Patrick Gass, Last Survivor of Lewis and Clark

Patrick Gass was born here in seventeen seventy-one and lived in this area as a small child, then spent the next century making history. Meriwether Lewis recruited him as a private for the Corps of Discovery in eighteen oh three, and by August of eighteen oh four his fellow soldiers had elected him sergeant, recognizing his carpentry skills and steady nerve on the trail. Lewis praised him in writing.

After the expedition returned in eighteen oh six, Gass became the first member of the corps to publish a journal of the journey, beating out Lewis and Clark themselves. He then fought in the War of eighteen twelve, fought at the Battle of Lundy's Lane, married at age sixty, fathered seven children, and died in eighteen seventy at the age of ninety-eight, the last surviving member of the Corps of Discovery.