Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/235

 i88

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

Jefferson, 1801-03, and when congress voted the money to carry out the President's pro- ject of crossing the continent to the Pacific, he was entrusted with the command of the enterprise with Captain William Clark, as second in command. He pursued a course in the natural sciences and astronomical ob- servations at Philadelphia and at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, preparatory to the undertak- ing. The instructions, signed by President Jefferson, January 20, 1803, detailed the scientific, geographical, commercial and dip- lomatical purposes of the expedition and pro- vided for all contingencies likely to arise. The treaty of Paris, April 13, 1803, had meantime transferred the territory of Louisiana to the United States, and the information reached Washington about the first day of July. On July 5, 1803. Captain Lewis left Washington for Pittsburgh, where he was to select his stores, outfit and men. Delays retarded the journey down the Ohio and the expedition could not enter the Missouri until the ice had broken up in the spring of 1804. They ascended the Missouri to its sources, crossed the Rocky Mountains, struck the head- waters of the Columbia river, floated down that river to its mouth and explored much of the Oregon country. They started East, March 23. 1806, and reached Washington, February 14. 1807. Congress granted to the two chiefs and their followers the donation of lands which had been promised as a re- ward for their toil and dangers. Captain Lewis was soon after appointed governor of Louisiana and Captain Clark commis- sioned a general in the militia and agent in the United States for Indian affairs in the territory of Louisiana. On reaching St. Louis, Governor Lewis found much con- fusion in public affairs, and in SoptiMnher,

1809. set out to Washington to carry valu- able vouchers of accounts and his journal of the expedition to and from the Pacific. While at the home of a Mr. Gruider, in Ken- tucky, in a fit of h>'pochondria. Governor Lewis killed himself. He died October 8, . 1809.

Hall, William, born in Virginia in 1774; for several years he was a member of the state legislature, and Was at one time speaker of the senate; in 1829, on the resignation of Samuel Houston, he became governor of Tennessee, in which state he resided for many years; from 1831 to 1833 he was a member of congress, having been elected on the Democratic ticket; he was a major- general of militia, served in the Indian wars, and commanded a regiment of Tennessee riflemen under General Jackson in the war of 181 2. displaying great bravery in the per- formance- of his duties ; he died in Green Garden, Sumner county, Tennessee, in Oc- tober, 1856.

Taylor, Robert Barraud, was born in Nor- folk, Virginia, March 24, 1774, and was graduated at the College of William and Mary in 1793. After law study he entered the bar of Virginia, and followed practice * in Norfolk, winning wide reputation as an eminent lawyer. During the last four years of his life he was judge of the general court of Virginia. He took part in the defense of Norfolk during the war of 181 2 as brigadier- general of the state militia, and as a result of his conspicuous service was offered the same rank in the United States army, but declined to serve. He was a member of the famous Virginia constitutional convention of 1829. He was also at an earlier date a member of the Virginia assembly. Judge

Digitized by

Google