Meriwether Lewis

1774 - Meriwether Lewis, born on the 18th of August in Albemarle County, Virginia, to William and Lucy (née Meriwether) Lewis, and was of Welsh ancestry.

1794 - When Pennsylvania insurgents brought on the Whiskey Rebellion, he answered President George Washington's call for militia volunteers.

1795 - 1801 - He joined the regular Army, at one point in the detachment of his future associate William Clark. He achieved the rank of Captain.

1801 - 1803 - Appointed as confidential White House secretary by President Thomas Jefferson.

1804 - He had Clark lead their little flotilla of boats up the Missouri River to North Dakota, where they decided to winter, building Ft. Mandan, near modern Bismarck, on the 14th of May. There had been hostile Indians and some tense moments along the way but, thanks to Lewis's diplomacy, there had been no battles.

1806 - Near the end of the expedition, He was shot in the hip by Pierre Cruzatte, a near-blind man under his command on the 11th of August. His wound hampered him for the rest of the journey.

1807 - President Jefferson appointed him governor of the Louisiana Territory; he settled in St. Louis.

1808 - He was a member of the Freemasons.

        - He was nominated and recommended to serve as the first Master of the proposed Lodge, which was warranted as Lodge No. 111 on the 16th of September. Here his heavy drinking persisted.

1809 - He died of a gunshot wound at a tavern called Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) from Nashville, Tennessee, on the Natchez Trace, while in route to Washington; he had been shot in the head and chest on the 11th of October. Whether his death was from suicide or murder has never been conclusively determined. But it was reported that he was extremely depressed and had attempted to jump into the Mississippi River shortly before his death.