CLARK, George Rogers, American pio neer: b. Monticello, Va., 19 Nov. 1752; d. near Louisville, Ky., 13 Feb. 1818. He studied sur veying and at 20 settled in Ohio, serving in the Indian wars of that region. In the spring of 1775 he was employed as deputy surveyor under Captain Lee and removed to Kentucky in 1775. In June 1776 he represented Ken tucky in the Virginia legislature. He was soon regarded as the leader of that country, procuring the organization of the Territory and securing the much needed gunpowder for its protection. Governor Patrick Henry gave him the rank of lieutenant-colonel and detailed him to raise troops for the conquest of Illinois. Clark attacked the British post at Kaskaskia and took possession of the French villages up the Mississippi, Cahokia and Vincennes. In 1778 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. In 1780 he proceeded to the mouth of the Ohio and built Fort Jefferson. After receiving the commission of brigadier-general, he attempted to attack Detroit; but the expedition proving unsuccessful, he returned to Kentucky and subsequently founded Fort Nelson • on the site of Louisville. His successes in the Northwest,
however, saved much territory to the colonies in the final treaty of peace with Great Britain. In 1786, Clark negotiated a treaty with the Shawnees. He then set out to conquer the tribes on the Wabash, but this, too, proved a failure, and he turned his efforts toward sup porting the cause of the French of the Missis sippi Valley against the Spaniards. He re tired to Kentucky in his later years in great penury but was relieved a few years before his death by a grant of 8,049 acres of land in In diana and an annuity from the Virginia legis lature. He wrote two accounts of the con quest of Indiana. Consult English, W. H., 'Life of George Rogers Clark' (in 'Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio 1778-1783' (2 vols., 1896) ; Roosevelt, 'Win ning of the West' (Vols. I and II, New York 1889) ; Butterfield, 'History of G. R. Clark's Conquest of the Illinois and Wabash Towns.)