Meriwether Lewis: September 7, 1803

September the 7^th

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.