Clark continued to work, he was never quite the same, especially when he was emotionally upset. Unfortunately, he often had occasion to be distressed, especially because of the behavior of his second son, William Preston, who was an alcoholic.

By early 1838, Clark had fallen several times and could no longer live on his own. He moved in with his oldest son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, and his wife. He died at his son's house on September 1, 1838, at the age of 68. The old general was given a huge military funeral reminiscent of a Viking sendoff, with a procession that stretched a full mile. He was buried at the family cemetery at the farm of John O'Fallon, his nephew and a wealthy St. Louis businessman.

In the 1850s, he was reinterred at Bellefontaine Cemetery in a plot that grew to include most of his extended family and even servants. The gravesite has a lovely memorial that was paid for by his youngest son, Jefferson Kennerly Clark, for the 1904 centennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. It was refurbished for the recent bicentennial.

York - York, Clark's manservant and the first African American to cross the continent, met a humbler fate. What is known of York's final years comes from an interview that Clark gave to the author Washington Irving in 1832. Clark recounted that he had freed York sometime around 1815 and that he and a nephew had set York up in a drayage business in Louisville. Supposedly York was not disciplined enough to succeed in business and was coming back to St. Louis to work for Clark when he caught cholera and died. He is buried in an unknown location.

Some sources dispute the veracity of Clark's story and even say that York returned to the west to live with the Indians. My opinion is that while Clark may have been a bit self-serving, there's no real reason to doubt the essential truth of the story.

Julia Hancock Clark - The charming young wife of William Clark didn't have an easy time of it. Like most women of her day, she was constantly pregnant. This eventually ruined her health. It's not clear what ailed her -- either cancer or tuberculosis are the best guesses. Clark took her to many hot springs to try to regain her health, and eventually back to her father's estate, Fotheringay, in the Roanoke Valley of Virginia. Unfortunately, Julia did not recover, and died at only 28 years of age. She left behind her husband and five young children.

She is buried there in the family tomb. Her imperious father, Colonel George Hancock, died just three weeks later. In accordance with his wishes, he was famously interred sitting up so he could continue to supervise the family slaves from beyond the grave.

James Wilkinson - After a disastrous command in the War of 1812, Wilkinson was finally dismissed from the army. He kicked around writing his memoirs and hatching various schemes, becoming frail and old from dissipation and use of opium. In March 1822, he went to Mexico to apply for a Texas empresario grant. Stephen F. Austin, there for the same purpose, took pity on him and nursed him. When Austin departed Mexico City, Wilkinson, evidently still in possession of some of his old charm, somehow persuaded the dignified young man to buy a bunch of watches from him and peddle them to people along the way for $13 apiece. Not long after, Wilkinson died in Mexico City and was buried in an unmarked grave, where he remains to this day.

Meriwether Lewis Park
Bellefontaine Cemetery
The Vault at Fotheringay

 

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