Clark, William, 1770-1838

Explorer, governor of the Territory of Missouri, army officer, and the U.S. superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Explorer.

Army officer best known for partnership in the Lewis and Clark expedition. In 1794, he was Lieutenant in the 4th sub-legion of the Legion of the U.S. under "Mad Anthony" Wayne.

Explorers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis led the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806).

Clark was an explorer, brigadier general, and governor of Missouri territory.

William Clark was an explorer and Indian agent. After the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806), he was made governor of the Missouri Territory and superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis.

American explorer, Indian agent, and governor of the Missouri Territory.

William Clark requested that Nicholas Biddle, scholar, statesman, and financier, write a narrative of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which was published in 1814 as "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark."

After the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806), explorer and Indian agent, William Clark became governor of the Missouri Territory and acted as superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis.

American explorer, Indian agent, and a leader of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

William Clark (1770-1838), younger brother of George Rogers Clark, served in the army Indian campaigns, 1789-96. In 1803 he joined Merriwether Lewis in leading an expedition to the Pacific Ocean, after which he retired and became superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis and in 1813 governor of Missouri Territory.

William Clark (1770-1838), co-captain of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Soldier, explorer, government official.

Explorer, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs of the Missouri Territory, 1813-1820, and superintendent of Indian affairs, St. Louis Superintendency, 1822-1838.

Explorer, Indian agent; lieutenant of infantry, 1792-1796; explored a route to the Pacific Ocean with Meriwether Lewis, 1804-1806; Indian agent and governor, Louisiana Territory, 1807-1813; governor, Missouri Territory, 1813-1820; superintendent of Indian Affairs, St. Louis, Missouri, 1822-1838.

William Clark, the younger brother of George Rogers Clark, was the co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and later served as the superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis and the governor of the Missouri Territory.

William Clark was an explorer and, with Meriwether Lewis, led the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806).

With the close of the War of 1812, William Clark, Auguste Chouteau, and Ninian Edwards were appointed commissioners to conclude peace treaties between the U.S. and warring western Indian tribes.

The treaty conference convened on July 5, 1815, at Portage de Sioux and continued until Sept. 16, 1815. Numerous treaties with individual tribes pledging forgiveness and the release of prisoners were drawn up during the meetings. In addition, the Indians were compensated with presents for their dead.

Explorer, governor of the Missouri Territory, and Indian agent.

From 1822 until his death in 1838, Clark served as superintendent of the St. Louis Superintendency of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Until 1834, his jurisdiction included agencies on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and encompassed within its limits many Indian tribes, including the Winnebago. Clark was known for his sympathetic understanding of Indian affairs, and throughout his superintendency made pleas to Washington for a humane and just Indian policy.

William Clark, famed explorer of the early American frontier, was born on Aug. 1, 1770, in Virginia. A former militiaman and Army officer, he was asked by Meriwether Lewis to join an expedition to explore the area between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. That expedition, the first of its kind in the young United States, now bears Lewis and Clark's names. The journey began in earnest in 1804, when the party of explorers began to push their way up the Missouri River, and ended in 1806. Clark made most of the journey's maps and assumed responsibility for maintaining military discipline along the way.

After Lewis's death in 1809, Clark took on the task of arranging publication of the records of the journey. He was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1807 and held that post for three decades, gaining the respect of the Indian tribes, among whom he was known as "the red-haired chief." From 1813 to 1821, Clark was also governor of the Missouri Territory. He left the post when Missouri became a state. Clark died in St. Louis on Sept. 1, 1838.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science owns several objects that once belonged to Clark, including a brass telescope that he carried on the expedition. The telescope and other objects, part of a group of items sold by Clark's great-grandson, were later donated to the museum.

U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, St.Louis, Missouri

Agency Dates Louisiana Territory Agency 1807-1812 Missouri Superintendency 1812-1821 St. Louis Superintendency 1822-1851 Central Superintendency 1851-1855 Superintendents Dates William Clark, Agent 1807-1812 William Clark, Superintendent 1812-1838 Joshua Pilcher, Superintendent 1839-1841 David D. Mitchell, Superintendent 1841-1844 Thomas Harvey, Superintendent 1844-1849 David D. Mitchell, Superintendent 1849-1853 Alfred Cumming,, Superintendent 1853-1855

When Thomas Jefferson acceded to the Presidency in 1801, one of his great unfulfilled wishes was to see a proper scientific expedition carried overland to the Pacific. As a Congressman in 1783, he had failed to convince George Rogers Clark to explore the west, and in 1793, his plans for André Michaux fell prey to international political machinations, and several other attempts had failed at even earlier stages. But in 1801, Jefferson dusted off the basic plan he had devised for Michaux, and once again, prepared to send an exploring party to the west.

To lead his expedition, Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, a political ally, fellow Virginian, and a rejected applicant (at the tender age of 19) for the Michaux expedition. Lewis was not the worldly savant that Jefferson was, but he was well-read, scientifically versed, wrote beautiful prose, and was experienced in wilderness life. Lewis was allowed to select his second in command, an old army friend, William Clark, with whom he had served in the Northwest Territory. Although less well-educated than Lewis, Clark was an astute observer in his own right and if his prose was less polished, he was a more conscientious diarist and a very capable cartographer. Differing in personality, the moody Lewis and solid Clark made a compatible team.

From the outset, the Lewis and Clark expedition seemed destined to enjoy a better fate than its predecessors. While Michaux had become ensnared in international rivalries after entering the field, Lewis and Clark were presented with news that the Louisiana Territory had been purchased, removing one more international hurdle to clear in an already arduous course. Although usually thought of as a scientific expedition, it was driven as much by political and commercial interests as scientific. In keeping with his Enlightened precepts, the information that Jefferson hoped to gain was practical as well as theoretical. He hoped as much to spur the extension of the fur trade further into the interior as to advance pure knowledge, and wished to determine which areas were most amenable to white settlement. On the political front, Lewis and Clark were specifically enjoined to cultivate alliances among the Indians to blunt Spanish and British influence in the region. Above all, the success of the expedition promised to aid in fulfilling what Americans thought was inevitable: extending American sovereignty from sea to sea.

Lewis left Philadelphia in the summer of 1803, and joined with Clark and a few recruits in Indiana before arriving late in the year at the staging area near St. Louis. After making final preparations, they set off on May 14, 1804, for the west, ascending the Mississippi to the mouth of the Missouri, and then westward. From North Dakota to nearly the coast, Lewis and Clark passed through lands that no Europeans had ever seen, before reaching their goal, the Pacific, in November 1805. On the return leg of their journey (begun on March 3, 1806), the two improvised an even more ambitious plan, splitting their party in two to cover more territory, before reuniting in North Dakota. They finally arrived back in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

Today, all along the original trail, the expedition is remembered as an example of fortitude and scientific achievement. Unlike many who followed, the explorers were generally cooperative with the native peoples they encountered -- indeed, they were reliant upon them -- and on only one occasion did they resort to violence. In their descriptions of dozens of new plant and animal species, in their "ethnographic" descriptions of Native Americans, and in their invaluable maps of the region, Lewis and Clark more than justified Jefferson's confidence and truly set the stage for an American west.