Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/408

402 part of the country is that Governor Lewis was murdered and robbed. The story of Polly Spencer, a hired girl in the Grinder family, is that Lewis was killed soon after supper, and that the only servant he had was a negro boy. Grinder was part Indian, and was suspected of the murder of Lewis. He soon moved to the western part of Tennessee, where he purchased slaves and a farm, and had plenty of money. There were other strange and mysterious disappearances of rich travelers in this. locality, and it was believed by the people that Grinder had murdered them. It seems strange that there is no account of Lewis's death by Mr. Neely, the Indian agent; that there is no testimony or statement of the negro boy, or the Spanish servant. Jefferson had no hesitation in saying that Governor Lewis did the deed that plunged his friends in affliction. Yet subsequent development of facts not probably known to Jefferson point strongly to murder and robbery.

The State of Tennessee, where Lewis is buried, created Lewis County out of other counties, and in 1848 erected a monument to his memory. It is twenty-one and one half feet high, with a broken column two and one half feet in diameter upon a square, pyramidal base with hewn steps. Under this monument rest the mortal remains of Meriwether Lewis.

On the west plinth is the following inscription:

Mr. Park says of Lewis's monument: "FAR OUT IN THE NATIVE FOREST ON THE HIGHLANDS, WITH NO HUMAN DWELLING NEAR, IT IS INDEED A LONELY SPOT, WHERE THE WILD HOUNDS."

.