Lewis and Clark Flora and Fauna Discoveries

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

The story of William Clark and Meriwether Lewis is a familiar one. We know of their travels across the vast wilderness that would become the United States of America. They mapped waterways, met the indigenous people, suffered many hardships and brought back incredible reports of the vastness of the land.

Wild Turnip

One of the lesser known details of the Lewis and Clark expedition has to do with their discoveries of new flora and fauna. They kept detailed reports of everything new they encountered. This included various plants shown to them by the
people they met in their travels. Some were good for eating; some were good for medicine. Lewis and Clark were able to add nearly 200 species to the world’s list of known plants.

Bitterroot Blossom

Lewis picked a blossom of a bitterroot plant in the Rocky Mountains. He preserved the bloom and carried it thousands of miles, ending in St. Louis with the dried blossum still intact.

Drawing of Grape Leaf

Clark recorded a description of an Oregon grape leaf, along with a detailed drawing. The image had exact measurements down to the fraction of an inch.

Penstemon

Some of the Indians they encountered taught them to boil the flowers of the penstemon as a medication. They used this concoction to treat sores and burns.

Clarkia pulchella

The Clarkia pulchella, was named after William Clark, but was actually discovered by Meriwether Lewis. The plant has beautiful blue flowers.

Badger

They recorded not only plants previously unknown, but many animals and birds as well. On the orders of President Jefferson, they kept careful accounts of unusual creatures they encountered. They took great care to preserve animal hides and bird skins. Some of them were still intact almost two centuries later. The badger was the first animal to be stuffed and shipped back east. 

Lewis Woodpecker

The Lewis woodpecker was first seen as they approached the Rockies. Clark's crow was another bird they found in the same area.

Beaver and Muskrat

The Lewis and Clark expedition expedited the settlement of the Western United States of America. Their discovery of numerous beaver and muskrat encouraged the boom in the fur trade and more exploration.







One report said they were so enthused by their command to display their finds to Jefferson that they floated a prairie dog from its burrow by pouring barrels of water down the hole. When they finally washed the animal out, they shipped it back to the President, alive and yelping, and in good health.

Grizzly Bear

They noted 122 species never before recorded. Some of them were stuffed and shipped back East. At times, they were in danger because of their enthusiasm to obey Jefferson’s directive. On one occasion, Lewis had to jump into a river to escape the ire of a thousand pound grizzly bear.

Description of California Condor

In his journal, William Clark drew and picture and described a "large buzzard" of huge proportions. He said the bird had a wingspan of nine feet two inches. This wasn't a buzzard, but was the California Condor, the largest bird to inhabit the North American continent.





Lewis and Clark discovered so much on their travels. It is hard to imagine traveling as they did and recording their findings in such detail. Spending months and years on a hard, often tortuous, trek, is not my way of traveling, but I do enjoy visiting new places in our wonderful country. What about you? What is a favorite place you visit, or would like to visit? I would love to hear your comments.

Nancy J Farrier is an award winning author who lives in Southern California in the Mojave Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. Nancy and her husband have five children and two grandsons. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats, and spend time with her family. Nancy is represented by Karen Ball of The Steve Laube Literary Agency. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

When There's No First Lady

by Susan Page Davis

     The President of the United States must host many functions, and social events go smoother if he has a gracious hostess at his side.

     In addition to being the wife and mother of the family, the First Lady is expected to decorate with good taste and to entertain flawlessly. In modern times, she is also expected to give support to her husband through public appearances and to support charitable or social causes. 

     But what’s a chief executive to do if he’s a widower—or even worse, a bachelor?

     What happens when there’s no First Lady?

     He asks someone else to fill that role, of course, usually a relative, but sometimes a close friend.

     Thomas Jefferson was the first president to have that problem. He was widowed nineteen years before he took the oath of office as president. His marriage had produced six children, only two of whom—Martha and Mary—lived to adulthood. 

     Martha, known as Patsy, red-haired like her father, married Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr.

Martha Jefferson Randolph

Mary, whose nickname was Molly, married John Wayles Eppes. Both acted as hostesses for Thomas Jefferson during the winter season of 1802-03. 

     Molly died in 1804, but Patsy returned to the White House the following year to act as hostess. Her eighth child, James Madison Randolph was the first child to be born there.

     When his daughters were not available to help him out, President Jefferson relied on Dolley Madison, whose husband was at that time Secretary of State, to act as hostess at White House functions. This was good practice for Dolley’s later duties as First Lady.

Emily Donelson

     Andrew Jackson’s wife, Rachel, died a few months before her husband took office in 1829. While he was in the White House, Emily Donelson, the wife of Rachel’s nephew Andrew Donelson, served as hostess in the executive mansion. Emily had one child at the time of the inauguration and gave birth to three more in the White House.

Angelica Singleton Van Buren

    




      Martin Van Buren was a widower with four sons when he became president. After his son Abraham married Angelica Singleton, she began receiving guests at White House functions with her father-in-law.

      

Harriet Lane

  

   James Buchanan became president at age 65, and he was a bachelor. His niece and legal ward, Harriet Lane, took over the duties of First Lady at the age of 26. Lovely, clever, and poised, she made a wonderful hostess in the pre-Civil War years.

  





   Chester A. Arthur, who took office in 1881, had been widowed a year before. He did not have an official hostess, but his younger sister, Mary Arthur McElroy, went with him to Washington to take care of his young daughter, Nellie, and her own two daughters. Mary sometimes stood in receiving lines with her brother, but she was never in the spotlight. The Arthur administration was the only one that never had a First Lady or a designated surrogate.

     Of course, if you are a bachelor president, as was Grover Cleveland, you can take a more creative way to fill the vacancy and marry a woman who will become the First Lady. 

     When he was first elected, Cleveland’s younger sister Rose acted as his hostess. But when Cleveland became the first—and only—president to be married in the White House, his bride took over her duties with alacrity. Frances Folsom Cleveland was 21, and Grover was 48 when they married. 
     
 

Frances Folsom Cleveland

    Frances was known as a charming young woman who enjoyed her social responsibilities. During Cleveland’s second term, she gave birth to their second and third daughters in the White House. After Grover Cleveland’s death in 1908, she became the first First Lady to remarry, when she wed Thomas Preston.
     This is only a glimpse of some women who performed social duties at the White House when there was no official First Lady. There is much more to their lives, of course, but today we honor them for standing in the gap. 

    Leave a comment and your contact information for a chance to win one of Susan’s historical novels: Lady Anne’s Quest, A Lady in the Making, Love Finds You in Prince Edward Island, or The Outlaw Takes a Bride. The winner may choose either an e-book, a paperback, or a large print, hardcover copy of one of these books, or an audio book of The Outlaw Takes a Bride. If more than twenty enter, two winners will be chosen. The drawing will be held Aug. 29.

  

  Susan Page Davis is the author of more than sixty published novels. She’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .