Location: 310 N. Elm Street, Harrison County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Corydon. (Harrison County, Indiana)
Installed: 2004 Indiana Historical Bureau and Harrison County Convention & Visitors Bureau
ID# : 31.2004.1
Text
Side one:
Shields, born 1769 in Virginia, served as a private for the entire Lewis and Clark Expedition from October 19, 1803 until October 10, 1806; one of its "Nine Young Men from Kentucky, " he was a skilled gunsmith and blacksmith.
Side two:
The Corps of Discovery explored lands of Louisiana Purchase and Pacific Northwest, 1803-1806. Shields settled in southern Indiana by June 1807; appointed captain in Clark County militia July 1807. Died in Harrison County in December 1809.
Keywords
Early Settlement and Exploration
Annotated Text
Side one:
Shields, born 1769 in Virginia, (1) served as a private for the entire Lewis and Clark Expedition from October 19, 1803 until October 10, 1806;(2) one of its "Nine Young Men from Kentucky, "(3) he was a skilled gunsmith and blacksmith.(4)
Side two:
The Corps of Discovery explored lands of Louisiana Purchase and Pacific Northwest, 1803-1806.(5) Shields settled in southern Indiana by June 1807;(6) appointed captain in Clark County militia July 1807.(7) Died in Harrison County in December 1809.(8)
Notes:
(1)Biographical sketch in Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, 14 vols. (Lincoln, Neb., 1983-2001), 2: 522.
(2)Draft of Receipt for Compensation in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806, 8 vols. (New York, 1904-1905), 7: 360-61; land grant, Lewis and Clark to Shields, October 8, 1806, John Tipton Collection, Indiana State Library; discharge from Expedition, Lewis to Shields, October 10, 1806, John Tipton Collection, Indiana State Library.
(3) James J. Holmberg, ed. Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark (New Haven, Conn., 2002), 75; James J. Holmberg, Lewis and Clark at the Falls of the Ohio: A Timeline, Typescript, 2001; Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854 (Chicago, 1978), 118.
(4)Meriwether Lewis to Henry Dearborn, January 15, 1807, in American State Papers: Military Affairs, 1: 209, accessed July 18, 2003 select Military Affairs, vol. 1; Meriwether Lewis Diary, March 20, 1806, in Elliott Coues, ed., The History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 3 vols. (New York, 1893, reprint 1970), 2:818-19; Moulton, 2: 522.
(5)Thomas Jefferson to Congress, January 18, 1803, in Donald Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents, 1783-1854, 2 vols. (Urbana, Ill., 1978), 1: 10-13; land grant, Lewis and Clark to Shields, October 8, 1806, John Tipton Collection, Indiana State Library; discharge from Expedition, Lewis to Shields, October 10, 1806, ibid.
(6)Copy of manuscript census of Knox County, Indiana Territory, in Census of Indiana Territory for 1807 (Indianapolis: 1980), 17; an 1806 resolution required the census to be completed on or before June 1, 1807. Francis S. Philbrick, ed., The Laws of Indiana Territory, 1801-1809 (reprint, Indianapolis, 1931), 177.
(7)Militia commission, William Henry Harrison to Shields, July 8, 1807, John Tipton Collection, Indiana State Library. Documents relate to several counties because of the dates of formation by the Indiana General Assembly: Clark County formed February 3, 1801, Knox County formed February 3, 1801, and Harrison County formed October 11, 1808.
(8)Inventory of the property of J Shields, n.d., in Probate records, Box 77-78, 336A, Harrison County Public Library, Corydon; Appraisement of the Estate of John Shields deceased, December 2[2], 1809, in Probate records, Box 64, 272A, ibid.; Administrative bond, in Probate records, Box 77-78, 336A, ibid; Allottment of 3d part, Shields vs Tipton, in Probate records, Box 77-78, 335A, ibid; Amount of Sale of Property of John Shields deceased, January 1, 1810, ibid.; [Administrative bond], Shields to Judges, ibid.; Exception, Tipton [ ] Shields, ibid.; Exception, Shields [ ] Tipton, ibid.; Appeal Bond, Tipton [ ] Shields, ibid.; Decree of Arbitrators, Tipton [ ] Shields, ibid.; Moulton, 2: 522.