Existing comment:
Meriwether Lewis and his dog Seaman
Maquette of a statue at Fort Lewis, Washington
By John Jewell, 2005
Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) was born in Albemarle County to a family well acquainted with the Jeffersons. When Thomas Jefferson became president of the United States in 1801, he asked young Lewis, an army captain, to become his personal secretary. Jefferson and Lewis planned a covert expedition to find a water route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, but the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 allowed the expedition to be made openly. Lewis chose William Clark, also an Albemarle resident, to join him in leading the Corps of Discovery, remembered as the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06. Seaman, Lewis' Newfoundland dog, accompanied the expedition to the Pacific Ocean and back. According to an 1814 account, he remained with his master until Lewis' death and then died of grief. |