Near New Richmond, OH[1]Because we have no journal entry from Lewis for this day, his exact location is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas … Continue reading On or near this date, Lewis and his crew float down the Ohio River in the area between Augusta, Kentucky and New Richmond, Ohio. A contemporary traveler in this area treated a settler with mercury pills and saw a “fine tract of land.”
Honey Locust
Gleditsia triacanthos
Provided by Kevmin with permission via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
The honey locust’s natural range is in the states bordering the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It has been successfully introduced around the world. The tree in this figure is growing on a bluff above the Columbia River in Washington state.
Treating Worms with Mercury Pills
The owner of the house come on board and asked assistance for a sick child which lay ill with worms. I went up and prescribed and furnished mercury pills which I got of Shields, and the woman gave some eggs . . .
—Thomas Rodney[2]5 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), 99.
Fine Tract of Land
In my rout on shore before diner I passed through a fine tract of land. The chief groth was honey locust and cycamore. The honey locust trees were frequently 5 and 6 feet in diameter.
—Thomas Rodney[3]Ibid.
Notes
| ↑1 | Because we have no journal entry from Lewis for this day, his exact location is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas Rodney’s journal of his similar trip down the Ohio and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one conjecture is that Lewis stopped for the night near New Richmond, Ohio on this date. |
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| ↑2 | 5 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), 99. |
| ↑3 | Ibid. |
