William Clark led a life that brought him fame and adventure. As an explorer, he captured the imaginations of the American people as he charted the West. He was a famed soldier who served in war and peace. As a politician, he helped shape the emerging states of Arkansas and Missouri.
Clark was born in 1770 in eastern Virginia, the ninth of ten children. His older brothers fought in the American Revolution with distinction. Clark was tutored at home, like many children of the time, and never had a formal education. However, he read and wrote extensively. In 1785, the family moved to Kentucky. In 1789, he joined the militia and spent most of the next two years in the bitter fighting between the tribes and settlers in Kentucky and Ohio. In 1791, he joined the United States Army and rose to the rank of lieutenant. He gained a reputation for bravery in the field and efficiency as a quartermaster.
He stepped down from his official army duties in 1796 and resumed his life as a successful planter in Kentucky. In 1803, Meriwether Lewis, President Thomas Jefferson’s personal secretary, approached him about jointly leading an expedition into the new Louisiana Purchase. Clark accepted, and the two organized the Corps of Discovery, a group of 50 men, and embarked on a journey up the largely unknown Missouri River starting in May 1804.
After leaving St. Louis, the expedition met members of the many tribes of Missouri and the Great Plains. The two made careful notes of the plant life and animals they discovered and made peaceful contact with many tribes and settlements. Clark worked to draw maps of their expedition and would lead foraging parties to supplement their supplies. The Shoshone wife of a French trapper, Sacajawea, helped translate for Lewis and Clark as they ventured to the northwest. Up and down the mountains they trod, through the hot winds of summer and through the pouring rains and deep snow, taking note of all that lay before them.
They reached the Rocky Mountains and pushed further west. By November 1805, they had ventured down the Columbia River and reached the Pacific Coast, helping solidify an American claim on the Pacific Ocean as the border. They marveled at the area’s natural wonders and stayed the winter on the Oregon coast at a camp they named Fort Clatsop. They returned through the Yellowstone Country, and by December 1806, made it back to Washington, DC. The expedition’s success made them heroes, and Lewis and Clark became household names.
Lewis was named territorial governor of the District of Louisiana in 1807, the upper end of the Louisiana Purchase. Clark worked closely with Lewis, remaining close friends, until his death in 1809.
Congress created the new Missouri Territory in June 1812, changing its name from the District of Louisiana. What had been the District of Orleans was then given the name Louisiana and granted statehood. The remainder of Louisiana Purchase territory was all included in the new Missouri Territory, including what is now Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and the Plains states.
In 1813, President James Madison named the stillpopula r Clark territorial governor for this sprawling area. When he assumed office, there were still only a handful of organized counties, five in what is now Missouri and Arkansas County for what is now Arkansas, taking up a third of what is now eastern Arkansas north of the Arkansas River. The largest city, St. Louis, had less than 6,000 residents.
This was still in the midst of the War of 1812, and the new position required all of Clark’s abilities as a soldier and a diplomat. Clark recognized the need to treat the Native American tribes with respect and worked to maintain the peace with them. This helped neutralize the diplomatic threat the British posed during the war.
He fought in a number of fierce battles along the northern Mississippi River in 1814. In the process, he briefly established the first army posts in Wisconsin.
The area that is now Missouri was growing rapidly and approaching statehood, and Clark worked to manage the influx of trade and settlers. However, Arkansas was starting its own slow process of growth, mostly along the Arkansas River northward, which Clark oversaw. Lawrence County was established by Missouri legislators in 1815, taking up the northern quarter of modern Arkansas. Three more counties were formed for what is now Arkansas in 1818. Legislators decided to honor Clark for his leadership by naming one of the new counties while also creating Hempstead and Pulaski counties, all three of which would initially divide up the lands south of the Arkansas River.
In 1819, Arkansas was split off from Missouri and made into its own territory. What is now modern Missouri was granted statehood in 1821. Clark ran for governor in the new state’s first election but lost decisively to Alexander McNair.
President James Monroe appointed Clark as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in 1822, apposition he would hold for 16 years. Clark tried to maintain the peace between the tribes and settlers and successfully mediated many disputes between the tribes. However, he also processed the relocation of the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeast into the new Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma in the 1830s and enforced federal land claims that slowly whittled away tribal land claims.
Clark died in St. Louis in 1838 at age 68. Still a popular figure in the city, his funeral procession stretched for more than a mile. He continued to be widely honored in the years after his death. Six states now have counties named after him directly while others are named for both him and Lewis. A number of colleges and schools are named in honor of both men. In 2001, President Bill Clinton granted him a posthumous promotion to captain.
