I Didn't solve the Mystery of Meriwether Lewis :( -Dapper History

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]Hello friends, it is I, Thomas Jefferson, the most beloved US president. And I have a special story for you today about my friends Louis and Clark, guys. It was actually me, Jules, the whole time, and Ladybug, of course.

[00:00:23]>> Say hi.

[00:00:24]So, a long while ago, I was skulking around on the internet looking for a new historical tidbit to lead me down a rabbit hole, and I thought I struck gold. An ask Reddit thread titled, "What's one historical fact they won't teach you in school?" Jackpot. One of the top responses by user Mosed Man.

[00:00:43]Mossid Man. Mossid Man's response read as follows. God [ __ ] The circumstances surrounding the death of Marweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark are shrouded in conspiracy. In the months leading up to his death, many people reported that Lewis had become paranoid, claiming that he was being followed and that his life was in danger. In a desperate attempt for help, he sent a letter to his close friend and then President Thomas Jefferson.

[00:01:10]While traveling along the Nachez trace, he stayed a night at an inn. During the night, the owner reported hearing multiple gunshots, but never went out to check on the source. In the morning, Lewis was found dead in his cabin, sitting against the wall, looking at the door, rifle in hand, and shot in the back. In addition, while the room was ransacked, the only missing objects of note were Lewis's riding back and personal documents. After an official investigation, his death was ruled a suicide, and all further inquiry into the incident have been barred by the US government. While Lewis himself did not have any immediate descendants, his extended family have submitted requests every year to have his body exumed in order to confirm the cause of death. To this day, their results have unanimously been denied. I was giddy. I was certain that this was going to be one of the best historical rabbit holes I've gone down in a while. This story had everything. Drama surrounding our founding fathers, a possible murder mystery, government conspiracy, and cover-ups. I had struck gold. Before I even started researching, I already imagined what the video's thumbnail and title would be. It'd be something like I solved the murder of Merryweather Lewis and then me like not clickbait. But then I started researching the death of Merryweather Lewis. And my dear Dapperheads, I am afraid to say it. I do not have a murder mystery for you today. I cannot deliver to you a story filled with thrills and chills and slime. I'm sorry. Of all of all the historical stories I've researched throughout the years, I have never found one more frustrating, more unreliable, and more disappointing than this one.

[00:02:56]The Reddit post, while technically mostly true, is misleading as hell. For the first time in my entire damn life, Reddit had led me astray. However, though this story is not the exciting who done it that I hoped that it would be, it is still interesting as hell and tells us a bit about history and how it can be recorded and changed over time.

[00:03:17]Also, if you've ever been curious what my research process looks like when I'm doing one of these videos, you'll get to see a little bit of it here in this video. Welcome back to Dapper History.

[00:03:26]Today, we will be investigating the death of Merryweather Lewis. Oh ho, it's me, Tony Soprano. Just kidding. I'm future Julia, and you'll be seeing me periodically throughout the video because, as usual, I didn't get all the footage I needed the first time I recorded. Also, I want to give a quick trigger warning for the following: racism, genocide, suicide, self harm, mental illness, murder, and some descriptions of violence.

[00:03:56]Before we can talk about this man and the circumstances of his death, we first must talk about the circumstances of his life. Meet Merryweather Lewis. And yes, I am going to be referring to him by his first name for the whole video. Born August 18th, 1774. Oh god, a Leo. He didn't get any formal education until the age of 13, but he spent his childhood building his skills as a hunter and outdoorsman. He had a passion for exploring, nature, and survival. His mother, who was kind of the original crunchy mom, encouraged his love for the outdoors and taught him how to forage and identify wild plants to use them for survival. He loved exploring outdoors so much that it said that in his childhood, he would go out exploring in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with just his dog. Okay, that's what's her name? Lucy Marowe. Lucy girl, I'm not trying to mom shame here, but go get your kid. When he was 20, Marweather joined the army. And I just realized that Marweather was named after his mother's last name. So if she had kept her maiden name, his name would have been Merryweather. Merryweather. Anyway, he joined the army. Does great. Because of his survival skills and knowledge of herbal medicines, he gains the nickname the doctor. It was in the army that he met and befriended William Clark who, spoilers, he would later explore the continent with. I feel the need to set something straight before we get like too deep into the lesson. I am going to be talking about the founding fathers of America. The founding fathers of America have notoriously questionable morals. At some point while I'm discussing all of this, you might be watching and think to yourself, "Wait a second, these guys own slaves? Julia, are you defending this?

[00:05:39]Is William Clark woke? Is Marweather Lewis problematic? Is Charlie XEX my friend? No. These were [ __ ] up people, especially by today's standards. They came from slaveowning families. They participated in colonialism. They passed horrible laws. The goal of this video is not to find out was Marweather Lewis a good person. The goal is to find out was Marweather Lewis [ __ ] murdered or not. I'm going to be treating the subjects of this video as I do the subject of any other Dapper history video. If that's something that is going to bother you or make you uncomfortable, I suggest you skip this one. Maroe was clearly doing something right because the president at the time, Thomas Jefferson, promoted him to secretary and also let him move into the presidential mansion and just kind of hang out with him all the time. Wait a second. Oh my god. Marweather already knew Thomas Jefferson. They already knew each other through Virginia society. I can't believe it. My fave is a nepo baby. When Thomas Jefferson decided that it was time to explore and conquer more land for America, he personally selected Merryweather to lead the expedition, it was actually Merryweather who chose William Clark to join him and co-lead the expedition. If it feels like we're going through historical events really fast, that's cuz we are. Don't worry, we'll slow down in a bit. We just got to get the exposition out of the way. In 1803, Lewis and Clark set out on the adventure of a lifetime. They made the first ever transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Ocean. I Okay, I want to pause here and point out that like look at Merryweather's life. Our boy is living the dream at this point. He's 29.

[00:07:15]His greatest passion in life is hunting and exploring outdoors. And now he gets to do that for his job. Actually, he doesn't get to do it. He was hand selected by the president of the United States to do it. and he got to choose a friend to come along. For 2 years straight, he is doing nothing but hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, exploring, and documenting everything he finds. And also, Saka Jouia is there, too. The pair reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805. And in 1806, they triumphantly returned home, bringing with them a wealth of knowledge and information about this new world they've discovered.

[00:07:52]They were American heroes. As a reward, Marweather got 16 acres of land and a year later, President Thomas Jefferson appointed him governor of the Louisiana territory. This is great, right? Well, not exactly.

[00:08:07]>> They walk, they talk, they shimmy to the music.

[00:08:11]>> The transition back to reality was not easy on Marweather. His passion was for the outdoors, roughing it, and being among nature. And now he's governor. His main job was sitting, getting letters, reading letters, writing laws, revising the laws that he just wrote, sending letters, being told that he needs to revise that law again, getting complaints from the people he's governing in the form of, you guessed it, letters, and being told that his people hate the law he just made and he needs to revise it again. Oh, yeah. And because the United States had just taken a bunch of land from Native Americans, a huge part of his job was to settle disputes between waring tribes, which guess how that went. And also, he had to try to enforce treaties made with said Native American tribes, which pissed off all the new settlers who wanted on that land. And again, guess how that went?

[00:09:01]Basically, everyone's on his dick. No one's happy. Everyone's complaining. To put it bluntly, when it comes to being a governor, Marweather's just not very good at it. There were a lot of anecdotal reports around this time that Marweather had basically become an alcoholic. And some people even say that he was smoking opium. Oh my god. Oh, and the money problems. Did I mention the money problems?

[00:09:23]>> They walk, they talk, they shimmy to the music.

[00:09:27]>> The days leading up to and following the death of Marweather Lewis are of crucial importance. And I think that these periods of time hold the most valuable clues for actually getting to the bottom of what caused his death. The night of his death, however, has got to be the most poorly recorded, confusing, nonsensical, inconsistent, biased, and untrustworthy chunk of history I have ever read about in my history of researching. So, let's start with the few days before the [ __ ] hit the fan.

[00:10:00]Marweather is in Louisiana and he is not doing well in a lot of ways. He's depressed. He's drinking a lot. He's smoking opium apparently. Holy [ __ ] Everyone's mad at him. And he's getting in some really hot water in his career.

[00:10:13]His secret What the hell? His territorial secretary, Frederick Bates, sent a letter directly to Merryweather's superiors, accusing him of mishandling or pocketing large chunks of money they had been sending him to complete diplomatic missions with the Native American tribes. As a result, they stopped reimbursing him for a huge advance of money that he had already spent. And this was a lot of money, too.

[00:10:39]Adjusting for inflation in today's money, he was in the red for like $20.

[00:10:44]Just think of all the molasses and quills he could have bought with that.

[00:10:48]So anyway, because he's now in so much debt that he's not able to pay back, he's about to be forced to liquidate all of his assets, including this land that he got for the Louiswis and Clark expedition. Things are looking grim, right? Marweather decides to set off to Washington DC. He's personal friends with the president, Thomas Jefferson.

[00:11:06]Surely if he can just talk with him and explain what's going on, Thomas will be able to fix all of this somehow, I guess. So, in September 4th, 1809, Marweather hits the trail with his servant, Jean Pelier. We're going to be hearing more about his French house later, don't you worry. Slight correction about our boy Jean Pier. Many sources refer to him as being French when in fact he was Creole. This actually makes a lot of sense considering that French culture and language is so deeply ingrained in Creole culture due to French colonialism. John was likely fluent in French and spoke it quite often and so people referred to him as being French.

[00:11:42]Uh speaking of John, while we're on the topic, let's um let's address the elephant in the room. Considering right now we're in the 1800s talking about a man of African descent who is described as being a servant.

[00:11:56]Was he a slave? Like let's let's just bite the bullet. Was he a slave? Well, I can confirm that he was a free man. He was not enslaved. He was not property of anyone. Accompanying Marweather to Washington was a job that he was hired for and he was supposed to receive payment for. However, after Marweather's death, John proceeded to Washington and asked Thomas Jefferson to pay him what he was owed as the person who promised to pay him was no longer alive. And Thomas Jefferson was like, "No." So to answer the question, no, John was not enslaved, but as a black man in America, his labor was still exploited and taken advantage of. And their journey is it's a [ __ ] mess from the very beginning.

[00:12:37]Their plan is to travel by boat from New Orleans to Washington DC by traveling up the Mississippi River. But this doesn't last long because Marweather is such a [ __ ] mess when they get on the boat.

[00:12:50]The captain of the river boat that was transporting them wrote that the governor was in quote a state of mental derangement and twice attempted to kill himself on the journey. They made it as far as Tennessee when Marweather said, "Fuck it. [ __ ] this boat. We're going to travel by land." So after he just tried to kill himself twice while he's still acting quote deranged in the mind, he and his servant get off and embark on the Nachez Trace, a pioneer trail known for being swarming with robbers and murderers. Great, great idea, Merryweather. Thank you. At some point on their journey, our boys had to stop for the night. And so they found themselves at Grinder's Stand. It was kind of like an inn. The inkeeper's wife, Priscilla Grinder, booked cabins for the two boys, and on the night of October 10th, Marweather Lewis died. How did he die?

[00:13:45]I wish I knew. So, here's here's the part where I want to crash the [ __ ] out.

[00:13:50]Priscilla Grinder, the inkeeper's wife, was one of the only eyewitnesses to anything that happened that night. Okay, she's our expert witness. And get this, there was never any written account of her statement. And she never gave an official testimony. Let me let me repeat that. She never gave an official testimony for what she saw happen the night that Merweather Lewis died. Or if she did, no one wrote it down. Now, I believe that she was there and I believe that she saw or heard something involving the death of Marweather Lewis, but we have no record of what she said she saw. There are three there are three alleged statements that she made and each of these statements are wildly inconsistent with each other.

[00:14:48]Many historians completely disregard all three of her alleged statements because they're almost certainly hogwash. I mean, [ __ ] Do we even know this woman existed? One version of her alleged testimony says that the whole time they were there, she saw Merryweather acting insane, like talking to himself, pacing, sweating, you know, typical Merryweather. After he went to his room for the night, Mrs. Grinder heard multiple gunshots, shuffling, and someone screaming for help. She later peeked through his door and saw him covered in blood crawling around on the floor. She then closed his door and went back to her room. What a legend. Another version of the account claims that his servant was the one who found him. In this version, they say that he was so badly mutilated that a chunk of his skull was missing. Oh my god. And apparently he survived in this state for several hours before eventually succumbing to his injuries. In the third version of this story, uh, Mrs. Grinder claims that three men followed Marweather up the notches trace, Maro pulled out his pistol and challenged them to a duel. She heard gunfire from her cabin at 1:00 a.m., but when she went to check his room, it was empty, but there was also gunpowder on the floor of his room. So, so just to review, as far as eyewitness testimony go, our three options are one, Mrs. Grinder found him shot in his cabin. Two, his servants found him completely brutalized in his cabin. And three, he got pulled up on by his ops and died in a duel completely outside of the cabin. I don't know where all the gunpowder comes from. What the [ __ ] is going on? Oh, and also shortly after this happened, a Nashville newspaper ran a story that Marweather had been found with his throat slashed. How did THEY FIND THIS OUT? I DON'T KNOW. Not a single other report mentioned anything about his throat being cut. But then again, not a single other report is that reliable either. Just to clarify, the newspaper claimed that Marweather had cut his own throat. See, this is fascinating to me because even though this information that the newspaper published was baseless and completely wrong, it shows that there was already the assumption that Marweather had been the one to take his own life. You don't stop meowing. You're getting picked up.

[00:17:15]You're getting scooped up like a baby.

[00:17:19]>> You're a big baby. Oh, say hi.

[00:17:23]Okay, fine. Damn. The only thing that I can gather from every version of these stories is that he was probably shot at least one time.

[00:17:34]>> God, bro, >> you know, you know the research process is going well when you ask me how did he die? And my honest answer is I think he was shot. I don't think in my original script I properly conveyed just how [ __ ] all of this is. So, like I said, there was no record of a testimony. So, we don't even know if Priscilla Grinder said any of these statements. But if she did, if she made even one of these claims, she is the most evil compulsive liar of all time. I like I could. Julia, it's me, Jesus.

[00:18:14]Remember, the only way to salvation is to free yourself from anger. Do not spend your time dwelling on very small historical inaccuracies. You're going to raise your blood pressure. Julia, it's me, Tony Soprano. Oh, Gaboo. I could fill an entire 15-minute section of this video just going through all of her each of her testimonies and picking apart every [ __ ] detail that is either completely irrelevant or doesn't make any sense or contradicts itself or contradicts another one of the testimonies. Like, but I will actually like freak out and go insane. Is this not [ __ ] enough for you? Good.

[00:18:53]There's more. So, the first two versions where he was found murdered in his cabin, both of those are testimonies that she allegedly gave pretty shortly after his death. The third testimony, the one where he gets in a duel with those three guys, she gave that testimony 30 years after his death. 30 years after the fact. She's like, "But wait, there's more." Why? Why would she do that? Well, roughly 30 years after Marweather's death was when they started the process of officially memorializing him, as in erecting the monument, writing the plaques, making it all official. You know, call me callous and bitter if you'd like because you'd be right. But it's very convenient that right around the time that people started to like really give a [ __ ] about Marweather Lewis's death, that's when she got her memory back. That's She noticed a rise in tourism and was like, "Oh, you know what? I just remembered another version of the story that's even more dramatic."

[00:19:59]>> As if I'm not frustrated enough with this case.

[00:20:07]>> Hello, Ladybug. There is a handful of very suspicious details that I do think we need to look into. And also I want to address some popular theories as to what caused his death that I disagree with and I'll be explaining why I don't think they're true. Number one, the illness theory. There are married there are many theorists now and throughout history who believe that Marweather was actually suffering from an illness and this is what killed him. Uh the most popular version of this theory is that at some point he contracted malaria and that plagued him for the rest of his life and that eventually is what killed him.

[00:20:44]At this time, there was no cure for malaria and so it did take many people's lives. And also, him suffering with a painful illness would explain his erratic behavior towards the end of his life. This is not a bad theory. In fact, I'm not even ruling out the possibility that he did have malaria at some point.

[00:21:01][ __ ] everyone back then was dying of malaria or some other disease, right?

[00:21:04]But realistically, I don't think that it was an illness that actually caused Merryweather to die. First of all, his behavior in the days leading up to his death can't really be explained as symptoms of malaria. It's very possible he was suffering from some sickness that was making him more agitated, but that doesn't explain months and months of poor financial decisions and alcoholism and everything else. You know, also inconsistent as they may be, every version shut the hell up. Every version of how he died involves some kind of violence happening to his body. Whether it's like head bastion, getting shot, throat cut, whatever. I know we're grasping at straws here, but the violence theory had to have come from somewhere, right? Number two, Frederick Bates. Remember him? The territorial secretary who snitched on Marweather for mishandling large chunks of government funds. Frederick was a little sketchy in his own way. He was born into an upper class family from Gland County, Virginia. It was openly speculated by several people that while he was working under Marweather, Frederick was secretly undermining him and trying to get him fired so that he could take his place as governor. So while it is correct that Merryweather was mishandling funds, Frederick had a kind of huge ulterior motive, could he have arranged for Merryweather to be killed on his journey to Washington so that he could step up and take his place as governor? Probably not. But I mean, wouldn't that have been interesting if that was? That's what I was going to say. In all seriousness, I have heard a lot of theories that Marweather was assassinated by one of his political rivals or someone paid someone to kill him. I don't believe this because if I was his political rival and I wanted him out ASAP, all I'd have to do is wait. At this time, Maro was already cooked.

[00:22:55]Like, he was on his way out. He was not popular as a governor. He was caught misusing government funds. He was cut off by his bank and creditors and was about to lose [ __ ] everything. He was on the brink of ruin already. Even if he had made it to Washington to beg Thomas Jefferson for help, I don't see anything that Thomas could have done to actually help him outside of paying all of his debts off for him and giving him absolute immunity. In short, I don't think Merryweather was assassinated because I don't think anyone saw him as being worth assassinating. A popular theory is that his servant, Jean Pier, remember his ass, was the one who actually like carried out the murder and that's why he accompanied Marweather on the journey. In a few of in a few of the sources I found that discuss this theory. One of the things that they say is suspicious about Jean is the fact that he's like French.

[00:23:49]Number three, exumation. Okay, now that we've discussed what didn't kill him, let's try to get to the bottom of what did. The biggest thing standing in our way to solving this mystery is that we just can't nail down any of the facts about how he died. Usually at this point in my research, I would look up if there was an autopsy report. Um, >> there is one.

[00:24:09]>> The autopsy of Marweather Lewis was carried out by one doctor and the autopsy was performed 39 years after he was buried. For those of you who don't know, autopsies or examining a body after death ideally take place within 24 hours of the person's death because after that point the organs and tissue start to decompose and a lot of evidence can be altered or lost completely.

[00:24:36]Nowadays, forensics teams have amazing technology so that they can examine a body hundreds of years after it dies and learn all kinds of things about what could have caused it. But these [ __ ] were in the 1800s. So, if you're in the 1800s and you bury a body for 39 years and then dig it up and examine it hoping to learn, hoping to get to the bottom of what killed him, you're basically just wasting my [ __ ] time. Like, you you just did this cuz you were bored. Be honest. Four, we don't even know where this [ __ ] is. I can hear you asking, "But Julia, why did they wait 39 years before they examine the body?" Well, that's because before they can examine his body, first they have to find his body.

[00:25:18]>> Marweather was buried in Tennessee near his place of death. But people weren't 100% sure exactly where he was buried because [ __ ] this is a Nachas trace. It was a dangerous trail. A lot of people died on it over the years. So Marweather was buried in the same area that a bunch of other pioneers had already been buried. To put things into perspective, there are eight historic graveyards along the Nachas Trace for all the people who died on it. And that's not including all the unmarked graves or unidentified graves or the people who were like buried and no one ever found them. However, I will say some of these graveyards are uh Confederate graveyards, so I don't really give a [ __ ] about them. So, how do we know that the body that they examined 39 years after his death was even really Merryweather? Well, don't worry. Let me let me put your mind at ease.

[00:26:10]Sh, let me put your mind at ease.

[00:26:15]After they examined his body, they reeried him and made his grave an official monument because, you know, he's a part of American history after all. On a plaque outside of the monument, we learn that they asked a guy where Merryweather's grave was, and he told them, "It's for sure right here."

[00:26:33]But just to be extra sure, you know, just just to leave no stone unturned, they dug him up, looked at his body, and said, "Yeah, that's for sure him." Son of a [ __ ] None of this is reassuring.

[00:26:46]I have never had less faith in a group of people in my life. I I I as far as I'm concerned, we still don't know for sure that Merryweather Lewis is buried at that spot. Five. I hate this case. So anyway, after digging him up, playing around in his body, and rearing him, they made it a monument, put up the plaque, you know, they asked the guy, and the Tennessee State Commission wrote an official report about the whole thing. And in the report, the official report alleges, quote, "It seems to be more probable that he died by the hands of an assassin." What? What the hell? You can't This is an official report. You can't just make a statement like that out of the blue with no evidence. Something led you to that conclusion. What was it? This this sentence implies that while they were examining the body that there was compelling evidence that there was a murder that took place, that he was assassinated and then they just didn't write down what that evidence was. We don't know why they said that.

[00:27:51]Oh, yeah. And all of this is operating on the assumption that the body they examined was Merryweather Lewis, which I want to remind you, we are not 100% sure that it is. And finally, six, a smooth segue into the next section of our video. So, we've considered all of our garbage, garbage, awful evidence. But one thing we have not yet considered is what was Marweather's state of mind when he died?

[00:28:21]Ah, yes. My favorite part of every video. Time to bring up my psychology degree that I never use. It's impossible for us to really talk about Marweather Lewis without talking about his history of troubled mental health. Now, I want to make this very clear. Everything that I'm about to say is speculation. It's impossible to diagnose Mir with anything because he's dead. You know, we can't exactly sit him down and interview him about his feelings. But historians and psychologists agree that there is a significant amount of evidence that Marweather Lewis was struggling with bipolar disorder. Before we get to talking about bipolar disorder, I want to address the stigma surrounding it.

[00:29:02]Bipolar disorder is greatly misunderstood and stigmatized. It's often considered to be one of the scary mental illnesses. It's often portrayed in media as a person being crazy or weird or mean rather than a person who is not in control of their mind and body. I used to work in the mental health field before the mental health field almost ruined my life. And so I have experience working one-on-one with people who have bipolar disorder. I've seen firsthand the toll that it takes on them and their life and their career and their relationships, their family, everything. I'm not bringing up bipolar disorder for entertainment purposes. I want us to understand what bipolar disorder is so we can better understand our subject. Bipolar disorder or manic depression is a mental illness characterized by a person having phases of extreme depression and extreme mania.

[00:29:50]How often these phases occur varies from person to person. For some people it's pretty rare. For others they go in and out of phases multiple times a year.

[00:29:57]Bipolar disorder is also genetic, meaning it can be passed down in families. If one or both parents have bipolar disorder, there is anywhere between a 10 and 40% chance that their child will inherit it. During the depressive phase, a person has no motivation or energy. They can't do their job. They can't do their hobbies.

[00:30:16]A lot of the times, they can't even bring themselves to get out of bed. Some people report losing unhealthy amounts of weight during a depressive episode because they cannot motivate themselves to eat. It feels like nothing will ever make them happy. They feel guilty and worthless and miserable. It's common for people in a depressive episode to think about, plan, or even attempt suicide.

[00:30:36]The other phase of bipolar is mania.

[00:30:39]Unlike a depressive phase where a person has no energy, in a manic phase they experience a huge surge of energy. They may exercise more, get a lot of work done, have a lot of great ideas. They might go days without sleeping because they just don't feel tired. They may have racing thoughts or talk so fast that no one can understand them. Not all, but some people with bipolar disorder report experiencing psychosis when they're in a manic phase. People who have experienced manic episodes describe a state of euphoria, feeling like they're the happiest, luckiest, strongest, smartest person ever born.

[00:31:11]Everything is going their way. Nothing can go wrong. And as a result of this overconfidence, a person may do harmful, reckless things that they wouldn't usually do, like relapsing on drugs, leaving their families, cheating on their partners, driving intoxicated, spending, or gambling their entire life savings, just to name a few. Once a manic episode passes and a person is left to deal with the consequences, it's obviously devastating. Studies have found that about 50% of people with bipolar disorder have attempted suicide at some point in their life and between 15 and 20% die by suicide. Now, let's look at Merryweather Lewis. Because if you view the story of his life through the lens that he probably had bipolar disorder, things start to make a lot of sense. He was an adventurer, an explorer. His passion was to rough it and live off the land. Adventuring in this way is very dangerous and it would require a great amount of confidence, bravery, and energy to do. So, a person who goes through phases where they have huge bursts of energy and aren't afraid of anything would be very successful as an adventurer. Hell, one could argue that traveling for hundreds of miles of uncharted territory is in itself reckless and dangerous. But for Meowe, his willingness to do this made him a hero. His confidence was seen as strength and bravery was his commitment to his country. He was displaying manic behavior and being rewarded for it. It reminds me of that story of when he was a boy and he would go out exploring in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with just his dog, right? Not sleeping just so that he could explore and hunt even more. Most parents wouldn't want their child exploring the woods at night alone because it's dangerous. What if something had happened to you? What if you got hurt and there was no one around to save you?

[00:33:01]What if a bear attacked you? What if you freeze to death? Blah blah blah. But instead of getting this lecture, young Marowe got rewarded for his behavior.

[00:33:09]His mother knew that he was doing this and encouraged him to keep exploring and even gave him advice on how he could forage better. Dude, his mom.

[00:33:19]I'm not trying to mom shame or anything, but she was a piece of work. I could do a whole dapper history on her alone. Cuz remember, at the time that he was doing this, he was younger than 13. He was a little kid. Girl, are you not concerned that your son is not sleeping to run around in the woods and try to kill animals at night? Like, use your head, please. Now, I'm going to get a bunch of comments from parents being like, "Well, when you have kids, you'll understand."

[00:33:47]Also, let's think about the months leading up to his death. He wasn't sleeping. He was drinking a lot. He was smoking opium. He was being reckless with money. People said that he was visibly agitated, pacing, and talking to himself, having outbursts. When he learned that he was caught being reckless with money and he was about to lose everything, his solution was to with no prior planning travel across the country to Washington to beg his friend for help. I mean, for God's sake, he tried to end his own life twice on the boat ride up to Washington and then very abruptly changed plans to get off the boat and travel via the Nachas Trace.

[00:34:28]the not just trace which I remind you was notoriously dangerous and full of highway men and murderers. This is a [ __ ] up plan. Marweather's actions in the days leading up to his death were disorganized, reckless, and dangerous.

[00:34:43]I've heard some people speculate that the reason why he chose to travel on the Nachez trace was because it was dangerous and because he was suicidal and hoping that he would be killed on that journey. I personally don't believe that his behavior was so disorganized that at this time I don't think he was capable of coming up with a coherent plan like this. Like I don't think that he was thinking I can't kill myself on this boat. I need to do something else that will get me killed. I think he was thinking, "Oh my god, I'm freaking the [ __ ] out. I need to get off this boat right now. I don't care where. I'll figure it out on the way." Does this pattern of behavior sound familiar? Now, let's hear from some character witnesses. The two people who knew Marweather best and spent the most time with him throughout his life were William Clark and Thomas Jefferson.

[00:35:32]Let's start with Thomas. Thomas knew Marweather from when they were younger and let Marweather basically live in the presidential mansion with him for years.

[00:35:40]Thomas was the one who picked Marweather to lead the expedition across the country. When Marweather's life was falling apart, the first person he thought to turn to was Thomas Jefferson.

[00:35:50]It's safe to say these guys knew each other pretty well. After learning about Marweather's death, Thomas wrote, "Governor Lewis has from an early age been subject to hypochondriac affections. It was a constitutional disposition in all the nearer branches of the family of his name. It was immediately inherited by him from his father. While he lived with me in Washington, I observed at times sensible depressions of mine, but knowing their constitutional source, I estimated their course by what I had seen in the family.

[00:36:23]Okay, let's unpack that. It's hard to find a ton of information about the mental health of Marweather's family members. In these days, mental illness was not understood, and it was considered shameful. It was common for families to hide or downplay a person's mental illness so as not to be smooch their reputation. For this reason, I couldn't really find any records of Marweather's family members being mentally ill. But Thomas knew the Lewis family personally. He had the inside scoop. He had seen things that have no record in the history books. So, we don't have any examples or evidence, but we do know that Thomas had seen Marweather's family, specifically his biological dad, displaying abnormal anxious behavior. He goes on to say that while they were living together in the presidential mansion, he saw Marweather experience sensible depressions of the mind. But because he was familiar with the Lewis family, he wasn't surprised.

[00:37:18]sensible depressions of the mind. Does that sound familiar? We'll talk more about Thomas in a bit, but I want to look at Merryweather's other closest friend, William Clark. So, to review, Marweather and William met in the army and they trained together. Apparently, they got along well enough that when he was about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, Marweather specifically chose William to join him on the journey. They then spent every hour of every day of three years together as they traveled back and forth across the continent and also Saka Jiao was there.

[00:37:49]Again, it's safe to say they knew each other pretty well. After learning about Marweather's death, William wrote a letter to his brother. It's interesting cuz in this letter we learn William heard the version of the story that Marweather got his throat cut like from the Nashville newspaper. He is clearly distraught about losing his longtime friend. writing, "I fear, oh, I fear the weight of his mind has overcome him."

[00:38:13]That is possibly the most damning statement in this whole case. William knew Marweather better than anyone. He knew that Marweather had some demons that he was battling. The tone of this letter, too, is very important.

[00:38:27]Marweather seems distraught and heartbroken, but not surprised upon hearing that Marweather died. The weight of his mind has overcome him. as in this was a battle that he lost that he had been fighting for a long time. William knew Marweather better than anyone and I think he also knew the unfortunate truth for you.

[00:38:51]>> So what do I think? I think that Marweather Lewis did take his own life.

[00:38:58]I think that he was a very mentally ill man living in a world where no one understood the struggles he was going through and no one could help him with them. The attitude towards suicide in the 1800s was, as you might have guessed, not kind. In broader society, suicide was considered at best weak and cowardly and at worst illegal.

[00:39:19]In cases where it seemed like a person took their own life, it was common for their family members to cover that up and argue that there was another cause to their death. to preserve the honor and memory of the deceased. Which brings us back to Merryweather's mother, Lucy Lewis. She is, I believe, single-handedly the reason why this conspiracy exists at all. Lucy was convinced that there was foul play behind the death of her son and tried to convince anyone to investigate this mystery. She accused several people of being behind his death, from his secretary to his servant to Mrs. Grinder herself. And she's not the only one.

[00:39:54]Merryweather never married or had his own children, but his sister did. And the descendants of his sister for generations have been petitioning the government to exume his body so that they can investigate his cause of death.

[00:40:07]And just as the Reddit post says, these requests have been rejected every time.

[00:40:12]I think it's important to note that in recent years, his descendants have made it clear that they're not trying to fuel a conspiracy. They just want answers.

[00:40:19]Collateral descendant Howard Lewis Bowen said, quote, "If it turns out that Merryweather Lewis committed suicide, his relatives will not be ashamed. On the contrary, we will remain extremely proud of his legacy." The family is not trying to disprove that he killed himself. We merely want to know once and for all whether he died by his own hand or someone else's. Now, I want to make one thing very clear. I am not hating on Lucy or any other member of Marweather's family for wanting answers about his death. I think that's perfectly reasonable, especially considering how muddled and [ __ ] up the investigation around his death was. But like, I hate to be this guy, but we do have to think about logistics here. At the time that I'm recording this, in the year 2026, it has been 217 years since Merryweather dieting was buried. His grave is now a national monument of the United States of America. Exuming him would require heavy duty equipment, a team of specialists, a million permits, and a lot of money. As previously mentioned, he was buried in a pioneer graveyard. So, there will be a bunch of other bodies right around the dig site that you'll have to avoid disturbing.

[00:41:35]While the digging is happening, any tourists who want to visit the monument will be turned away. And after you examine the body and we finally get answers, you'll have to reberry the body and rebuild the monument on top of it without damaging or messing anything up, or else the historical society will be on your ass. And I hate to keep bringing this up, but I'm still not 100% convinced that this is where Maro is buried. I hate to agree with the US government, especially right now, but I would also reject this request every year.

[00:42:14]I was planning on ending this section by saying like, "So there it is. I solved the death of Marweather Lewis. He did take his own life." D. But I just like every historian, every history teacher, and even the descendants of his own family can do nothing but speculate about what actually ended the life of Merryweather Lewis. History is and always has been a cruel mistress and we remain at the mercy of the memories and documentation of people from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. But I want to end this video with one last fact about Louiswis and Clark. Merryweather Lewis's life ended in October of the year 1809.

[00:43:07]Earlier that same year in January, William Clark and his wife had their first son and they named that son Merryweather Lewis Clark.

[00:43:17]Thank you so much for watching.

[00:43:19]Subscribe if you want to, don't if you don't, and I will see you next whenever I upload. Bye.