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"To rescue from oblivion the history of a large and
honorable family is a praiseworthy achievement. Somebody must
begin the work. It is to be hoped that someone will complete it."
Joseph Woodruff Bozeman, 1885.
Lewis County is located in Middle Tennessee, southwest of Nashville. It is in one of the state's three "grand divisions". Lewis County was established on 23 December 1843 by the legislature from Hickman, Maury, Wayne and Lawrence Counties as a perpetual monument to Governor Meriwether Lewis. The legislature also directed that a monument be erected over Lewis' grave. The first county seat was the community of Gordon because it was the only significant settlement. Newburg was the second county seat because many felt it would become the more prominent town in the county. After the War Between the States began, people left Newburg in large numbers. This caused the county to be disbanded and the lands returned to their original counties. The disbandment lasted about one year. At the end of the war, the state legislature passed a special act to confirm that Lewis County still existed and the county books were returned. The current county seat, Hohenwald, was instituted in 1897.
Lewis County was named in honor of Meriwether Lewis, the second of three children born to Lucy and John Lewis, in Albemarle Co, VA on 18 August 1774. He was five years old when his father died. His mother soon remarried. He attended locally-run religious schools run by ministers from 1787 to 1792. After the death of his stepfather, Meriwether returned to the plantation and took over the daily running of it.
Lewis joined the US Army in 1794 and rose to the rank of Captain in 1800. In 1801, he was appointed private secretary to Thomas Jefferson when he was President of the United States. Meriwether was a close neighbor to Mr. Jefferson near Charlottesville, Virginia, and when he was wanted at Monticello Mr. Jefferson would signal him with a mirror reflected in the sun. President Jefferson appointed him leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804 to explore the Northwestern Territory which the United States had bought from France in 1803. Lewis invited William Clark to join the expedition. The two men privately agreed to lead it jointly. In addition to command, Lewis served as the party's naturalist. On the expedition he collected plant, animal, and mineral specimens.
In May of 1804 the expedition sponsored by the US Government, and lead by Lewis and Clark started up the Missouri River from a camp near St. Louis. By late fall, the explorers reached what is now North Dakota and spent the winter there. The following spring they continued along the Missouri and in late summer crossed the Rocky Mountains. They obtained horses, supplies, and valuable information from the Indians they met on their journey. Following the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia Rivers they made their way to the Pacific coast, which they reached in November of 1805. The party spent the winter on the coast of what is now Oregon and began the trip home in March of 1806. The explorers returned along nearly the same route by which they had come, reaching St. Louis in September of 1806 after traveling a total of 8,000 miles.
Lewis County was named in honor of Meriwether Lewis who, in October of 1809, departed this life about 8 miles from Hohenwald, TN. He stopped at Grinder's Stand to spend the evening. Though accounts of the event conflict, Lewis died that evening of gunshot wounds to the chest and head. Meriwether Lewis was buried near Grinder's Stand where a monument was erected in his memory in 1848. He was governor of the Territory of Louisiana from 1806 until his death. His watch was later found in a pawn shop in New Orleans. This watch, his revolver, diary, compass and many other articles that he used on the Western expedition are now in Jefferson Memorial in St. Louis, given the Memorial by Dr. Anderson of Virginia, who is a great-great-grandson of Jane Lewis Anderson, a sister of Meriwether Lewis.
Federal authorities reported that he committed suicide. Others think he was murdered by either bandits on the Natchez Trace, the Grinders, his own servant or federal authorities who would have been implicated in shady land deals on the Trace had he made it back to Washington. We may never know what really happened that night.
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Death and Cemetery
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African American Griots
Lewis Co, TN
Coming soon:
Complete transcription of the
1850 Census of Lewis County. I am currently working on this and will
post each Civil District as they are completed.
1930 Census of
Lewis Co, TN
Enumeration District Information
Tennessee Census Maps
Population
Statistics
from
1850-2000 Censuses
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African American ancestry by being a central depository for
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Search the Lewis Co, TN USGenWeb Website by typing your surname(s) in the Google search engine below!
Several researchers have asked for hotel/motel information. There are two
hotel/motels in Hohenwald:
Embassy Inn, 235 E Main St, Hohenwald, TN, (931)796-1500
Goodenough Inn, 699 Centerville Hwy, Hohenwald, TN (931)796-2501
Here are other Tennessee GenWeb sites that may be of interest!
The TNGenWeb Site
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can search the entire state of TN from this page for your
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Lewis County, TN US GenWeb Archives
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Tennesee Records Repository for Lewis County, TN
Visit our Neighboring States for additional information.
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This page was last updated on Sunday, March 03, 2013.
