Day-by-Day / September 8, 1803

September 8, 1803

Buying another pirogue

Wheeling, WV Lewis re-supplies and gives the crew a day to rest. He writes a letter to President Thomas Jefferson, purchases another pirogue, and meets with Doctor William Patterson who offers to join. He dines, and later has dessert, with Thomas Rodney.

Northern Pike

Esox lucius

large, narrow fish

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.

Related: The Barge (called boat, barge, and bateau but never keelboat)

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.

Related: The Pirogues | Leaving Pittsburgh

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

Dr. William Patterson was the son of Robert Patterson, the mathematician from whom Lewis had received his Astronomy Notebook.
Also related: Medicine on the Trail | Clark’s Commission

Notes

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.

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).