Story Photos
 Photo by Bill Wagner Sandy Hargrove of Ocean Park displays some of the family histories and documents she's received from descendants of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery, including a negative of a formerly unknown painting of William Clark. |
Genealogist tracks down Lewis and Clark descendants
Monday, March 15, 2004 7:19 AM PST
By Nancy Butterfield
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E-mail this articleLONG BEACH PENINSULA --- Four years ago when the first glimmers of enthusiasm for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration were emerging, Ocean Park genealogist Sandy Hargrove says she "woke up in the middle of the night and thought it would be a good idea to trace the descendants of expedition members."
Hargrove, who at the time was president of the Clatsop and Pacific county genealogical societies and teaching a genealogy class at Clatsop Community College, said she thought it would be good training for members of the group and her class to work on the genealogies of the Corps of Discovery.
Since the project began in 1999, Hargrove and her group of eight assistants used family trees to document1,531descendants of expedition members --- 787 documented direct descendants and 744 documented collateral descendants (nieces, nephews, cousins). There are 789 woman and 776 men.
The monumental project will culminate Aug. 13-15 with a reunion of the descendants at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds in Astoria. So far, about 700 are expected to attend, Hargrove said.
The people who have submitted their family trees are an exceptional group, Hargrove said. "They truly represent the wanderlust of their forebears," she said. "We have retired major generals, colonels, brigadier generals. One of our Meriwether Lewis descendants, a retired major general, is bringing his 95-year-old father to the reunion, a retired colonel. There are doctors, lawyers, nurses -- a great cross-section of society."
In the documentation process, Hargrove said she has discovered previously unknown information about expedition members. A Clark descendant owns a desk that Meriwether Lewis gave to William Clark in January 1809 to commemorate the birth of Clark's first son and his namesake, Meriwether Lewis Clark. By giving his firstborn son his old friend's name, Clark violated the naming patterns of the day.
"He should have been named after Clark's father," Hargrove said. "This indicates to me the strong bond between the two men."
Lewis died in October 1809, shortly after his namesake's birth. "That desk was probably the last gift he gave before his death," she said.
The same descendant also has a small oval painting of a man he assumed for years was Clark's son. But Hargrove compared it with a portrait of William Clark and found a mirror image. "It matched a portrait owned by another William Clark descendant," she said.
Several of the descendants already have collected family information into book form, including a 2-inch-thick hardbound memoir of the Clark family.
Descendants of Pvt. Alexander Hamilton Willard have collected the documentation of his family that begins with a poem by his 37-year-old great-great-great-granddaughter that Hargrove says brings tears to her eyes every time she reads it. The poem describes how the family's ancestor "has transformed our lives forever and molded generations to come ... the sparkle in my grandmother's eye, the strength of my mother's face in adversity, my daughter's freedom of mind and my son's passion for discovery. ... You left your family with strength of character that surpasses most."
A two-volume, 33-chapter book will be published in conjunction with the August reunion of the families. Vancouver historian Barbara Kubik is writing a biography of each of the corps' 33 members. Illustrations are being completed by Sonoma, Calif., artists, one a Lewis descendant, one a Clark descendant.
"This has been real detective work," Hargrove said. "There are so many stories. We have brought out things even historians haven't seen because they have been kept in the families. I don't think we realized the full significance of the project when we started. We've become like family."
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