Did Meriwether Lewis live in Georgia or just visit?

Lt. William Lewis of Locust Hill, Meriwether Lewis’ father, served in the Virginia Militia, without pay, during the American Revolution, for a period of seven years and seven months.⁽¹⁾ Wood’s History of Albemarle Co., details his additional colonial period militia service and abstracts of the Lewis, Marks, and Meriwether, families.⁽²⁾ Lt. Lewis’s death in 1779, is attributed to Pneumonia, viral or bacterial is unknown.⁽³⁾ Oral tradition states that Lt. Lewis got wet and chilled while crossing a rain-swollen stream in November, as he returned to his Revolutionary War unit, after a leave with his family. Based on his burial at nearby Cloverfield, his wife’s ancestral home near Keswick, VA, makes the story reasonable but uncorroborated.⁽⁴⁾ William’s legacy of service will be carried on by his and Lucy Meriwether Lewis’ children: (a) Jane Meriwether Lewis (31 March 1770 – 15 March 1845); (b) Lucinda Lewis (1772-1773); (c) Meriwether Lewis (18 August 1774- 11 October 1809); (c) Reubin Lewis (14 February 1777 –17 February 1844).⁽⁵⁾ (Note: Lucinda died as an infant and is seldom recorded as a child of William and Lucy Lewis.)

Lucy Meriwether Lewis was a 27-year-old widow with three living young children. Necessity and custom in the 1700’s called for the young widow to remarry. Six months after her first husband’s death Lucy married Revolutionary War Captain John Marks on 13 May 1780. 

There is some unconfirmed belief that the marriage was suggested by William Lewis shortly before his death. 

Captain Marks joined the VA Continental Line on 21 October 1775 and resigned his commission, due to illness, on 12 February 1781, before British Gen. Cornwall’s surrender to the American forces at Yorktown, VA on 19 October 1781. The Virginia Continental Regiments, in which Capt. Marks had served were in key engagements during the Revolution.⁽⁶⁾⁽⁷⁾ After his retirement from the Army, Capt. Marks served as a Magistrate in Albemarle Co. VA and was appointed to a two-year term as Sheriff in 1785 ⁽⁸⁾, otherwise the record is mostly silent before emigrating to the Broad River Region of Georgia (present-day Oglethorpe County).  Did the Marks family move to Georgia before his appointment to the position of Sheriff and the 18 May 1785 marriage of 15-year-old Jane Meriwether Lewis, Meriwether’s sister? ⁽⁹⁾ The two situations suggest the move was after 1785 and possibly as late as 1787. In November 1788, the Virginia Legislature passed a bill stating that “Albemarle County delinquent taxes for the year 1786 and 1787, were legally, because of John Marks, Sheriff of said county, removing sometime within those years to Georgia”, a Deputy Sheriff had been appointed to fill the vacant sheriff’s position.^(10)(11)

The Marks move to Georgia was influenced by the 200,000 Acres General George Matthews had secured in the Goose Pond District along the Broad River in Georgia.⁽¹²⁾ The distance traveled from Virginia to Georgia, as measured on today’s roads, was 462 miles. While there is no known record detailing the route of travel or the experiences during the journey, the corridor of travel can be reasonably determined from the early trails and roads of the era.^(13)(14) Travel would have been slow with the wagons, live-stock and the need to stop at sources of water for the people and animals. The route followed the lower Shenandoah Valley through the towns of Fincastle, Big Lick (Roanoke, VA) to Salem and Charlotte, NC before turning to the southwest across South Carolina and the Savannah River that divided Georgia and South Carolina. The responsibility for keeping the animals on the move would have fallen to young member of the party, similar to the children on the Oregon, California, or Mormon Trails in the 1800’s.⁽¹⁵⁾ We fine no primary source document detailing that the 12 or 13-year-old Meriwether Lewis participated in the journey to Georgia with Lucy and John Marks. 

Records of early day plantation development and houses built near the Broad River are non-existent but we can reasonably follow the fatiguing labors from other American frontiers as an example. However, a series of extant letters preserved in the Missouri Historical Society- St. Louis with copies at the University of Virginia Library – Special Collections and the Library of Virginia archives, give us a view of the life of the Lewis and Marks family starting in 1789-1792.^(16)(17)(18) These letters show that Meriwether Lewis traveled to Georgia but only to visit with his family. The letters definitely show young Meriwether was living in Virginia after 1789 through early 1792. 

The period between 1785-1789, like the “silent periods” in the 1803-1806 Lewis and Clark Journals, remains a mystery. Even the letters between 7 March 1789 and 19 April 1792 require careful reading to determine the correct date. One letter is undated and only records the location where the letter is written. This letter requires special attention to find clues for the correct date sequence in the letters. 

A letter dated 7 March 1789, from Meriwether Lewis to Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks, explains that he cannot visit with her until the Spring of 1790 because he is in school with “Mr. Maury”.⁽¹⁹⁾ There are indications in the letter that Lucy had written to Meriwether earlier and he is responding to her appeal to visit her in Georgia. (A copy of the letter from Lucy to Meriwether has not been found.) Additionally, on the same date, March 1789, there is a letter to Reuben Lewis, in Georgia, which gives us a further clue that Meriwether may not have gone to Georgia in the emigration of the Marks Family.