Lewis family seeks help in quest to exhume body

All they want to know is whether he died by his own hand or that of another.

Descendents of Meriwether Lewis have established an Internet site in hopes of gathering enough support to convince federal officials to exhume the explorer’s body and investigate his death.

For a decade, the Lewis family, some of whom still live near the family’s historic Albemarle County estate, has been united in seeking the exhumation. The National Park Service, which owns the Tennessee property where Lewis is buried, has refused the requests despite intervention by state and national political figures.

The site, http://www.solvethemystery.org, is aimed at gathering support for the family’s effort.

“All we’re looking for is the truth,” said Howell Lewis Bowen, of Albemarle, one of Lewis’ descendents. “The family is united in trying to resolve the mystery. We just want to know if he committed suicide or if he was murdered.”

Historians are of two opinions regarding Lewis’ death. He is believed by some to have shot himself at least twice in an attempt to commit suicide, at once in the back of the head and in the side. Some accounts indicate he was shot three times, including a shot to the forehead. Other accounts say he also cut himself with a razor. All accounts indicate he lived for 12 to 24 hours, remaining conscious for most of that time, before he died.

Others believe the nature of the gunshots, and the fact the Lewis was an accomplished marksman, indicate that he was murdered. They point fingers at a possible plot run by political enemies of Lewis, who was then serving as governor of the Louisiana Territory under President Thomas Jefferson.

Bowen said the request is not to restore Lewis’ reputation. He noted that Lewis is not famous for his demise but for his part in exploring the American continent as part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

“We just feel like the truth should be known,” he said. “He is an important part of American history and there is technology available that may be able to determine how he died. If we can do that, we should. The only opposition to it seems to come from the National Park Service.”

The National Park Service, Bowen said, has been reticent to exhume Lewis, citing it as an unnecessary disturbance of a grave on national park property.

The grave was exhumed in 1840 to be sure that it was Lewis’ grave before a marker was placed, according to official historical accounts.

Attempts to reach the National Park Service personnel familiar with the issue were unsuccessful.