At some point in the night she heard multiple gunshots, and what she believed was someone asking for help. Grinder continued to hear him talking to himself. She observed his face to flush as if it had come on him in a fit. She said that during dinner Lewis stood and paced about the room talking to himself in the way one would speak to a lawyer. Grinder, the tavern-keeper's wife, claimed Lewis acted strangely the night before his death. While modern historians generally accept his death as a suicide, there is some debate. The next morning, servants found Lewis badly injured from multiple gunshot wounds. On the way, he stopped at an inn called Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) from Nashville, Tennessee on the Natchez Trace on October 10, 1809. to answer complaints about his actions as governor. In September 1809, Lewis set out for Washington D.C. While at the Great Falls of the Missouri River, Lewis reflected on how, at age 31, he felt he had not accomplished much in the way of aiding the advancement of the human race. Meriwether Lewis served as Thomas Jefferson’s personal aide prior to the expedition. Lewis had a lifetime’s experience as an outdoorsman, hunter and herbal medicine expert, all facts of which Jefferson was aware and influenced his decision to choose him as Corps leader. The Lewis and Jefferson families were long-time neighbors and family friends.

These legendary characters organized and led the Corps of Discovery on the famous Lewis & Clark Expedition.

A wife and a mother mr clark