Meriwether Lewis and the Grinders Stand Connections

Meriwether Lewis died a violent death in the early morning hours of October 11, 1809 – at the age of 35, just three years after the completion of the most successful exploration mission in American history. His death, by a gunshot wound to the head and another to the abdomen, remains a heavily debated mystery.

Meriwether Lewis wrote a very concise last will of Meriwether Lewis on September 11, 1809 while in New Madrid (today's southeastern Missouri). This will was one of the many items found in the Governor’s two trunks at Grinder’s Stand. Upon his death, the trunks were left in the care of William C. Anderson who was from the Nashville area. Thomas Freeman was to convey the trunks and contents to Richmond, Virginia on November 23, 1809.

On October 11, at Grinder's Stand (also “Inn”), 72 miles short of Nashville, most historians believe that Lewis, suffering from depression and anxiety, shot himself in the head and died the following morning. Thomas Jefferson had much earlier noted Lewis's depressions, when he served as the President's secretary, and believed that they ran in the Lewis family.

In the spring of 1803, when Meriwether Lewis was buying scientific and mathematical instruments for his pending expedition, he purchased three pocket compasses for $2.50 each, and this silver-plated pocket compass for $5.00. All were created by Philadelphia instrument maker Thomas Whitney.

Watches and clocks are so common today we take them for granted. They’re on our wrists, our kitchen microwaves, our computers, our cars, and our phones. But in the early 19th century, clocks, or chronometers as they were known then, were rare and expensive instruments.

Follow last footsteps of explorer Meriwether Lewis on a section of the Old Natchez Trace and visit his burial site. This self-guide tour will take you a little over half a mile in an easy loop along a trail with interpretive exhibits, to the historic Old Trace, to his burial place and monument, then back past the Information Cabin at the Grinders Stand site where Meriwether Lewis died. 

Meriwether Lewis arrived at Grinder’s Stand on the evening of October 10, 1809. He was accompanied by Pernia and James Neelly’s enslaved servant. Lewis stayed in the cabin while Pernia and Neelly’s enslaved servant stayed in the stables. Mrs. Grinder and her children stayed in the kitchen separate from the house. In the middle of the night Mrs. Grinder heard two gun shots and found Lewis bleeding from his wounds. By sunrise on October 11,1809, Lewis was dead.

Before the soldiers of Andrew Jackson gave renown to the Natchez Trace, it received its immortal touch of melancholy fame when Meriwether Lewis journeyed over it on his way to Washington D.C. However, Lewis died near here in the early morning hours of October 11, 1809.

The Meriwether Lewis monument marks the burial site of famed explorer Meriwether Lewis on the Natchez Trace Parkway near present day Hohenwald, Tennessee. The Meriwether Lewis Monument was built in 1848 with funding provided by the Tennessee legislature. The legislation provided $500 “to preserve the place of internment, where the remains of General Meriwether Lewis were deposited.”

The Pioneer Cemetery was first started in 1856, 47 years after Meriwether Lewis died and was buried. There are roughly 100 burials in the cemetery today. The War Department replaced the old and broken headstones with flat headstones in the 1920s. The flat headstones were restored in the early 2000s.