Lewis, Meriwether, soldier and explorer, was born near Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 18, 1774, a son of Capt. William and Lucy (Meriwether) Lewis, and a great nephew of Fielding Lewis. He inherited a fortune from his father, but being fond of adventure he left school at the age of eighteen years to begin a career for himself. In 1794 he was one of the volunteers to quell the Whisky Insurrection in western Pennsylvania. The next year he joined the regular army, and in 1800 was commissioned captain. From 1801 to 1803 he was President Jefferson's private secretary. After the treaty of Paris, by which the province of Louisiana passed into the hands of the United States, Mr. Jefferson recommended Capt. Lewis to Congress as the right man to place at the head of an expedition to explore the new purchase (see Lewis & Clark Expedition.) After his return from the Pacific coast in 1806, he was appointed governor of Upper Louisiana. The principal settlements in that territory were in what is now the State of Missouri. Owing to conflicting interests, due in a great measure to the recent transfer of Louisiana to the United States government, the new governor found his territory torn by dissensions. All his life he had been subject to fits of depression, and the conditions in which he now found himself caused him to become more than usually despondent. While in this frame of mind he was called to Washington, and at the residence of a Mr. Gruider, near Nashville, Tenn., he committed suicide on Oct. 8, 1809. In 1900 the name of Capt. Lewis was selected as one of those entitled to recognition in the Hall of Fame in the New York University.