The D^r could not get ready I waited untill thre[e] this evening and then set out had some difficulty in geting over a riffle one mile below the town, got on six miles and brought too, I was now informed that by some mistake in the contract between the Corporal and the woman who had engaged to bake the bread for the men at Wheeling that the woman would not agree to give up the bread being 90 lbs. and that the bread was left I instantly dispatched the Corpo^l and two men for the bread and gave him a dollar to pay the woman for her trouble; about the time we landed it began to rain very heard and continued to rain most powerfully all night with small intervals; had my perogues covered with oil-cloth, but the rain comes down in such torrents that I found it necessary to have them bailed out freequently in the course of the night; in attending to the security of my goods I was exposed to the rain and got wet to the skin as I remained untill about twelve at night, when I wrung out my saturated cloths, put on a dry shirt turned into my birth; the rain was exceessively could for the season of the year.

Source: Lewis’s 1803 journal, printed in Quaife, The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway (Wisconsin Historical Society, 1916), p. 40. Public domain.

The post Meriwether Lewis: September 9, 1803 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Very foggy this morning. Thermometer 63° Ferrenheit, immersed the Thermometer in the river, and the murcury arose immediately to 75° or summer heat so that there is 12° difference is sufficient to shew the vapor which arrises from the water; the fogg this prodused is impenetrably thick at this moment; we were in consequence obliged to ly by untill 9 this morning M^r Gui Briant arrived with two boats loaded with firrs, he informs me that if I can reach, and get over the George-town barr 24 miles I can get on; this is some consolation. we set out at 9. this morning and passed a riffle just below us called Atkins’s got over with tolerable ease passed the mouth of big bever creek and came to ancor off Mackintosh being 2½ miles—discharge one of my hands.—passed the riffle below Mackintosh.—about three miles from this we stuck on another riffle the worst I think we have yet passed were obliged to unload and drag over with horses.—staid all night having made only six miles.

Source: Lewis’s 1803 journal, printed in Quaife, The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway (Wisconsin Historical Society, 1916), pp. 34-35. Public domain.

The post Meriwether Lewis: September 3, 1803 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Source: Lewis’s 1803 journal, printed in Quaife, The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway (Wisconsin Historical Society, 1916), pp. 39-40. Public domain.

The post Meriwether Lewis: September 8, 1803 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Foggy this morning according to custom; set out at half past seven, and in about two hundred paces stuck on a riffle all hands obliged to get out—observed the Thermometer at sun rise in the air to stand at 47° the tem[pe]rature of the river water being 68°—difference —21°—got over the riffle, at 45 m^ts after 8. passed Charlestown on the E. shore above the mouth of Buffaloe over which there is built a handsom wooden bridge, this has the appearance of a handsome little Village, containing about forty houses—this village is three miles below our encampment of last evening—reached Wheeling 16 Miles distant at 5 in the evening. this is a pretty considerable Village contains about fifty houses and is the county town of Ohio (State of Virginia) it is situated on the east side of the river on an elivated bank; the landing is good. just below the town and on the same side [close] by Wheeling creek emtys itself into the Ohio, on the point formed by this creek and the river stands an old stoccade fort, now gone to decay; this town is remarkable for being the point of embarkation for merchants and Emegrants who are about to descend the river, particularly if they are late in geting on and the water gets low as it most commonly is from the begining of July to the last of September; the water from hence being much deeper and the navigation better than it is from Pittsburgh or any point above it—I went on shore waited on a M^r Caldwell a merchant of that place to whome I had consigned a part of my goods which I had sent by land from Pittsburgh; found the articles in good order; her[e] met with Col^o Rodney one of the commissioners appointed by the government to adjust the landed claims in the Mississippi Territory in his suit was Maj^r Claiborne and a young gentleman who was going on to the Territory with a view to commence the practice of the law—he is a pupil of Czar Rodney of Deleware remained all night.

Source: Lewis’s 1803 journal, printed in Quaife, The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway (Wisconsin Historical Society, 1916), pp. 37-39. Public domain.

The post Meriwether Lewis: September 7, 1803 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Morning foggy, obliged to wait. Thermometer at 63° temperature of the river-water 73° being a difference of ten degrees, but yesterday there was a difference of twelve degrees so that the water must have changed it 10 temperature 2^d in twenty four hours, coolder: at ¼ past 8. the murcury rose in the open air to 68° the fogg dispeared. and we set out; the difference therefore of 5° in temperature between the warter and air is not sufficient to produce the appearance of fogg—from the watermark we fixed last evening it appeared that the river during the night had fallen an inch perpendicularly.—the Perogue was loaded as his been my practice since I left Pittsburgh, in order as much as posseble to lighten the boat, the [men] who conducted her called as in distress about an hour after we had got under way, we came too and waaited her coming up found she had sprung a leek and had nearly filled: this accedent was truly distressing, as her load consisting of of articles of hard-ware, intended as presents to the Indians got wet and I fear are much damaged; proceeded about three miles further got fast on a bar below georgetown, and with the assistance of some of the neighboring people got over it with much difficulty; at Georgetown purchased a canoe compleat with two paddles and two poles for which I gave 11.$, found that my new purchase leaked so much that she was unsafe woithout some repairs; came too about a mile below the riffle on the east shore pretty early in the evening where we stayed all night having made about thirteen miles this day. opened the articles which had got wet and exposed them to the sun; set some of my hands to repareing the canoes which I effected before night had the articles well oiled and put up in oilcloth baggs and returned to the casks in which they were previously were, hired another hand to go with me as far as Wheeling—the articles were not as much injured as I had supposed.—about two miles above my camp passed the line, which divides the States of Virginia and Pensylvania on the east side of the river and on the West that of Pensylvania from the State of Ohio; this line is made vi[si]ble from the timber having been felled about sixty feet in width, the young timber has spring up but has not yet attained the hight of the other that it can with ease be traced with the eye a considerable distance—it passed the Ohio River at the mouth of mill Creek. The water is so low and clear that we see a great number of Fish of different kinds, the Sturgeon, Bass, Cat fish, pike, &c. we fixed some spears after the indian method but have had too much to attend to of more importance than gigging fish.

Source: Lewis’s 1803 journal, printed in Quaife, The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway (Wisconsin Historical Society, 1916), pp. 35-36. Public domain.

The post Meriwether Lewis: September 4, 1803 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Source: Patrick Gass, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery (Pittsburgh, 1807). Public domain. McKeehan’s published prose, not Gass’s lost original notebook. The 1807 book ends on this day; Gass published no October–December 1806 daily journal.

The post Patrick Gass: September 23, 1806 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Source: Patrick Gass, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery (Pittsburgh, 1807; 1811 reprint). Public domain. McKeehan’s published prose, not Gass’s lost original notebook.

The post Patrick Gass: May 20, 1804 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Source: Patrick Gass, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery (Pittsburgh, 1807; 1811 reprint). Public domain. McKeehan’s published prose, not Gass’s lost original notebook.

The post Patrick Gass: May 21, 1804 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Source: Patrick Gass, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery (Pittsburgh, 1807; 1811 reprint). Public domain. McKeehan’s published prose, not Gass’s lost original notebook.

The post Patrick Gass: May 17, 1804 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

Source: Patrick Gass, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery (Pittsburgh, 1807; 1811 reprint). Public domain. McKeehan’s published prose, not Gass’s lost original notebook.

The post Patrick Gass: May 18, 1804 appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.