September 24, 1806, at St. Louis. The only published daily journal for this date in this corpus is William Clark’s. Patrick Gass’s 1807 book, printed by David McKeehan, ends the previous day, 23 September, with the arrival at St. Louis; there is no Gass for the 24th. John Ordway has no published journal_entry here, and Lewis left no separate daily of his own in this record. What follows is Clark’s day, in Clark’s sentences.
Letters before noon
Clark opens with a bad night and an early desk:
I sleped but little last night however we rose early and Commencd wrighting our letters Capt. Lewis wrote one to the presidend and I wrote Govr. Harrison & my friends in Kentucky and Sent of George Drewyer with those letters to Kohoka & delivered them to Mr. Hays
The first work of the recorded day in town is correspondence. “We rose early” and began writing; then the letters split. Lewis writes one letter, and Clark names the addressee only as “the presidend.” Clark writes to “Govr. Harrison” and to “my friends in Kentucky” — more than one letter on his side. He does not excerpt them. He does not say what Lewis reported, or what news went to Kentucky. The journal records that letters were written, who they were for, and who carried them.
The carrier is “George Drewyer,” sent to “Kohoka” to deliver the packet to “Mr. Hays.” Clark does not describe the crossing, the hour, or Hays’s office. Drewyer is simply the man who takes the letters. “Sent of” is how Clark writes the dispatch.
Dinner, store, tailor
The rest of the public day is two stops:
we dined with Mr. Chotoux to day, and after dinner went to a Store and purchased Some Clothes, which we gave to a Tayler and derected to be made.
“We” dined; “we” bought clothes; the clothes went to a “Tayler” and were “derected to be made.” Clark names the host “Mr. Chotoux” and stops there. He lists no other guests, no dishes, no talk. He does not name the store. He does not say what garments they ordered — only “Some Clothes.” After the return down the Missouri, the entry’s concern is that cloth was bought and left to be sewn. That is the whole of the social record.
The trunk
The last sentence is the only note on the collections:
Capt Lewis in opening his trunk found all his papers wet, and Some Seeds spoiled
Clark writes “all his papers” and “Some Seeds.” He does not say when the water entered, which papers, which seeds, or whether anything remained dry. He records no attempt to dry or save them. Lewis, who opened the trunk, has no published daily here to qualify the loss. The line stands as Clark set it down: wet papers, spoiled seeds, after the tailor.
What this page is not
It is not a two-voice close. It is not Gass’s arrival scene, which in this corpus belongs to 23 September. It is not an Ordway walk through St. Louis. Clark chose a sleepless night, the writing of letters, Drewyer to Kohoka, a dinner, a store, a tailor, and a damaged trunk. The usual furniture of the upriver dailies — miles, courses, weather, game, names of nations — is absent. The expedition is in town. The journal has become a list of errands and one wet box of paper and seed.
Clark’s spellings are the day’s other record: “sleped,” “Commencd,” “wrighting,” “presidend,” “Kohoka,” “Chotoux,” “Tayler,” “derected.” He does not regularize them. This page follows that text and does not supply the missing pens.
