Focus August 18 1997

History Focus August 18

A short focus on a person or event associated with this day in History.

Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774)

Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County Virginia on August 18, 1774. Lewis joined the US Army in 1794 and quickly rose to the rank of Captain in six years. In 1801 Captain Lewis became private secretary to US President Thomas Jefferson. Under Jefferson's direction, Lewis planned an exploration of a route west to the Pacific coast of North America. Lewis invited William Clark to join the expedition, and the two men privately agreed to lead it jointly.

Lewis also served as the party's naturalist. During the expedition he collected plant, animal, and mineral specimens. In May of 1804 The expedition, sponsored by the US Government, began only five months after President Jefferson's decision to purchase the Louisiana territory from France. The expidition started up the Missouri River from a camp near St. Louis. By late fall, the explorers reached what is now North Dakota and spent the winter there. The following spring they continued along the Missouri and in late summer crossed the Rocky Mountains. Following the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia Rivers they made their way to the Pacific coast, which they reached in November of 1805. The party spent the second winter on the coast of what is now Oregon and began the trip home in March of 1806. The explorers returned along nearly the same route by which they had come, reaching St. Louis in September of 1806 after traveling a total of 8,000 miles.

As a reward for his service, Thomas Jefferson named Lewis governor of the Louisiana Territory in 1807. Captain Lewis met with an untimely death, under ambiguous circumstances, while traveling through Tennessee in 1809. It is speculated that personal and professional problems may have driven him to suicide, but some people believe he was murdered.

Sources: Compton’s Encyclopedia | Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 96

Virginia Dare-

Virginia Dare was born on August 18, 1587, days after the colonists arrival on Roanoke Island. She was the granddaughter of Governor John White, and the first child born of English parents in the new world. The child's mother was White's daughter Eleanor. Her father, Ananias Dare, served as one of the Governor's assistants. Her baptism on Sunday following her birth was the second recorded Christian baptism administered in North America. The first baptism had been administered a few days earlier to Manteo, an Indian chief who was rewarded for his service by being christened and named ''Lord''.

When Governor White was forced to return to England for supplies, Virginia Dare was less than a month old, and he left with heavy heart, never realizing that he would never see her or any of the other colonists who remained behind again. Leaving the new world and his family behind must have been difficult for White. A secret code had been worked out, that should they leave Roanoke Island, they were to carve their new location on a conspicuous tree or post. If the move had to be made because of an attack, either by Indians or Spaniards, they were to carve over the letters or name a distress signal in the form of a Maltese cross.

Three years to the month later, White returned to find the word ''Croatoan'' without any cross or other sign of distress. No one knows what became of those settlers, for they disappeared without a trace three years after their arrival.To this day, no one is certain were the lost colony went, or what happened to them. It is a mystery that has baffled scholars around the worldfor more than 400 years.