PROMIXEXT PERSONS
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7. 1792, and in December was assigned to
the fourth sub-legion. He was appointed
adjutant and quartermaster, in September,
>793> served against the Indians and under
Gen. Wayne, and in July, 1796, resigned,
owing to ill health. He subsequently re-
gained his health by turning trapper and
hunter. About 1804 William Clark removed
to St. Louis, Missouri, and in March Presi-
dent Jefferson commissioned him second
lieutenant of artillery, ordering him to join
Capt. Meriwether Lewis in an exploring
expedition from St. Louis to the mouth of
the Columbia river. This expedition lasted
two years and was the first to the Pacific
coast. The success of the explorations, at-
tended by incredible privations and hard-
ships, where no white man ever set his foot
before, was in large measure due to Capt.
Clark's knowledge of Indian character and
habits. He was military director of the ex-
pedition, and kept a journal, subsequently
published by the United States government.
On September 23, i8of), the expedition re-
turned to St. Louis, and Capt. Clark went to
Washington. Congress granted him 1,000
acres from the public domain, and on May
2. 1807, he resigned from the army, having
been nominated to be governor of Louisiana
territory a few days before. His commis-
sion for the latter office was dated March 3,
1807, and about the same time he was ap-
pointed a general of the territorial militia
and Indian agent. In the latter office he
remained until July i, 1813, when he was
appointed governor of the Missouri terri-
tory, by President Madison. When Mis-
souri applied for admission into the Union
in 1818, a controversy followed whether it
should be a free or slave state. In antici-
pation of the admission of the state an
election was held August 28, and Clark was
defeated for governor by Alexander Mc-
Nair. In May, 1822, he was appointed su-
perintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis
by President Monroe. He held this office
until his death, in St. Louis, Missouri, Sep-
tember I, 1838. Clark's Fork, an important
branch of the Missouri, was named in his
honor, and Lewis and Clark county, Mon-
tana, is in joint remembrance of the two
explorers.
McDowell, Ephraim, was born in Rock- bridge county, Virginia, November 11, 1771, son of Samuel and Mary (McClung) Mc- Dowell, and grandson of Ephraim McDow- ell, who with his brothers, James and John, emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania. Ephraim and John settled in Rockbridge county, in 1737. He removed with his par- ents to Danville in 1783 ; attended a classical school at Georgetown, and studied medi- cine under Dr. Humphreys of Staunton, and at the University of Edinburgh, 1793- 94. He practiced medicine and surgery in Danville. 1785-1830. He was married, in 1802, to Sallie, daughter of Gov. Isaac Shel- by of Kentucky. He was elected a member of the Medical Society of Philadelphia in 1817. The honorary degree of M. D. was conferred upon him by the University of Maryland in 1825. He was the first surgeon successfully to perform the operation known as ovariotomy, and a description of his first cases was published in the Eclectic Reper- tory and Analytic Review, Philadelphia, 1817. His successful operations appeared incredible at the time, and he became known among the profession as the '^father of ovariotomy." He was one of the founders of Center College at Danville, and an orig- inal trustee, 1819-23. In 1879 a monument
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