Transcribed from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar.

Clark, William, soldier and explorer, was born in Caroline county, Va., Aug. 1, 1770. When fourteen years old his parents—John and Ann (Rogers) Clark—removed to Kentucky and settled where Louisville now stands, and where his brother, George Rogers Clark, had built a fort in 1777. William grew up in a wild region, with little opportunity for acquiring an education, but he became well versed in Indian traits and habits. He was with Col. John Hardin in a campaign against the Indians north of the Ohio river in 1789; was made an ensign in 1791; promoted to lieutenant in March, 1792; served as adjutant and quartermaster in 1793, and was with Gen. Anthony Wayne in his Indian campaigns of 1796. Ill health forced him to leave the army, but as a hunter and trapper he regained his strength. In 1804 he went to St. Louis, and in March of that year President Jefferson commissioned him a second lieutenant in the artillery and ordered him to join Capt. Meriwether Lewis for an exploring expedition through the Louisiana purchase and across the Rocky mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river. This expedition passed up the Missouri river, along what is now the eastern boundary of Kansas, and some of the streams in the eastern part of the state were named by Lewis and Clark. (See Lewis and Clark's Expedition.) On Sept. 23, 1806, the expedition reached St. Louis, having been for more than two years engaged in exploring the Missouri river, the Rocky mountain region and the Columbia valley. Congress granted Lieut. Clark 1,000 acres of land for his services. For several years he was Indian agent; was appointed governor of Missouri Territory on July 1, 1813, by President Madison, and served as such until the state was admitted into the Union in 1820. Clark died at St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 1, 1838.

Page 360 from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed May 2002 by Carolyn Ward.