We arrived in St. Louis yesterday, June 30, by keelboat, having made good time from Louisville because Meriwether had detached Ensign Pryor and a squad from the regular army and sent them to our assistance. I had, aboard, an entire household in one keelboat, and in the other, trade goods, a grist mill, blacksmithing equipment, and other items for the government Indian posts we intended to establish along the lower Missouri River.
Meriwether met us at the levee, having gotten word of our slow progress up the Mississippi. Even as the boatmen were securing our keelboats, he was pacing the muddy bank, bursting with energy, handsome in his royal blue coat and white silk stock, which he wore even on this steamiest day of the summer when it was so close it was hard to draw breath.
“Ah! How good to see you at last! How beauteous is the new Mrs. Clark! How ravishing is Miss Anderson,” he exclaimed gallantly, barely after we had set foot on the mud. Alice Anderson is my sister’s daughter, a comely and marriageable young lady who will be a part of my household for a while. “Why, Miss Anderson, every bachelor in St. Louis will toast you, and rejoice at your presence, and I expect there will be duels and jousts among the bachelors. You will slay the whole unmarried class of males with that smile.”
My chestnut-haired niece colored up at all that, but only smiled at such effusive greetings. She was not accustomed to such gallantry in the Clark household.
We all greeted Meriwether warmly. Even York trumpeted his pleasure, though I thought it was unseemly. Julia curtsied shyly in her white cotton frock. She wasn’t much used to being in the company of governors; she wasn’t even used to being in the company of generals, though I have been giving her lessons. I have so far persuaded her that a general is less formidable than a lieutenant, but when she met my brother George a few weeks ago, a respectful silence fell over her. George Rogers Clark is an old man, but with a certain august presence, and she has yet to celebrate seventeen years. I fear she might be ill at ease in a household that includes the governor.
“Come, let me show you your house,” Lewis said, clapping an arm around my shoulder. “I put some effort into finding just the right place. You’ll like it.”
I nodded to York and the two black women, Julia’s housemaids and cooks, to follow, and we proceeded through a torpid afternoon when sensible people should be under roof, to Main and Spruce Streets, not far from the riverfront. There indeed stood a comfortable, mortared stone house with a rain-stained verandah on its east and south façades.
“I hope you like it; I’ve reserved a bedroom for myself, but if that should not be convenient, I’ll board elsewhere. The Chouteaus have already offered me a room. But you’re my old tent mate and it seemed so natural just to continue being messmates,” he said. “Together, we’ll bring good order here.”
I glanced at Julia, who was looking less than happy, and wiping her brow where sweat had already accumulated from our brief passage from the steaming levee. I had my doubts about such an arrangement but thought to say nothing for the time being.
Julia kept glancing at the governor who was suddenly intruding upon our happy lives, a stranger in our first home, and I could almost hear the objections forming in her mind. The house proved to be a suitable one for my purposes; it had four rooms downstairs, two bedrooms, a parlor that opened on a dining room; a pair of rude attic rooms suitable for the slaves; a detached kitchen with good stone fireplaces; a carriage barn; but only a noisome, small outhouse that fouled the air of the rear yard, and would be inadequate for our purposes. I would need to do something about that, and would set York to work.
“How is this? Perfect, I’ll wager,” the governor said. “See, everything’s right. Room for the slaves up there.”
I studied the two attic rooms: the women would go on one side; York on the other. The rafters were exposed, there were small grimy windows at either gable, and a narrow precipitous stair wound down to the back of the first floor, They would have to sleep on the planks, but I had a few old buffalo robes for them. I understood slaves. If they were tired from lack of sleep they wouldn’t work as hard, so it paid to offer some comforts.
The governor had taken the sunlit corner bedroom for himself; that left one for Julia and me, and none for my niece. However, we could convert the dining room, and eat at the commodious table in the detached kitchen. It was far from a perfect place for us as long as the governor was present.
“This will serve, Meriwether,” I said, not very certain that it would. But I did not wish to spoil the moment of our reunion.
Julia looked downcast. Ever since leaving Virginia, she had been discovering the hardships of the frontier, and I had bolstered her spirits daily with reports that St. Louis was the very cradle of civilization. She had not been assured by the rough-timbered buildings, boatmen’s shacks, foul muck on the streets, or the hard men who watched us pass by with calculating stares. My promises weren’t worth much just then.
“All right, York,” I said. “Sergeant—ah, Ensign Pryor is getting drays, and you’ll move our household goods here. You’ll move in upstairs, and so will the women. I want supper by six.”
“Yas, mastuh,” York said dismissively. Damn him! He was becoming less and less valuable to me, and I glared at him. Sweat had beaded on his sooty brow, and collected under his armpits, staining his loose blue shirt.
He herded the slaves back toward the waterfront. The women as well as the men would be toting and hauling for two or three days. But I wanted that kitchen functioning in time for supper.
Lewis was addressing the ladies: “You’ll enjoy St. Louis. The Creoles throw a ball for every occasion. There’s a fiddle in every household. Wait until you see the great homes, the finery that rivals anything in Paris, the pianofortes, the harps, the libraries, the Paris wallpapers, the fruit trees, the spacious grounds. Ah, you’ll see the real St. Louis soon!”
I wiped beads of sweat off my brow and lips. “I think the ladies may wish to retire and freshen,” I said, responding to the pleading in Julia’s eyes.
“Use my room; there’s a commode,” the governor said.
Julia nodded, curtsied, and led my niece to that haven. The door to the governor’s bedroom closed firmly.
“What a lovely beauty your niece is,” Lewis said. “A Grecian beauty! Alabaster flesh! She’ll drive the bachelors mad. Ah, youth! I’ve lost it. I’m such a fusty old man that I won’t even make my bid, but of course I’m busy with this territory. But I wager you won’t be lacking suitors at our door.”
“I’d thought maybe my niece might be a good match for you, Meriwether.”
“Ah, Will, my heart’s not in it. Letitia’s gone! Married. And a good match, too. Maria gone, married. No, my friend, I know my fate. I’m doomed to bachelorhood by a broken heart.”
“Meriwether, you old gallant, you could beckon to any damsel in St. Louis with your pinky and end up with a wife.”
He sighed unhappily. “No, no, they’d just turn me down, like Letitia. That’s how it is with me, Will. I’ll dance a few waltzes, dance a few quadrilles, and sigh a few sighs.”
That struck me as a sharp retreat from his gallantry of the past. I had the strangest sense that something was amiss. What was that undertone in his voice? Was this the Meriwether I remembered? Maybe it was. Which startled me.
“Alice wanted to sample St. Louis life,” I said, “but I don’t know how long she’ll stay. Perhaps you’ll give her a reason.” He grinned at me crookedly, so I changed the subject. “Well, now, old friend. Is there news?”
“Yes, always, and I am having my difficulties, mostly Indian troubles, the Great Osage and Little Osage, and the problem of Big White. He’s here, put up by the Chouteaus. How will we get him back? It will take an army! His presence is embarrassing the president. How is it that a big nation of white men has been stymied by a handful of dusky savages? That’s one problem. But my main problem is Bates. How did you find him?”
I smiled, and then proceeded recklessly. “A man on every side of every issue. A pessimist, who thought my every effort was futile.”
“That’s my impression also. Ah, Will, it is so good to see you. There’s so much to discuss. We’re cocaptains again! This place will make us rich! I’ve already bought land, two farms from the Chouteaus, over a thousand arpents, they’re eighty-five hundredths of an acre, and I plan to buy much more. I’m in over a thousand dollars. I’ve already leased my farms out, and I’m a dairy farmer now. It’s all going up.
“That’s just the beginning. I’ll buy shares of companies in the fur business. You can’t help but prosper, Will, and half the French in St. Louis are eager to put us properly into business. This is the best place in the country to gain wealth, for any man with money or slaves.”
I grunted. Meriwether had always been the plunger, sometimes acting rashly, and now he was at it again. A thousand dollars! On a modest governor’s salary. Tom Jefferson had cautioned him before the expedition about that trait of his, and as long as we were in the field he contained it, but now I could see that Meriwether was losing the discipline he had imposed on himself, and it worried me.
I could see that this was not the day to begin boarding Meriwether, as I had agreed to do, so I suggested that he dine for a day or two at a tavern until we could put the house together. He agreed instantly, having a sensitive regard for my wife and household. He said he would return only to sleep, and if that bothered us, he would find other quarters. And with that he strode into the lowering and motionless air, which plastered our clothing on us like soaked rags and made every move miserable.
Julia emerged from the bedroom, peered about, and relaxed.
“He’s gone?”
“Until this evening.”
“General Clark? I fear to trouble you. I … know I am being selfish. But please … would you do something for me?” She looked at me so plaintively that I knew her mind.
“If you mean evict him, no. He’s my friend, my cocaptain, my commander, and now my governor. I also owe my success to him.”
But Julia had a steely will and a mind of her own, as I soon found out after we had exchanged vows. “I know that,” she said. “But this house is too small. It wants comforts. I have no proper closet to bathe. The slaves are right above us and can hear our every word. Everything we do. There’s no room for Alice. It would all work out if the governor would leave this house to us.”
On principle, I couldn’t let a wife whittle at me like that, substituting her will for mine, so I shook my head. A man has to resist women and slaves and come to his own judgments, or he’s not a man. But I thought the world of her, loved her, knew she had started a child in her womb, and I didn’t like disappointing her, and truth be known, she had a valid point.
“Give it two months,” I said, wanting Meriwether to see the difficulty himself.
She smiled resolutely, and then the first furniture arrived, and she was herself commanding the sweating army.