Lewis and Clark in Kentucky- Death of Meriwether Lewis. William Clark, coleader of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific, spent the night of October 28, 1809, at John Shannon's Tavern near present Graefenburg. That day he read that Lewis, his expedition partner, had killed himself in Tenn. Over. (Reverse) That night Clark wrote a famous letter expressing fear that Lewis had committed suicide. He wrote, "I fear O! I fear the weight of his mind has overcome him." Lewis died Oct. 11, 1809, 70 mi. sw of Nashville on the Natchez Trace.