Undaunted Courage

 On my way home from the Cheer competition today in Parkersburg, I thought about the fact that I had crossed the Ohio River three times.  And the fact that Paige Cruz is going to speak to us this coming Saturday about the Lewis and Clark Expedition 

The first chapters are a biography of Merriweather Lewis.  He was a man from the gentry.  His father was a Revolutionary war hero who not only bought his own uniform but also paid for his own keep as a contribution to the cause.  Unfortunately his father died young after a visit home as he prepared to return to the Revolutionary War arena.  His horse drowned while trying to cross a river and he made it back home totally wet and cold and died of pneumonia soon after.

His early years were spent on a plantation that according to this book looked to the west through Rockfish gap on the east side of the Blue Ridge mountains in Albemarle County.  It is very interesting to me as my Morrison family lived in the general area.  Although the Morrisons had moved to Pittsylvania County by the time Merriweather Lewis was born.  But the author points out that the place of birth and early years of Meerriweathre Lewis was influenced by the fact that his home faced to the west the frontier and to the east with the privileges of education and gentility and that Lewis loved both.

In the first few chapters William Clark is named only briefly as the two men met while serving in the army of the young United States.