Historian:  OK, but we’re a local history museum.  Where do we fit in?  How can we be a partner in educating our constituents?

JLM:  With Lexington on the major route east through the Cumberland Gap, the returning heroes were celebrated in the Bluegrass on several occasions.  Returning to Louisville in early November, Lewis and a number of his men along with the Mandan Indian Chief Sheheke or Big White, who they had persuaded to come with them to meet President Jefferson, were feted at Locust Grove.  On the trip to Washington Lewis left Louisville roughly following the route that today is I-64/US60.  Clark, York and others followed spending the night in in Danville with his nephew.
    In 1809 Clark visited here stopping at the Offutt-Cole Tavern near Midway [a popular Bluegrass tavern and inn still standing at the junction of Old Frankfort and the Versailles-Midway Road].

Historian:  Any specific Lexington connections?

JLM:  The most important was the youngest member of the expedition, George Shannon, who later was a well-known Lexington lawyer.  In 1807 and after the expedition, Captain Lewis retained Shannon to take one of the Indian chiefs from Washington D.C. back to his people on the Missouri River.  In North Dakota Shannon’s party was attacked by rival Indians and he received a leg wound that eventually led to the amputation of his lower leg.

  Faced with that handicap his future was limited, but William Clark managed to have him admitted to study at Transylvania, probably using the influence of his brother George Rogers Clark who had been one of the trustees of the college.

  What we know about his 1810-1812 record at Transy is limited.  But historian Carolyn Denton has outlined his early life here from published records including a notice of opening a law office and his marriage to Ruth Snowden Price in September of 1813.  She was  the daughter of Samuel Price one of Lexington’s leading figures.  Denton also traces his early life in Lexington through the correspondence of friends from Transylvania including Stephen F. Austin, Henry Clay, Hubbard Taylor and Robert Todd, Abraham Lincoln’s father-in-law.

Historian:  So what became of Shannon?

JLM:  The later record is much clearer.  In addition to his law practice, he served as a judge and a legislator up until he moved to Missouri in 1828.  We don’t know exactly why he left Lexington, but we do know that his role as the judge in the murder case of the son of Governor Joseph Desha created problems.  Although the jury found Desha guilty, an appeal caused Shannon  to rule for a new trial.  Because Governor Desha and Shannon were allies as leaders of the Relief Party the decision was seen as political and hurt Shannon immensely.

  In 1830 President Andrew Jackson appointed him U. S. Attorney and he was once again in St. Charles  -- the very town from which the Lewis and Clark expedition had departed 26 years before.  He later ran for the Senate against Thomas Hart Benton and died in August, 1836.