Skip to main content

Clark Family Collection

 Collection
Identifier: A0289

Scope and Contents

The Reference Files (Boxes 1-2) consist almost entirely of photocopies, typescripts, and reproductions of documents from other repositories, and should be used as a supplement to the original material in the rest of the Clark Family Collection. This group provides general information about the Clark family and the collection, and also includes reproductions of documents pertaining to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, George Rogers Clark, and William Clark’s work as Superintendent for Indian Affairs. Only two folders from the Reference Files have been microfilmed because they include original material. The first folder (Box 1/Folder 1) contains several printed and handwritten versions of the Clark family genealogy, including “Gen. William Clark’s Family Tree” compiled by John Grady Clark, and newspaper clippings about the family and Minoma—the family home in Pine Lawn, Missouri. The other folder that has been microfilmed (Box 1/Folder 3) contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other papers regarding the court case of the estate of Sophie Foster vs. Minnesota Historical Society. The president of the Missouri Historical Society, Charles van Ravenswaay, became involved with the case, which determined ownership of original documents from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The rest of the Reference Files consist of photocopies, typescripts, and reproductions of documents from other repositories. This series includes information on the following subjects: documents used by Donald Jackson for his book Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854, including receipts and accounts while Meriwether Lewis was purchasing supplies for the Lewis and Clark Expedition and other financial records, and correspondence (Box 1/Folders 5-7); various papers of William and George Rogers Clark (Box 2/Folder 4); and correspondence of William Clark regarding Native American affairs (Box 2/Folders 5-7). The George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) Papers (Boxes 3-5) span the years 1766 to 1810. They include receipts, accounts, troop returns, enlistment papers, correspondence, and other types of material that focus almost entirely on Clark’s military activities during the American Revolution. Box 5 contains personal papers regarding land and other property (Box 5/Folders 13-16). The collection contains several documents in French, most of which have been translated. The receipts and accounts provide information about the supplies and goods used by soldiers during the war. The enlistment papers include the names of several men who served during the war and also document the use of land, rather than money, as enlistment bounty. The troop returns list the number of staff, commissioned and non-commissioned officers, and rank and file for various regiments. These documents, which can be found throughout the three boxes, provide an overview of supplies and personnel. The correspondence provides more detail of military activities in the Illinois country, including descriptions of conditions and affairs at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, Illinois; Vincennes, Indiana (which Clark renamed Fort Patrick Henry); and Detroit. The correspondence also addresses relations with Native Americans in the region. Correspondents include Patrick Henry, Richard McCarty, John Dodge, John Williams, Valentine Thomas Dalton, John Montgomery, and Thomas Jefferson. The George Rogers Hancock Clark (1816-1858) Papers (Boxes 6-7) consist primarily of correspondence with family, friends, business associates, and matters pertaining to the settlement of the estates of William Clark and William Preston Clark. The papers also include many bills and receipts, several of which pertain to household affairs, throughout the collection. This series contains several letters of William Clark to his son George, dated 1828-1837, offering advice and providing news of family and friends in St. Louis while he was away at school. William’s letters discuss Pompey, brother Julius’s health, brother Lewis’s experiences in the army, and cholera outbreaks in St. Louis. After 1838, the year William Clark died, the letters tend to be business related. This is possibly a combination of George having been named administrator of his father’s estate and of his having finished school and beginning to manage his own financial affairs. The bills and receipts, dated 1832-1857, mostly relate to household expenses, including many bills for work on Clark’s home, dated 1845-1849. Other activities revealed in the receipts include the burial of an African-American child, the family’s attendance at Christ Church, and travel evidenced by hotel receipts from Louisiana. The Meriwether Lewis Clark (1809-1881) Papers (Boxes 8-9) date from 1824 to 1870 and are arranged into personal papers and business papers. The personal papers include correspondence from Meriwether’s parents regarding family news and Native American affairs, several certificates of appointment, and membership certificates with various groups. This group contains several bound volumes including Meriwether’s journal of his Mexican War experience. The personal papers also include correspondence of his two sons, Samuel Churchill Clark and John O’Fallon Clark. The business papers, dated 1848-1852, are arranged into three groups: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Calendars, and Office of Surveyor General. The Other Family Members Papers are arranged in subseries for the following members of the Clark family: Jefferson Kearney Clark, William Hancock Clark, Eleanor Glasgow Clark, Beatrice Chouteau Clark, William and Lucy Clark Croghan, John Clark, III, Eleanor Glasgow Voorhis, William G. Clark, and John O’Fallon Clark. The papers for each individual are arranged chronologically and the date range for each subseries is in parentheses. The Jefferson Kearney Clark Papers (1837-1904) include bound volumes and correspondence. The bound volumes include a memorandum book and letter book regarding his activities while at St. Mary’s College, account books, and a scrapbook containing information on his family. The papers also contain several recipes from Jefferson Kearney Clark’s wife, Mary Susan Glasgow Clark. The William Hancock Clark Papers (1860-1903) primarily contain correspondence, but also include some newspapers and a journal. The correspondence is from several members of the Clark family, including Jefferson Kearney Clark, Meriwether Lewis Clark, Samuel Churchill Clark, and John O’Fallon Clark, and regards family news and the Civil War. The papers also include an issue of the Fortnightly Intelligencer from Galle, Isle Ceylon, dated November 30, 1860, with news from China, and an issue of the Straits Times Extra from Singapore, dated August 13, 1861, with an account of the American Civil War. William Hancock Clark’s journal, dated February 11–December 10, 1869, regards a European and Mediterranean cruise on the U.S.S. Franklin. The Eleanor Glasgow Clark Papers (1859-1867) consist primarily of correspondence from her son John O’Fallon Clark regarding his school news and the family. The papers also include a printed invitation to the Parade and Rebirth of the Taylor Light Infantry & Artillery Corps at St. Timothy’s Hall in Baltimore, Maryland, dated June 1859, and one letter from George Rogers Hancock Clark to his wife. The Beatrice Chouteau Clark Papers (1867-1904) consist of accounts, receipts and deeds of trust. The papers also include her certificate of marriage to John O’Fallon Clark, dated January 16, 1867, an invitation to George Rogers Clark Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, dated June 1904, and an undated letter from Eleanor Glasgow Clark to her son John O’Fallon Clark. The William and Lucy Clark Croghan Papers (1834-1837) consist almost entirely of receipts and orders regarding the court case of Croghan vs. Emerson in Kentucky. The papers also include an undated letter from Eliza Hancock to Lucy Croghan. The John O’Fallon Clark Papers (1789-1798) consist of two documents that were in his possession at one time, but have no apparent connection to his life or activities. The first, dated June 12, 1789, is a land transfer from Jean Coon to Charles Delisle. The second document, dated September 18, 1798, regards the sale of a house for the estate of Louis Chancelier to August Chouteau. Both items are in French and include translations. The Other Family Members Papers also include a notebook with a list of surnames, including John Clark, III, dated circa 1775; a letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Eleanor Glasgow Voorhis, daughter of Julia Clark and Robert Voorhis, dated May 5, 1899; and a letter from Aunt Sue to William G. Clark, son of John O’Fallon and Beatrice Chouteau Clark, dated June 23, 1901. The William Clark (1770-1838) Papers (Boxes 11-14), dated 1789 to 1838, are arranged in chronological order and include correspondence, maps, commissions, receipts, bills, bound volumes and other types of material that document Clark’s family life, his government work, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The papers include material relating to the expedition, including correspondence between Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they prepared for the trip, maps, journal drafts, and detachment orders, dated 1803-1807 (Box 11/Folders 8-17). Correspondence between Clark and Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, and John Conrad deals with matters of specimens collected on the journey and with the publication of the captains’ journals. The William Clark Papers contain four of the red Moroccan leather journals, known as the Voorhis journals (Volumes 1-4), written by Lewis and Clark at the end of the expedition, based on their notes. Three of these journals are diaries with several drawings, and cover the following time periods: April 7–July 3, 1805; January 30–April 3, 1806; and April 4–June 6, 1806. The fourth journal contains various notes and maps that overlap the previous dates. The fifth journal is William Clark's elkskin-bound field journal (Volume 6), dated September 11–December 31, 1805, which records daily events. A more complete description of these five journals appears below under the heading “Voorhis Journals and Elkskin Journal.” Correspondence dating from Clark’s tenure as governor of the Missouri Territory covers a multitude of topics ranging from the appointment of local officials to relations with the various Native American tribes living in the territory. Other letters and notes are written to Clark asking him for favors, assistance with particular situations such as trade, and even money. Official documents include Clark’s commissions and petitions and general orders relating to the militia. The papers include letters, memorandum books of Julia Clark, and land documents that relate to Clark’s personal affairs and those of his family. Clark and other family members owned land in Kentucky; therefore, there are letters between Clark and his representative in Louisville, and brother-in-law Dennis Fitzhugh. There are two letters from his daughter Mary Margaret, who died at the age of seven while in Kentucky (Box 13/Folder 8). In addition, there are receipts and bills concerning work done on William Clark’s home primarily in 1835 but also in 1837 (Box 14/Folders 5-8). There is also much correspondence that is difficult to define but which mostly alludes to trade, relations with various tribes, and ventures to the West. People dealing with Clark in either an official or unofficial capacity include Auguste Chouteau, John C. Luttig, George Shannon, Benjamin O'Fallon, John O'Fallon, and Pierre Menard. Various subject files at the end of the collection (Box 14) relate to the following: George Rogers Clark Estate; George Hancock, Sr., estate; John Thruston estate vs. William Clark; and Humphrey Marshall vs. William Clark. Much of this material is original or is noted as a "contemporary copy," which means that the original legal document was filed and that official handwritten copies were provided to the parties involved. Voorhis Journals and Elkskin Journal Voorhis Journal No. 1 begins April 7, 1805, almost one year after the explorers' departure. The party left their winter quarters, called Fort Mandan, and continued west along the Missouri River. By June they encountered the Great Falls of the Missouri and initiated plans for an 18-mile portage. William Clark used the Elkskin Journal as a field journal during the fall of 1805, making daily notes and sketching maps that he later copied into three journals whose purpose was to serve as the official record of the exploration of the West (Codex G, H, and I at the American Philosophical Society). In the Elkskin Journal, Clark recorded the daily occurrences as the party crossed the Bitterroot Mountains; canoed down the Colorado River, the Snake River and the Columbia River to cross the Rocky Mountains; and encountered the rapids and falls of the Columbia River. Along the way, the party encountered the Flathead and became the first Americans to meet the Nez Perce. After they reached the Pacific, the captains took a poll of the party concerning where to camp for the winter, including York and noting Sacagawea’s preference. They established a camp, Fort Clatsop, on the south side of the Columbia River, where they remained until March 23, 1806. Voorhis Journal No. 2 begins January 30, 1806, while the party is encamped at Fort Clatsop on the south side of the Columbia River near the Pacific Ocean. During this time Lewis and Clark recopied many of their field notes, maps, and tables, perfecting their descriptions of the plants, animals, and people they encountered on the journey west. The captains reported their meetings with the various tribes but also included many details about the tribes’ clothing, weapons, canoes, and customs. While the captains recorded their journey, the men busied themselves preparing for their return. Due to the continuing bad weather, the party left Fort Clatsop on March 23, 1806, rather than on April 1 as originally planned. The journal ends on April 3 as the party is encamped along the Columbia River, hunting and preparing provisions for the trek across the sparse Columbia Plateau. Voorhis Journal No. 3 begins April 4, 1806, while the party spent a week encamped along the Columbia River. As they moved up the Columbia they lost one pirogue and one canoe and spent several days procuring horses from Native Americans. The party continued to exchange goods for horses as they headed east. In order to reduce their trip by 80 miles, they left the Columbia and traveled overland to the Clearwater, where they had left the horses used the previous fall in the care of the Nez Perce. However, the Nez Perce informed them that the snows in the Bitterroot Mountains would not melt sufficiently for passage for almost a month. The explorers made camp, Camp Chopunnish, on the Clearwater near the mountains and remained there from May 14 until June 9. Voorhis Journal No. 4 is unlike the other expedition journals that Clark kept. It presents less narrative of the journey. For this reason, portions of it appear throughout several volumes of Gary Moulton's The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It contains assorted notes on flora and fauna and tables that relate to weather and to distance calculations including latitude and longitude readings. It also holds the “Estimate of Western Indians,” Nicholas Biddle’s queries for the explorers to answer in regards to the native people they contacted, and the notes that Clark collected for Biddle. Finally, the journal includes four detailed color maps: 1. Great Falls of the Columbia River [October 22-23, 1805]; 2. Long and Short Narrows of the Columbia River [October 22-28, 1805]; 3. Great Rapids of the Columbia [October 30–November 2, 1805]; 4. Confluence of the Columbia and Snake [circa October 18, 1805]. Voorhis Journal No. 5 is a red Moroccan leather journal like those used by Lewis and Clark for recording their journey to the West. However, this volume, dated 1820-1834, includes nothing related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Julia Clark used this book to record recipes and household inventories. See Stone and Hinkley’s Clark’s Other Journal for a complete transcription.

Dates

  • 1766-1991

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Permission to view any of the original documents in the Clark Family Collection must be obtained from a member of the archives staff. Permission to view any one of the five unique Lewis and Clark Expedition journals must be obtained from the archivist and a member of the archives staff must perform the handling of the item.

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, quote from, or reproduce material in this collection, please contact the Archives Reference Desk at archives@mohistory.org. Copyright restrictions may apply. The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming to the laws of copyright.

Biographical / Historical

George Rogers Clark was born November 19, 1752, in Albemarle County, Virginia, the son of John Clark and Ann Rogers Clark. Four of his brothers served as officers in the Revolutionary army, and his youngest brother, William Clark, led the famous expedition across the continent with his Albemarle friend and neighbor Meriwether Lewis. George Rogers Clark left home in 1772 at the age of 20. He journeyed to Pittsburgh then took a flatboat down the Ohio River. He staked a claim to some fine bottomland in present-day West Virginia and began clearing land for a farm. Soon after he got involved in fighting with Native Americans, and participated in what was known as Dunmore’s War. In early 1775 he ventured to Kentucky, and when news of the outbreak of the Revolution spread, a group of Kentuckians declared themselves loyal to the American cause, and sent Clark east to Williamsburg to obtain political recognition and gunpowder. Virginia governor Patrick Henry granted both. Clark transported the gunpowder to Pittsburgh, and then through hostile Native American country down the Ohio River. This took Clark the better part of a year, but when the Native American assault came in 1777 Kentucky was armed. By 1777 Governor Henry had made Clark a major of militia and put him in charge of Kentucky’s defense. British officials in Detroit supplied Native American tribes north of the Ohio, namely the Shawnee, Wyandot and Miami, and encouraged the tribes to lay siege to Kentucky, their favorite hunting ground. Clark, although lacking formal military training, developed a strategic plan to raid British outposts in the West with the goal of interrupting the flow of supplies and discouraging the volatile Native Americans. The two British outposts south of Detroit were both former French trading settlements—Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River south of St. Louis and Vincennes on the Wabash River. Clark sent scouts out to report back on the strength of the British defense of the posts. Kaskaskia, the scouts reported, was defenseless. Banking on the element of surprise, Clark’s plan was to lead an expedition to the west and overtake the undefended posts. Back in Williamsburg, Governor Henry, enthused about Clark’s plan, promoted him to lieutenant colonel and gave him 1200 pounds for expenses. Clark soon after recruited 150 riflemen for the mission. In June 1778 Clark and his men started down the Ohio River. They trekked 125 miles across southern Illinois and succeeded in surprising the French commandant at Kaskaskia. Clark learned from French traders that there were no British in Vincennes and sent Captain Leonard Helm and a platoon to occupy that outpost on the Wabash. When Henry Hamilton, the lieutenant governor of Canada, learned of Clark’s actions, he led a band of soldiers and Native Americans from Detroit down the Wabash in the fall of 1778 and seized Vincennes, taking Captain Helm prisoner. Clark learned of the fall of Vincennes in January 1779. He recruited French militia to supplement his band of Kentuckians and set out across Illinois with a force of 170 men. After arriving at Vincennes, Clark posted his men at the peepholes of the fort and directed them to shoot the British soldiers as they came running out of the blockhouse. After a short fight, Hamilton was induced to surrender, and the Northwest was once again in American hands. Clark’s recapture of Vincennes boosted western morale and led to a great increase in immigration down the Ohio River. Because of the American presence in Kaskaskia and Vincennes at the end of the war, Benjamin Franklin, in peace negotiations with the British, could claim boundaries for the new republic that stretched west to the Mississippi River and north to the Great Lakes. Despite his military success, Clark, who had borrowed money to carry out his plan with the expectation of being reimbursed, suffered great financial difficulties when he could not recoup the expenses from his Illinois campaign. He was hounded by creditors, and lived the rest of his life in a small house on a small parcel of land in Clarksville, Indiana. In 1812 a stroke left him partially paralyzed, and a subsequent stroke killed him on February 13, 1818. George Rogers Hancock Clark was born May 6, 1816, in St. Louis, the third son of William and Julia Hancock Clark. Julia Clark died June 27, 1820, leaving 50-year-old William Clark a widower with five children. Within a year and a half William Clark married Julia’s widowed first cousin, Harriet Kennerly Radford, and the Clark household increased by four—Harriet and her three children. When he was 10 years old George was shot in the face when a gun his hunting companion carried accidentally discharged. The shot entered below George’s right eye and opened a gaping hole in the roof of his mouth. George recovered, and was able to speak somewhat clearly again within a few days. However, the damage his mouth sustained caused him problems for years to come. As an adult he wore a beard that concealed his scars. In 1827 George went to Lexington, Kentucky, to enroll at Augusta College. George’s older brother, William Preston Clark, encouraged him to stay in school and not return to St. Louis to become a store merchant, as George had earlier expressed an interest in doing. In February 1833 William Preston Clark wrote George: “You must not expect a fortune from our father’s estate, he is using every exertion to give his children an education and will have but little left to divide among them.” After his father’s death in 1838, George, now back in St. Louis, became administrator of William Clark’s estate. The Clark Family Collection contains a number of letters to George regarding the sale of Clark family land in Kentucky and Indiana. It appears that George made his living in this capacity; St. Louis city directories for the 1840s and 1850s list no occupation for him. In 1841 George married Eleanor Ann Glasgow. The couple resided in St. Louis. Their eldest daughter, Julia (later Julia Clark Voorhis), inherited William Clark’s journals and manuscripts from her father and eventually gave the items to the Missouri Historical Society. George Rogers Hancock Clark died September 29, 1858. Meriwether Lewis Clark was born January 10, 1809, the first child of William and Julia Clark. The baby, called simply “Lewis,” was named for his godfather, who had co-led the famed expedition with William Clark. Described as a sickly child by his father and subsequent historians, Meriwether Lewis Clark showed signs of artistic talent at an early age, spending free time drawing and sketching. William Clark took Meriwether and his stepson William Radford to the eastern seaboard in mid-1824. He enrolled both boys at an academy in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The following year Meriwether was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point by Secretary of War Calhoun. Meriwether and his father maintained a close correspondence while he was a cadet at West Point. In 1830 Clark graduated in the middle of his West Point class, and was named color bearer, which, as his father observed, was a substantial honor. Clark’s first assignment out of West Point was as an aide to General Henry Atkinson during the Black Hawk War in Illinois. In January 1833, Clark married Abigail Praether Churchill of Spring Grove, Kentucky. That same year he resigned from the army, although he later served as a major in the Extra Battalion of Missouri Volunteers, Light Artillery. Clark entered politics, serving as a member of the Missouri legislature and as a St. Louis alderman and city councilman. Through the 1830s and 1840s Clark employed the skills he learned at West Point as a civil engineer and architect. He served as engineer of the city of St. Louis, engineer of the St. Louis Gas Works, and architect of the St. Louis County Jail. When his company of light artillery volunteers was called into the Mexican War, Clark served with Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny and Colonel Alexander Doniphan in the Battle of Sacramento. Clark mustered out with his battalion in June 1847. In 1848 Clark became St. Louis recorder and in 1850 was appointed by President Zachary Taylor as surveyor general of Illinois and Missouri, a position he held until 1853. In 1861 he joined the rebel forces, commanding a division of the Missouri State Guard as a brigadier general. He subsequently joined the Confederate States Army and served as a major and later a colonel in the Ordnance Department. In November 1864 Clark was given a command in the Army of Northern Virginia, a post he held until his capture at Amelia Court House on April 5, 1865. After the war Clark was a faculty member of the Kentucky Military Institute until being appointed surveyor general of the state of Missouri. In later years Clark lived in Frankfort, Kentucky, where he died October 29, 1881. Jefferson Kearny Clark was born February 29, 1824, in St. Louis, Missouri, the eldest son of William Clark and his second wife, Harriet Kennerly Radford Clark. Following the death of William Clark in 1838, George Rogers Hancock Clark became Jefferson Kearny’s guardian. In 1849, he married Mary Susan Glasgow. In 1856, Clark built Minoma, located in northwest St. Louis County. He was the director of the Jockey Club for more than twenty years. Clark died January 9, 1900, in New York, where he had been living for six years after suffering a stroke while on a visit to the city. William Hancock Clark was born in 1839 and served with the United States Navy during the 1860s, stationed in Hong Kong with the China Squadron. He returned to New York after the Civil War started, but refused to serve with the Union. As a result, he spent two years in a federal prison. Clark’s first wife was Eva Beardsley and his second wife was Camilla Gaylord. He died in 1922. Eleanor Glasgow Clark was the daughter of William Glasgow of Delaware and Sarah Mitchell Glasgow of Fincastle, Virginia. Eleanor Glasgow married George Rogers Hancock Clark in 1841. Beatrice Chouteau Clark was born in 1847 and married John O’Fallon Clark on January 16, 1867. She died in 1915. Lucy Clark, sister of William Clark, was born in Caroline County, Virginia, in 1765. She married William Croghan, an Irish-born surveyor who fought with the Continentals at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. The couple lived at Locust Grove manor in Louisville, just a few miles from John and Ann Clark’s home, Mulberry Hill. In 1809 the somewhat-infirm George Rogers Clark moved to Locust Grove to live with his sister and brother-in-law. William Croghan died in 1822. Lucy Clark Croghan died in 1838. John Clark, III, the father of William Clark, was born October 9, 1725, in King and Queen County, Virginia. John Clark’s family had arrived from Britain early in the seventeenth century and settled on farmland on the James River in Virginia. In 1749 John Clark married his second cousin Ann Rogers, who had just turned 16. The couple took up residence on a 410-acre wilderness tract in Albemarle County, Virginia, not far from Shadwell, the estate where Thomas Jefferson had been born six years earlier. John and Ann’s first two children, Jonathan and George Rogers, were born in Albemarle County in 1750 and 1752, respectively. In 1754 the Clarks moved eastward out of the wilderness to Caroline County, a more settled location. Their remaining eight children were born there: Ann (born 1755), John (born 1757), Richard (born 1760), Edmund (born 1762), Lucy (born 1765), Elizabeth (born 1768), William (born 1770), and Frances (born 1773). The Clarks maintained lifelong connections with their many children, encouraging them to send frequent letters. John and Ann Clark prized literacy and saw to it that all their children learned to read and write. The couple also labored to convey their religious convictions, those of the Anglican Church, to their children. In 1785 the Clarks left their home in Virginia and moved to a new home, Mulberry Hill, near Louisville, Kentucky. John Clark died July 29, 1799, at Mulberry Hill of complications from pleurisy. He left nearly his entire estate to his son William. Eleanor Glasgow Voorhis was the daughter of Julia Clark and Robert Stevenson Voorhis. Her grandparents were George Rogers Hancock Clark and Eleanor Glasgow Clark. William G. Clark was the son of John O’Fallon Clark and Beatrice Chouteau Clark. His grandparents were George Rogers Hancock Clark and Eleanor Glasgow Clark. William Clark was born August 1, 1770, in Caroline County, Virginia, the son of John Clark, III, and Ann Rogers. He was the youngest of six sons and the ninth of ten children. Although he was not formally educated, Clark did acquire the rudiments of learning in his childhood, and gained practical outdoor experience in both surveying and cartography. At the age of 14 his parents took William and the three youngest Clark daughters to Kentucky, where in 1785 they established Mulberry Hill outside of Louisville. The family plantation was William's home for the next 18 years. Clark's military career began in 1789 when he joined a local militia that led campaigns against Native American tribes north of the Ohio River. In March 1792 he joined the regular army as a lieutenant of infantry. Clark demonstrated diplomatic skill in his investigation of a Spanish fort that had been built on the Mississippi River south of St. Louis in violation of the Treaty of San Lorenzo. He resigned from the military in 1796 to begin a career as a merchant supplying goods to the city of Louisville. Seven years later Clark's friend and military colleague Meriwether Lewis invited him to join as co-commander of an expedition to explore the far northwest under the sponsorship of the federal government. The Lewis and Clark Expedition left St. Louis in May 1804, and arrived in present-day North Dakota by that November, spending winter there with the Mandan tribe. In the spring of 1805 they moved on to the Great Falls of the Missouri River in present-day Montana before crossing the Continental Divide. By Christmas the expedition had reached the ocean and settled into winter quarters at Fort Clatsop on the Pacific Coast. The explorers left the Pacific Northwest in the spring of 1806 and arrived back in St. Louis on September 23 of that year. After the expedition, President Jefferson appointed Clark Indian Agent for the Louisiana Territory and brigadier general of the territorial militia. Missouri was established as a separate territory in 1813, and Clark was appointed territorial governor. Clark's views on Native American relations extended to trying to assimilate the people, an unpopular policy in his day, which led to his defeat in Missouri's first state gubernatorial election in 1820. In 1822 Clark was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis. In 1824-1825 he served as surveyor general for Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, and in 1828 he laid out the town of Paducah, Kentucky. William Clark married Julia Hancock in 1808, and they had five children: Meriwether Lewis Clark (born 1809); William Preston Clark (born 1811); Mary Margaret Clark (1814-1821); George Rogers Hancock Clark (born 1816); John Julius Clark (born 1818). A year after Julia Clark's death in 1820, Clark married Harriet Radford, a cousin of his deceased wife. The couple had two children: Jefferson Kearny Clark (born 1824) and Edmund Clark (born 1826). Harriet Clark died in 1831. William Clark spent his last years in the vicinity of St. Louis, where he died September 1, 1838, at the home of his eldest son. He is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

Extent

12.0 Cubic Feet ( (14 boxes; 4 oversize boxes; 26 volumes; 17 microfilm reels))

Language of Materials

English

French

Arrangement

The Clark Family Collection comprises several series of papers arranged in chronological order. The original order of the material has been lost through several reprocessing and rearrangement projects. The current arrangement is designed to clarify document provenance and the relationship to author or recipient, and to permit the researcher a clearer understanding of the papers that belonged to each family member represented in the collection. The collection is arranged in the following series: Reference Files, George Rogers Clark Papers, George Rogers Hancock Clark Papers, Meriwether Lewis Clark Papers, William Clark Papers, and the papers of Other Family Members Papers.

Physical and Technical Requirements

The Missouri Historical Society asks researchers to assist in the preservation of the collection by using either the microfilm or the published versions of documents at all times. Most of the published documents can be found in the following sources: Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854. Second Edition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978. Gary Moulton, ed. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. Volume 1: Atlas; Volumes 2-11: Journals. All copy orders will be filled by reproductions from the microfilm unless photographic reproductions are requested.

Donor Information

Julia Clark, granddaughter of William Clark, married Robert Voorhis. The bulk of the material that now comprises the Clark Family Collection came to the Missouri Historical Society from Julia Clark Voorhis. A small donation of documents came in 1922, and the majority of the documents and journals arrived as a bequest upon her death in 1923. This material comprises the bulk of the George Rogers Clark Papers, William Clark Papers, and Meriwether Lewis Clark Papers, and includes material in the George Rogers Hancock Clark Papers. Those items are stamped “E G. Voorhis Memorial Collection”; the material was given in memory of Julia’s daughter Eleanor Glasgow Voorhis, who preceded her in death. The items marked “[JO’FC]” on the back were received from John O’Fallon Clark (3rd) (1880-1949), grandson of George Rogers Hancock Clark. Some items came as a donation in 1945 and others from a purchase in 1948. Later documented acquisitions: 1941 Jan 30: Purchase from Mrs. Henry Frederick (Waubdiiyoyaupawin), a Yankton woman, Vermillion, South Dakota. 1815 Aug 1 DS William Clark and Frederick Bates. Certificate conveying to Kr-on-o-run-co (Swift Flyer), soldier of the Yankton tribe of Sioux, the “dignity of soldier.” [Unusual hand-decorated manuscript with green ribbon and seal.] Oversize 1945 Feb: John O’Fallon Clark. Deeds and agreements, chiefly of William Clark, 1795-1838. 1948 Dec: Purchase from John O’Fallon Clark. Documents regarding William Clark and his descendants, 1786-1904 (quantity unknown). 1952 Apr 11: Carlota Glasgow. Letter signed George Rogers Clark to William Clark, 1796 June 00; Letter signed Meriwether Lewis to Faulkner and Comegys, Wilkinson and Price, 1808 Sept 6; Letter signed William Clark to Legislative Council, 1810; Document signed Nehkoomon and other Native Americans to Gen. Clark, 1838 Dec 13. 1952 Nov 18: Mrs. Samuel W. Maguire. Notebook uniform with William Clark journals, Clark genealogy, scrapbook regarding George Rogers and William Clark, 1806-1820; Jefferson K. Clark accounts kept at Minoma, 1865 May 25 and 1870 Jan 9; Clark daybook, 1849 July 1-1865 Apr 12; ALS Sam Coleman to William Heth, 1789 Dec 6; claims of William Clark on the U.S. for his compensation as Indian Agent, 1822-1833; ALS Thomas. L. McKenney to William Clark, 1829 Mar 21; DS Andrew Jackson, Elijah Howard, land office certificate to Fielding Hammond, 1831 Apr 1; George Rogers Clark’s claim at Iron Bank, 1832 Jan 29; DS Henry D. Clark, George Smith, J. Lusk, indenture to Jason Work, 1837 Nov 15; Letter signed S. Robert to Ellen, 1847 Feb 14; Document signed Meriwether Lewis Clark, memoranda of William Clark’s answer to letter from Dr. Croghan, 1854 Mar 10; Document signed John Russell, Russell’s account with J.K. Clark, 1865 Dec 12; and DS Thomas C. Fletcher, appointment of Jefferson K. Clark as honorary commissioner to the Paris Exposition, 1867 Mar 20. Purchase price unknown. 1953 June 1: Purchase from Joseph William Morrissey, $25. Letter signed William Clark to Lieutenant Hood. Appointment of Captain G.H. Kennerly as leader of the party of Native Americans to explore west of Missouri, with attachment of Hood as topographer 16 Oct 1828. Accession number 58-0018, Donald F. Hyde. Copy of decision of U.S. Court of Appeals in case of field notes of William Clark, 1958 Jan 23. Accession number 59-0071, Mrs. Daniel R. Russell. Letters and memoranda of Meriwether Lewis Clark family, approximately 30 items. Accession number 59-0089, Mrs. Harry W. Seeley. Meriwether Lewis Clark and family. 20 pieces of correspondence and memoranda of family, mostly about Samuel Churchill Clark. Includes small leather pocket-book almanac and poetry selections inscribed from William Clark to Meriwether Lewis Clark (1824), no date. Accession number 59-0091, William B. Ewald clipping from Federal Reporter with account of suit by U.S. against Minnesota Historical Society and Foster heirs for possession of William Clark field notes, no date. Accession number 60-0122, William G. Clark. Two receipts and letter signed Auguste Chouteau, no date; deed between Paul and Chouteau, no date; at home announcement of John O’Fallon Clark, no date; letter signed Aunt Sue to W.G. Clark, 1901; and account of surveying George H. Kennerly’s district in Illinois, 1824. Accession number 61-0121, Mrs. Richard Arthur Bullock. 1869 Feb 11-1869 Dec 10 Journal of William Hancock Clark when he sailed from New York on the U.S.S. Franklin to many Mediterranean European ports. Accession number 62-0042, Arthur C. Hoskins Estate (courtesy of Mrs. Arthur C. Hoskins), documents concerning business affairs of George Rogers Hancock Clark, 1815-1854 (approx. 500 items) Accession number 63-0075, Mrs. Walter H. Klick. 1878 Nov 2-1879 Feb 16 Journal of John O’Fallon Clark when invalided and 1784 Aug 31 letter signed Green Clay to George Rogers Clark, changes to plats and surveys; includes plat of land on Tennessee River. Accession number 64-0084, William Clark Albion. Program of launching of Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine, 1964. Accession number 70-0075, Donald Jackson. Photocopies of expedition-related financial records and ledger entries. Accession number 71-0017, Donald Jackson. Photocopies of items used in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Accession numbers 75-0008 and 75-0018, Mrs. Robert R. Russell. Three indentures signed by George Rogers Clark, 1799 Apr 26 and 1803 Apr 11; estate appraisal order, 1845 Sept 5; typescripts of Clark letters and genealogical chart, no date.

Existence and Location of Copies

Digitization The Clark Family Collection was digitized by Adam Matthew and is available to view at the Frontier Life website. Frontier Life is a subscription database, which may be accessed for free at the Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center. In 2022, Nancy Voorhees provided project funding in memory of her parents Alan M. and Natalie P. Voorhees to hire Aviana Brown to catalog the Clark Family Collection and make the digital items available on MHS's website. The full digitized collection is available to view by clicking the links beside each item in this inventory. Microfilm The microfilm of the Clark Family Collection was produced from the Save America’s Treasures grant program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Park Service. Reel 1: Box 1, Folders 1 and 3; Box 3, Folders 1-17 Reel 2: Boxes 4-5 Reel 3: Box 6, Folders 1-13 Reel 4: Box 6, Folders 14-18; Box 7, Folders 1-7 Reel 5: Box 7, Folders 8-18; Box 8, Folders 1-7 Reel 6: Box 8, Folders 8-15; Box 9 Reel 7: Box 10 Reel 8: Box 11, Folders 1-18 Reel 9: Box 11, Folders 19-20; Box 12; Box 13, Folder 1 Reel 10: Box 13, Folders 2-17 Reel 11: Box 14 Reel 12: Voorhis Journal No. 1, April 7–July 3, 1805 Reel 13: Voorhis Journal No. 2, January 30–April 3, 1806 Reel 14: Voorhis Journal No. 3, April 4–June 6, 1806 Reel 15: Voorhis Journal No. 4, [no date given], notes, tables, etc. Reel 16: Voorhis Journal No. 5, household memorandum book, 1820-1834 Reel 17: Elkskin Journal, September-December 1805

Related Materials

The American Philosophical Society has additional journals from the Lewis and Clark Expedition in their collection.

References and Select Bibliography

References in the finding aid.
  • Jackson refers to: Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854. Second Edition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978. (in two volumes).
  • Moulton refers to: Gary Moulton, ed. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. Volume 1: Atlas; Volumes 2-11: Journals. (The journals held by the Missouri Historical Society are reprinted in Vols. 4-7.)
  • Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854. Second Edition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978. (in two volumes).
  • Gary Moulton, ed. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. Volume 1: Atlas; Volumes 2-11: Journals.
  • Ronda, James P. Lewis and Clark among the Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
  • Carstens, Kenneth Charles. The Personnel of George Rogers Clark’s Fort Jefferson and the Civilian Community of Clarksville, KY, 1780-1781. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1999.
  • Holden, Robert J., ed. Selected Papers from the 1991 and 1992 George Rogers Clark Trans-Appalachian Frontier History Conferences. Vincennes, IN: Vincennes University, 1994.
  • Seineke, Katherine Wagner. The George Rogers Clark Adventure in the Illinois. New Orleans, LA: Polyanthos, Inc., 1981.
  • State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Calendar of the George Rogers Clark Papers in the Draper Collection of Manuscripts. Indexed by Sam McDowell. Utica, KY: McDowell Publications, 1985.
  • Loos, John L. A biography of William Clark. St. Louis: PhD Thesis, Washington University, 1953.
  • Steffen, Jerome O. William Clark: Jeffersonian Man on the Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.
  • Robert G. Stone and David M. Hinkley, eds. Clark’s Other Journal: William and Julia H. Clark’s household and homemaking recipes, home remedies, and a partial inventory of the families (sic) personal belongings. Lee’s Summit, Missouri: Fat Little Pudding Boys Press, 1995.

Clark Family Genealogy

In order to understand the arrangement of the documents, and the relationship of creators, a short genealogy is helpful. The names of those individuals whose papers are in the collection appear in bold. John Clark, III (died 29 July 1799) married Ann Rogers (died December 1798) in 1749, and had 10 children, among them: George Rogers Clark (9 November 1752–13 February 1818); Jonathan Clark; John Clark, IV, died aboard a British prisoner ship during the American Revolution; Lucy Clark (married Major William Croghan); Elizabeth Clark; Frances Eleanor Clark (three husbands: Dr. James O’Fallon, Capt. Charles Thruston, Jr., and Judge Dennis Fitzhugh); William Clark (1 August 1770–1 September 1838). William Clark married Julia Hancock (21 November 1791–27 June 1820) in 1808. They had five children, all of whom were born in St. Louis, Missouri: Meriwether Lewis Clark (10 January 1809–28 October 1881) died at Frankfort, Kentucky; William Preston Clark (5 October 1811–16 May 1840) died in St. Louis; Mary Margaret Clark (1 January 1814–15 October 1821) died near Middleton, Kentucky; George Rogers Hancock Clark (6 May 1816–29 September 1858) died at Minoma, St. Louis County, Missouri; John Julius Clark (6 July 1818–5 September 1831) died in St. Louis. In 1821, after the death of Julia Hancock Clark, William Clark married her first cousin, Harriet Kennerly Radford (died 25 December 1831). This union produced two sons, both of whom were born in St. Louis, Missouri: Jefferson Kearney Clark (29 February 1824–9 January 1900) died in New York, New York; Edmund Clark (9 September 1826–12 August 1827) died in St. Louis. Meriwether Lewis Clark married Abigail Churchill and they had seven children: George Rogers (Pompy) Clark; Charles Jefferson (Jeffy) Clark was later adopted by Jefferson Kearny Clark; William Hancock (Willie) Clark; Samuel Churchill (Churchy) Clark (12 September 1842–8 March 1862); Meriwether Lewis (Lutie) Clark, Jr.; May Eliza Clark; John O’Fallon Clark (2nd)* (7 July 1848–27 February 1863) George Rogers Hancock Clark married Eleanor Glasgow (Eleanor Glasgow Clark) and had four children: Julia Clark (1842-1923); John O’Fallon Clark (1st)* (1844-1916) married Beatrice Chouteau (Beatrice Chouteau Clark); Sarah Leondia (Seddie) Clark (1843-1864); Ellen Glasgow Clark (1846-1902). *Note: William Clark’s sons George Rogers Hancock Clark and Meriwether Lewis Clark both had children named John O’Fallon Clark. George Rogers Hancock Clark’s son was born first and became John O’Fallon Clark (1st) and Meriwether Lewis Clark’s son became John O’Fallon Clark (2nd).

Processing Information

Processed by MHS staff.

Title
Inventory of Clark Family Collection
Status
Completed
Author
EAD by Jaime Bourassa using ArchivesSpace
Date
2018
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center Repository

Contact:
225 S. Skinker Blvd.
St. Louis MO 63105 United States
314-746-4510