The Meriwether Society, Inc.

We had a great 2011 Reunion in Arlington, Virginia — you should have been there! For 2013 we plan to host the Reunion in Memphis, Tennessee. Breaking with the tradition of hosting the previous years Annual Meeting in the same location as the upcoming Reunion, for 2012 we will travel to Salt Lake City to visit the LDS Family History Library, containing the largest collection of genealogical information in the world. With the assistance of the very helpful staff, plus our own experienced researchers, we plan to conduct seminars on how to perform your research and assist you in finding those missing puzzle pieces! You do not want to miss this trip! Details to be published in the Newsletter.

In 2006, The Meriwether Society was a major donor to the construction of a statue of Capt. Meriwether Lewis and his dog, Seaman, which was dedicated last fall on a public park/plaza at the entrance to Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington. A companion statue of Sgt. John Ordway was also commissioned to honor the non-commissioned officer who was an instrumental part in the success of the Corps of Discovery. The statue is to be dedicated this weekend, with Col. Mike Kendall representing The Meriwether Society. I just received an email from the sculptor, John Jewell, with a link to an article about the new statue and the dedication ceremony, which will be open to the general public. If you are in the area, please try to attend!

Sgt. Ordway Statue Dedication (23 Sep 2006)

Here are companion links:

AUSA Info on Sgt. Ordway

AUSA info on Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Seaman statues.

For being a major donor to the Lewis statue project, The Meriwether Society received a miniature version of the statue, based on the sculptor's maquette, that will be on display at the Meriwether Reunion in 2007. We then hope to have it on permanent dispay at the Virginia Historical Society rotunda. We'll have more info and pictures on the web of our beautiful miniature soon.

Sharon Pike has been hard at work compiling various records pertaining to the Meriwether Society and has now created a new web site to contain them. Check out "Meriwether Records" in the Resources section of this web site.

We've added a link in the Projects section to a description of the Meriwether Book Project. We can always use volunteers to help, so check it out.

Also, Guy Benson has added nice biographical sketches for Francis II (M13) and Thomas (M15). We are missing biographical sketches of many, so if you know something about one of them, write it up and send it to Joe Oglesby!

Finally, a Metrics section has been added to each Family Group page that identifies how many descendants of that Meriwether are documented (some well, some poorly!) in the TMSI Research Database. We've also completed listing the MeriReps for each FG and the Meriwether Book Project planned to update and publish the information about that FG. You'll note a number of Vacancies and missing Book Projects due to lack of a volunteer, so if you have an interest to help, please contact us.

John Hartwell Cocke's son, Brig. Gen. Phillip St. George Cocke, married Sarah Elizabeth Courtney Bowdoin, a descendant of Jane Meriwether and William Browne (FG M14). The link below is to an interesting research thesis on the effect of slavery on one anti-slavery slaveholder.

We've added a few links to the Resources section:

1. Other TMSI Resources - Kentucky Death Index and Abstracts

2. Meriwether Society Photo Collection - a link to our Webshots Photo Album maintained by Sharon. Contact her if you have photos to share or contribute.