CLARK, WILLIAM

born Aug. 1, 1770, Caroline county, Va. died Sept. 1, 1838, St. Louis, Mo., U.S. American frontiersman who won fame as an explorer by sharing with Meriwether Lewis the leadership of their epic expedition to the Pacific Northwest (180406). He later played an essential role in the development of the Missouri Territory. A younger brother of Revolutionary general George Rogers Clark, William entered military service in 1789 and participated in several campaigns against the Indians, including the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), which ended the threat of the Northwest Indian Confederation. Upon the U.S. purchase of the Louisiana Territory (1803), Clark welcomed an invitation from Captain Lewis to share the leadership in an extensive exploration of the vast uncharted area of the Northwest. The Lewis and Clark Expedition thus embarked on a three-year trek from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and backan enterprise that succeeded largely because of the harmonious and complementary leadership provided by the two men. Proving particularly daring and resourceful, Clark was credited with rescuing the expedition from disaster on more than one occasion. He also served as mapmaker and artist, portraying with meticulous detail animal life observed en route. Following the journey, President Thomas Jefferson awarded Clark 1,600 acres (650 hectares) of public land and made him brigadier general of militia for the Louisiana (later Missouri) Territory as well as superintendent of Indian affairs, based in St. Louis. He held this post the rest of his life, and from 1813 he served as governor of the Missouri Territory. He also was surveyor general for Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas (182425). Clark continued to show an intense concern for Indian affairs, and he appealed many times to the federal government to show justice and humanity to the country's first inhabitants. See also Lewis and Clark Expedition.