Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/54

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48
F. G. Young.
48

48 REUBEN GOLD THWAITES. the Ordway journal, which had been returned to General Clark as being his private property, purchased by him. For a long time this request and many successive appeals through friends of the family were unanswered. Later it appeared that the present owners of the papers of William Clark were his granddaughter, Mrs. Julia Clark Voorhis, and her daughter, Miss Eleanor Glasgow Voorhis, both of New York city. The father of Mrs. Voorhis was the late George Rogers Hancock Clark, younger son of William, and the executor of the latter's estate. In this manner the family manuscripts relating to the expedition had de- scended to these two ladies. In October, 1903, the writer was invited to visit the Voorhis home and examine material which had been un- covered during the search instituted by the ladies for the Ordway journal. The store of manuscripts which was shown to him upon his arrival was of surprising richness, consisting of the following items : Clark Journals. Red morocco notebook No. 1. Diary, April 7-July 3, 1805; 38,000 words, with three maps of the Falls of the Missouri. Field book, bound in a rude piece of elkskin, secured by a thong and button, and undoubtedly carried in Clark's pocket upon the ex- pedition Diary September 13-December 31, 1805; 20, 000 words, with over a dozen full-page sketch maps of the trail over the mountains, interwoven with the badly-blurred text. Red morocco notebook No. 2. Diary, January 30-April 3, 1806; 41,000 words, with numerous pen sketches of canoes, birds, dwellings, tools, etc., by the same hand (Clark's) as those contained in Lewis's codices of similar dates in the American Philosophical Society's col- lection. Red morocco notebook No. 3. Diary, April 4-June 6, 1806 ; 35,000 words with some sketch maps. Fragment of journal. Detached leaves, giving evidently first draft of entries, April 16-21, 1806 ; 2,300 words. Red morocco notebook No. 4. No diary, but containing sundry notes and tables of weather, distances, astronomical and ethnological data all covered, however, in more finished manuscripts in the