Lewis and Clark - The People

William Bratton

           Private William Bratton was born July 29, 1778, in Augusta County, Virginia, the son of George and Jean Elliot Bratton.  His family had migrated to the Woodford County area of Kentucky by 1790.  Reared on the frontier, he became a skilled hunter, gunsmith, and learned the blacksmith’s trade.

          On the expedition, Bratton often served as a hunter and worked closely with John Shields to maintain and repair the party’s weapons and tools.  He also helped make salt while the expedition was at the Pacific Ocean.  After the journey, Bratton returned to Kentucky and worked on boats carrying cargo down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the New Orleans area.  He was near New Madrid, Missouri in 1811 at the time of the great earthquake.  He enlisted in the Franklin County, Kentucky militia during the War of 1812 and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Frenchtown, Michigan (River Raisin).           

          At the age of 41, Bratton married Mary Maxwell on November 25, 1819 in Warren County, Kentucky.  In 1823, he bought land in Indiana and moved to Wayne Township in Montgomery County where he was a farmer, justice of the peace and a leader in religion and education.  They were the parents of seven sons and three daughters.  William Bratton died on November 11, 1841 and is buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery in Waynetown, Indiana. 

 John Colter

          Born about 1775 in Augusta County, Virginia, John Colter was the son of Joseph and Ellen Shields Colter. About 1779, the family moved to Limestone, Kentucky (now Maysville). He became a skilled hunter and woodsman…attributes that attracted Meriwether Lewis’s attention when they met during the latter’s trip to join Clark at the Falls of the Ohio.

          On the expedition, Colter demonstrated great skill as a hunter, scout, and trader, and developed a deep fascination with the mountains. In August 1806, during the return trip, the Captains allowed him to accept an invitation to join a party of trappers heading for the Yellowstone River region. In 1807, he became the first white person to report on the geysers and bubbling mudpots in what became Yellowstone National Park. After surviving a run-in-with the Blackfeet Indians he retired to Missouri. Colter later married and lived in Missouri until his death in November 1813. John Colter is known as the “Father of the Mountain Man.”

Joseph Field

         Joseph Field was the son of Abraham and Betty field, who moved from Culpeper County, Virginia, to Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1784. As a frontier youth, Joseph became a skilled hunter and probably learned salt-making from his brother Ezekial, who ran a salt-making operation in Bullitt County. 

          Field was one of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s first three recruits. A very fast runner, in July 1806 he outran a Blackfoot Indian who had stolen his and Reubin’s guns and aided in recovering the arms. After the expedition reached the Pacific Ocean, he helped set up a salt-making operation that replenished the expedition’s salt supply. He died shortly after the expedition returned. 

Reubin Field

         The brother of Joseph Field. Recruited by William Clark along with his brother, Reubin did not take immediately to the expedition’s military discipline, and was reprimanded by Lewis at Camp Debois for refusing the order of Sgt. John Ordway to stand guard on his normal rotation. But he learned quickly and became one of the expedition’s most exemplary members, often serving as a hunter and scout. He stabbed to death the Blackfoot Indian who had stolen his and Joseph’s guns in July 1806.

          After the expedition returned, Reubin failed to get a commission in the army and in 1808 married Mary Myrtle in Indiana. He and Mary lived on a farm near Valley Station in southwest Jefferson County, Kentucky, until his death in late 1822 or early 1823.

Charles Floyd

         Charles Floyd was born about 1782 near Louisville the son of Robert Clark Floyd and his wife Lillian. Although the Floyds were one of Jefferson County’s leading families and major land owners, Charles grew up on the frontier, well accustomed to the rigors of wilderness life. When the Lewis and Clark Expedition was organized, he was one of the expedition’s, youngest members.

          Floyd was the only member of the expedition to die on the journey. In July 1804, he developed severe abdominal distress. The pain eased briefly, but it soon returned, and on August 20th Floyd died at what is now Sioux City, Iowa. Lewis attributed his death to “bilious colic,” but the symptoms strongly suggest he died from a ruptured appendix.

George Gibson

         The least known of the “nine young men from Kentucky,” Private George Gibson was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, but might have been reared in Kentucky. Like the others, he enlisted in the Lewis and Clark expedition in October 1803 at the Falls of the Ohio.

          Although an excellent hunter and horseman, one of his most notable contributions during the expedition was entertaining the party with his fiddle around the campfire. George also served as an interpreter for the expedition. Afterwards, he married, moved to St. Louis, and died in 1809.

Others are listed in alphabetical order...

Page 3 (McNeal, Pryor, Shannon, Shields, Werner, Whitehouse, Willard, and Windsor)