Everyone knows that the Kentucky Derby is “the most exciting two minutes in sports.” This year’s Derby is fast approaching on Saturday, May 1. So if you have any business to transact with people in Louisville, better do it now — I’ve never been there during Derby Week but I understand the whole city unofficially shuts down. What you might not know is that that the Kentucky Derby has a Lewis & Clark connection. Churchill Downs, the famous Louisville racetrack that hosts the Derby, was founded in 1875 by Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., the grandson of William Clark.
I am going to try to learn more about William Clark’s children. For one thing, several of them will be characters in my next book, and I would like to understand them better. William Clark had seven children in all: five children with his first wife, Julia Hancock and two with his second wife, Harriet Kennerly Radford. Three of the children died as youngsters. From reading between the lines of Clark biographies like William Clark and the Shaping of the American West and Dear Brother, I gather that his four surviving sons — Meriwether Lewis Clark, William Preston Clark, George Rogers Hancock Clark, and Jefferson Kennerly Clark — all struggled in various ways, though few details are given.
Clark’s oldest son, who went by M. Lewis Clark, was born in 1809 not long before the death of his namesake, his father’s best friend and partner in discovery. M. Lewis was said to greatly resemble his father physically, but not in personality. Unfortunately, William Clark spoiled all his children, and M. Lewis grew up to be a high-tempered, shallow, and rather selfish man. He attended West Point, where he became good friends with a classmate by the name of Robert E. Lee. But unlike Lee, M. Lewis didn’t take to the military life (though he would later volunteer to serve in both the Mexican War and the Civil War). As soon as he could, he resigned his commission and returned to St. Louis, where he became a successful architect.
M. Lewis married a Louisville heiress named Abigail Prather Churchill. Unfortunately, like his father, it was Lewis’s fate to be bereaved. Abby died at the age of 35 a few days after giving birth to her seventh child. The oldest child was only 13, and in his bereavement Lewis turned for help in raising them, sending the children to live with Abby’s relatives in Louisville.
We turn our attention now to the third son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., known in the family as “Lutie.” Lutie was only six when his mother died, and he was raised by two bachelor uncles who raced thoroughbreds. Two family traditions about Lutie hold the key to his role in history and his eventual fate. One is that during his Kentucky boyhood and his extended trips to Europe as a young man, he came to share his uncles’ passion for horse racing. The other is that he was spoiled rotten.
By 1873, Lutie had grown into a great big bear of a man. At age 27, he was newly married and fired up to start making his own mark on the world. During a stay in Paris, he had seen pari-mutual betting machines in use on French racetracks. The machines eliminated bookmaking and other unsavory aspects of the horse racing trade. Lutie proposed to his uncles and other Churchill relatives that they back him in establishing a race track that would showcase their championship racing stock and use the innovative French system of betting. The family loved the idea, and Churchill Downs was built on family land and opened on May 17, 1875. A three-year-old race, known as the Kentucky Derby, was held that day, though it would not become the premier attraction at Churchill Downs until the early 20th century.
Churchill Downs became Lutie’s life and obsession. As track manager, he pioneered racing rules and standards that are still in use today and was a leader in creating the stakes system, on which the Breeder’s Cup is based. Unfortunately, Lutie Clark’s talents were obscured by his personality. There seemed to be nothing of his brave and lovable grandfather in him. Instead, he was bad-tempered, verbally abusive to those he considered his inferiors (which was just about everyone), and arrogant.
Lutie was even known to pull a gun to frighten people who did not show him the proper deference. In 1879, someone took him up on it and shot him instead. The story was that Lutie accused a prominent horse breeder of failing to pay his entry fees for the track. The breeder took it as a matter of honor and went to Lutie’s Galt House office to demand an apology or satisfaction (a duel). The two men got into a brawl and the breeder shot Lutie in the chest. Lutie recovered and no charges were ever filed.
Not long after, his wife moved out, taking their three children with her. (She would eventually move all the way to Paris — France, not Kentucky.) Lutie continued to manage the track in the 1880s, but in spite of his success, he managed to alienate his Churchill relatives one by one. In 1891, the family moved against him and fired Lutie from most of his duties at the track, though he did remain as presiding judge. Two years later, cruel fate caught up with Lutie in a big way, and he was wiped out financially in the stock market meltdown of 1893.
He turned to the only thing he knew: racing. Lutie managed to find work as a presiding judge at racetracks across the country. But his troubles had not humbled him. He got into an argument with a bartender in Chicago who took umbrage when Lutie branded Chicagoans “thieves and liars.” Lutie drew a gun on the bartender and forced the man to apologize to him at gunpoint, an incident that made the papers in both Chicago and Louisville.
In 1899, Lutie would again pull out his pistol. This time, it was to die by his own hand, apparently unable to face fears of getting older and the isolation he had brought upon himself. He was 53 years old.
On the lighter side, or maybe the heavier one, Lutie Clark wasn’t exactly a skinny man. Maybe he partook too liberally of one of the best aspects of a visit to Louisville, Derby Pie. The recipe for Derby Pie is a secret, but it’s really easy to make a similar pie at home. So when you settle in for this year’s Run for the Roses, raise a mint julep or a pie fork to William Clark’s grandson Lutie Clark , a great figure in the history of sports, if not exactly a nice guy.
I had no idea of the Lewis and Clark connection with Churchill Downs. I have to admit that it’s really interesting to read about all these odd connections! I think it’s interesting that Clark named one of his sons after Meriwether Lewis. How did Clark react to Lewis’ death?
Rebecca, that’s a great question and one I have spent years thinking about. Much of the inspiration for our book To the Ends of the Earth springs out of this question.
In fact, you’ve given me a good idea for a future blog post!
Cool! I like giving you ideas for future blog posts! 🙂
[…] week, when we were talking about Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. and the founding of the Kentucky Derby, Rebecca of My Adventures in History brought up the interesting question of Lewis and Clark’s […]
Great story but I’d like to know what happened to the other sons of both Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. and Sr? Does anybody know where I can find this information?
I would like to know this too — hope a reader of this site can chime in.
well i understand why clark named his son meriwether lewis.. what i cant seem to find is the names of Jr’s 2 wives names. In everything i read they only speak of his being married 2 times and both died at a young age but it neversays thoer names I am going to keep searching
Hi Patty – I am researching his 3 children from his marriage to Mary right now you can go to ancestry.com and look at my tree for Meriwether JR. There are mixed stories regarding the facts for the children also for example John HC Clark shows to have been in Kentucky most if his life he married margaret in kentucky I have seen his war registration card when he was 44 in // VA where i am confused is supposedly Mary, Meriwether’s 1st wife left him and took the kids to Paris France ( also see Francis blog i read it there also ) but i cant find where the boys actually left the country got a passport etc ? I am still hunting : )
Have relation to Both Lewis And Clarek
Hi, Kandis,
“Lewis” Clark’s two wives were:
Abby Churchill
b: Mar 09, 1817 Louisville, KY
m: Jan 09, 1834 Louisville, KY
d: Jan 14, 1852 St Louis, MO
and Julia Davidson
b: Jul 08, 1826 New Orleans, LA
m: Dec 30, 1865 Louisville, KY
d: Aft 1893
Hope this helps!
Hi Francis – thanks for the response but I was referring to Meriwether Lewis Clark JR his son I know he married Mary Martin Anderson in 1871 and had 3 children but they say he was married 2 times both wives dieing young but i havent been able to find the info on the second wife or the other 2 children… Thanks again I enjoy your blogs
Now that I don’t know! If you get any information, please come post it here!
Dear Ms.Frances Hunt. I did forget to ask if you knew what caused her death, too. Again, thank you.
Beverly Long bjl437@umsl.edu
I am doing an re-enactment at the Bellefontine Cemetery here in Saint Louis, MO. Although I am “Union” with the LUAS, I decided to portray Ms. Abigale Prather Churchill Clark. I found much information about the general, and about “Lutie”. I learned about her lineage, but I want to know about “HER”. What caused her death? What was her personality? How did she feel about her family? How did she feel about the family plantation. I do not know what crop was planted and harvested via the African Americans. How did the family feel about the African Americans? Did they treat the African Americans humanely? Did she have a favorite African American? Did she have a “nanny” or a “governess”? Did her siblings share a “nanny” or a “governess”? How did she feel about the “South” wanting to separate from the “Union”? What can I learn about her to “bring her to life?
The re-enactment is May 30th. It is a “decoration” post-Civil war event.
I would appreciate any information you can provide.
Thank you.
Beverly Long