Early years
Congress having proved complaisant, in
secretly giving the
necessary authority and passing the modest
appropriation,
Jefferson at once appointed his private secretary,
Captain Meriwether Lewis, as head of the proposed
expedition. Lewis
was born near Charlottesville, Virginia,
August 18th, 1774, his people
being prominent in colonial
and Revolutionary affairs. His father,
William, died when
Meriwether, named for his mother's family, was a child.
The
boy came under the guardianship of his uncle Nicholas, who
had
in 1776 commanded a regiment in the campaign against
the Cherokees; but
his education remained under the direction
of his mother, a woman of
capacity and judgment. When
but eight years of age, the lad had
established a local reputation
as a hunter; and until his thirteenth year,
when he was sent to
a Latin school, had ample opportunity to satisfy his
adventurous
cravings in this direction.
After five years of tuition,
he returned to his mother's farm, where the
succeeding two
years were spent in careful attention to the details of
husbandry,
in the course of which he acquired some skill in botany, that
was to stand him well in stead during the great expedition of a
few
years later.
