Three miles above Wellsburg in present West Virginia, the boats come to a riffle, and all hands get out to push the heavy barge through the shallow water. At five in the evening, they arrive at Wheeling, a common point for embarkation during low water. Lewis receives the goods that came by wagon from Pittsburgh, and he meets Thomas Rodney who is also traveling down the Ohio.
Passing Wellsburg
Wellsburg, West Virginia
Generated from an original image © 2021 by Robert Heacock. Used by permission.
Foggy this morning according to custom; set out at half past seven, and in about two hundred paces stuck on a riffle all hands obliged to get out. observed the Thermometer at sun rise in the air to stand at 47° the tem[pe]rature of the river water being 68°—difference = 21°— got over the riffle, at 45 mts. after 8. passed Charles town [Wellsburg]
—Meriwether Lewis
At age 60, Patrick Gass, Lewis and Clark Expedition sergeant, settled in Wellsburg, married twenty-year-old Maria Hamilton, and raised a family. He died there at the age of 99—the oldest surviving member of the expedition.
Wheeling
at 5 in the evening this is a pretty considerable Village contains about fifty houses and is the county town of Ohio (State of Virginia) it is situated on the east side of the river on an elivated bank; the landing is good, just below the town and on the same side big Wheeling creek emtys itself into the Ohio
—Meriwether Lewis
Until 1863, West Virginia was a part of Virginia.
“Point of Embarkation”
Pittsburgh to Wheeling (1796)
by Victor Collot
From A General Map of the River Ohio, Plate the first, archive.org/details/dr_a-general-map-of-the-river-ohio-plate-the-first-grave-par-tardieu-laine-00104097
this town is remarkable for being the point of embarkation for merchants and Emegrants who are about to descend the river, particularly if they are late in getting on and the water gets low as it most commonly is from the begining of July to the last of September; the water from hence being much deeper and the navigation better than it is from Pittsburgh or any point above it—
—Meriwether Lewis
The Collot map above shows the wagon road between Pittsburgh and Wheeling. The Ohio may now be deeper at Wheeling, but Lewis must now transfer two wagon loads of cargo to the boats.
Meetings
I went on shore waited on a Mr. Caldwell a merchant of that place to whome I had consigned a part of my goods which I had sent by land from Pittsburgh; found the articles in good order; her[e] met with Colo. Rodney one of the commissioners appointed by the government to adjust the landed claims in the Mississippi Territory. in his suit was Majr Claiborne and a young gentleman who was going on to the Territory with a view to commence the practice of the law. he is a pupil of Czar Rodney
—Meriwether Lewis
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