When most residents of metropolitan Louisville hear the name “The Ohio River”, it does not typically evoke the most sanitary thoughts. The waterfront does host numerous popular events annually such as Thunder over Louisville, Forecastle Festival, and the Louisville Ironman Triathlon. Most of these events limit themselves to the banks of the river or the airspace over head. Except for the brave souls of the Ironman triathlon who dive face first into the murky tea shaded water. I do in no way envy the taste that those crazy contestants have undoubtedly experienced.
It is hard to last more than a week without seeing something on the news regarding another suspected restaurant or industrial plant that is dumping waste water and products into the river. All of these circumstances combined are what leave the river in rather low regards in most Kentuckiana resident’s minds. Water sports and fishing are kept to a minimum nowadays while instead river traffic is swarmed with barges and tug boats.
As an adolescent I spent the first six years of my childhood growing up mere miles from the banks of the Ohio River. I felt no personal connection to the river. I did not understand the historical importance of this vital Mississippi tributary. It did not come until my later teenage years and early college years that I gained a new found appreciation for this stretch of the river.
Roughly seven years back, while growing up in New Jersey, my late Grandpa Ray passed along some elderly wisdom of our family lineage to me. He was not much of a story teller, except when it came to lavish World War II stories he lived out. However, he did pass along the information that we had a relative that joined Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their initial journey westward. To the best of his shaky knowledge, our ancestor was a French engineer who specialized in boat construction.
Through much research of my own, I came to piece much of this story together and formulate what I believe may have occurred connecting my family to the voyage. In the late 1700’s what was then known as the northwest territories consisting of modern day Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio were still unsettled largely unexplored land. The only inhabitants to the territory prior to 1800 were Indian tribes and pockets of French fur trappers. Famous pioneer Daniel Boone had explored Kentucky establishing it as the furthest colony west reached prior to the 1800’s. St. Louis, Missouri was the furthest point west known to the United Stated government and President Thomas Jefferson at that time.
This exploration of documents had lead me to seek more localized impact and significance of the Clark family and their local settlement at Mulberry Hill. In all the research I had done it is hard to find what brought the Clark family to Louisville. If the family never re-located here then Louisville would not have been a reason for Meriwether Lewis to stop here. This relocation inspired the first question I sought local knowledge regarding; why did the Clark family choose Louisville? The obvious place to seek an answer was by visiting Historical Locust Grove, the primary Clark family historic grounds. The modern address is located on Blankenbaker road, just past Zorn Avenue on the East side of Louisville, near the Ohio River. A local historian and volunteer at the site; Steve Able was the man whom supplied answers.
According to Mr. Able; in 1772 at the age of 20, George Rogers lead a surveying crew west of the Appalachian Mountains to map the land in present day Virginia on the Western side. In 1776 George Rogers, a military man in the American Revolution, was selected to lead a crew of 1,200 men to fend off British allied Shawnee Indian tribes that were attacking settlements of fur trappers. As a young man of only 24 he was entrusted with the task of supplying gunpowder to the settlers in the area to help protect the land. At that time the land was still part of Virginia and largely unexplored and uninhabited by colonists. Steve Able stated that “From this success he gained notoriety in Virginia”. Shortly after that he proposed the idea to make Kentucky is own separate state starting west of the Appalachian Mountains. “This was a treacherous route to travel which made it difficult to supply the frontier without further westward development” (Able).
Thefamily is now ready to relocate;“In 1785 following the conclusion of the American Revolution John and Ann Rogers Clark decided to move their family to the newly established Kentucky County”(Able). They first settled near Mulberry Hill, an area George Rogers had previously scouted and deemed desirable land. Five years later Lucy Clark Croghan and her husband William Croghan, George Rogers’s surveying partner, built the Locust Grove settlement. Locust Grove contained a much more grandeur main house. However, William permanently resided at Mulberry Hill (Able).
The next bit of information I hoped to divulge was why William joined the military? My preliminary rationale was without his involvement in the military he would never have met Meriwether Lewis and therefore not have been chosen for the exploration westward. Mr. Able informed me it was a very easy and logical choice for William to join the military. His five older brothers had all participated in the American Revolution for the Continental Army. William was only 5 years old at the beginning of the war and too young to participate. Inherently the success achieved by George Rogers inspired William to follow in his footsteps; he also became a surveyor (Able).
Next I was curious how Meriwether and William met. The answer I received was that William and Meriwether were both captains in the sharpshooter division of the Virginia Regular Army. “Meriwether was raised as a step son by Thomas Jefferson after his own father’s death in the American Revolution”. John Lewis was very close with the Virginia politician prior to his passing. The former governor was able to provide advanced schooling in scientific and military practices for his adopted son. He was groomed to lead President Jefferson’s inspired voyage to discover the land in the Louisiana Territory and the tributaries of the Mississippi as far westward as they go. A few skills that the nobler Meriwether lacked were surveying land, charting waterways, trapping game, and communicating with and understanding the native tribes. These happened to be the skill sets of his comrade and friend William Clark. William was an obvious first choice to accompany him on the voyage (Able).
All of the answers provided from the generous Mr. Able took me full circle in clarifying the importance of Mulberry Hill and Locust Grove. I now have an understanding of why the Clark family moved to Kentucky, how Lewis and Clark became friends. Without these men knowing each other, and Louisville being a port on the voyage, my ancestor probably would have not been involved. All of these events were needed to play out the exact way they did to tie my bloodline into this historic American event.
Now that I am aware how I tie into all of this I want to know the exact purpose of the voyage. This led me to my search of localized text for further answers. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to make a western expedition to establish an American presence in the far northwest; to investigate a water passage to the Western Sea; to map and investigate the new Louisiana purchase; to report the culture, commerce, and capabilities of the many native-American tribes of the area; and to observe and collect botanical and biological specimens”(General).
Meriwether Lewis began the journey in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. With a few men he set off to meet his companion William Clark further down the Ohio River. After experience unforeseen problems and time delays reaching William Clark, Lewis decided to stay put for the winter. The winter settlements was on the banks of modern day Indiana where they spent time recruiting knowledgeable guides to help lead them to St. Louis, the next noted civilization. West of there was all newly purchased uncharted territory gained through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 with the French.
This lay over period beginning in September 1803 in Clarksville, Indiana is where I feel the connection with my family history tie in. According to my Grandfather, it was an ancestor of his mother whose last name was Sampson that joined up for a stretch of the journey during the winter layover in Indiana. My Grandpa was born in modern day Nova Scotia, Canada. His mother’s family history goes back generations residing all around the great lakes region. In the 1700’s most of the western great lake states were still French land before being claimed by the United States just prior to the Louisiana Purchase.
Through further background knowledge on the corps of expedition it is documented that most of the French guides did not continue on the journey passed St. Louis. The journey was taking far longer and moving much slower than predicted, causing most participants to drop out prior to the ascent up the mighty Mississippi River. This lead to Native American guides being used for the remainder of the trip. One of the best documented Native companions was Sacagawea.
This is why albeit minor; I still feel a connection to the significance of the Ohio River once held. Before the age of planes, trains, or cars the Ohio River, Mississippi River, Missouri River, Oregon River and Columbia River were the essential highways of travel. This murky dirty river that we take for granted on a daily basis here in Kentucky, was once the best path westward. Being an American, I feel pride in knowing that 208 years ago these two heroic Americans who discovered the western frontier were stationed just across the river. It is even more astonishing knowing that a blood relative of mine once broke bread with these men just miles from where I was born.
The last question that I proceeded to ask Steve Able was; why is Locust Grove associated with William Clark beyond the fact that his sister resided there? This was a totally new revelation to my research that he reveled. I always was lead to believe Lewis and Clark returned to Virginia immediately upon making it back east. He then proceeded to inform me that Locust Grove was the only layover at any established settlement the men had upon their return (Able). After the 3 year voyage, the men spent 2 weeks unveiling their virgin news to Williams sister Lucy and brother in law William Croghan at the Locust Grove settlement here in Louisville. This was information that the President of the Country who sponsored the exploration had not yet received.
What makes this special piece of American history even more important to me is that I had a noted relative partake in a stretch of the trip west. It is hard to imagine a skiff made of bark and animal hide gracefully cutting down the river with any efficiency. This is what I try to picture sitting on the banks of our modern chocolate milk-esque Ohio River; a bark long boat, weaving through modern coal barges, under bridges, and around piers. I vividly imagine a small fleet of patriots traveling into the unknown with the utmost confidence. Today people do not dare plunge their bodies into that river; 200 years ago that same river was viewed as a blessing and an opportunity. Time has changed our perceptions and values of simple things such as nature and has unfortunately diminished our appreciation.
I would have to imagine that William Clark and my ancestor would be disappointed with the overall water degradation the Ohio River has had to endure over the past two centuries. Many early Louisvillians and Ohio Valley residents had substantial portions of their diet based from locally caught fish. If these men had to adhere to our modern day advised consumption limit of; one fish per month, do to contamination, many people would not have been able to eat adequately. It is scary to think that fish we catch today from these waters has the potential to cause certain types of cancer as well as other disorder do to the elevated levels of mercury and other pollutants. The water is said to contain the pollutants polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins. According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency these are amongst the world’s most toxic manmade chemicals (Klepal).
Conclusion and Proposal for Action
Ohio Valley residents need to take immediate action to prevent and limit further pollution of the river. Many Ohio residents are upset with the current leniency the cleanup process entails. Once the EPA files a report for a contaminated waterway, the location is given 10 years to “improve” the water purity (Klepal). Today the river is largely taken for granted and underappreciated. Its bounties are spoiled by the poisons humans keep feeding it. Action must be taken to regulate and preserve our waterways. Rivers were once the highway to west, nowadays most rivers have lost that luster and value.
Now that I am aware of the significance of Louisville and the Lewis and Clark voyage I ask; what is being done to clean up and preserve this land? The river has fallen into disarray over the past several decades and our historical sites have not all received the preservation required. For instance, Steve Able clarified to me why the Mulberry Hill homestead is not a larger attraction. It is because the house decayed and eroded during the later part of the 19th century because of neglect (Able). Preservation is the only option we have left.
Citations
Able, S. (2011, June 29). William Clark, Louisville significance, westward exploration. personal interview presented at Locust Grove.
General William Clark. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2011, from http://www.locustgrove.org/aboutlg_williamclark.html
Klepal, D. (2004, January 23). Ohio's waters more polluted. The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved from http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/01/23/loc_ohiorivers.html
[Mulberry Hill] [Photograph]. (1890). Retrieved from http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f3bdb139-70bd-46a8-b799-5c5fde07ba87
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