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Education

Meriwether's formal education began with his return to Virginia. As was the custom local pastors such as Parson William Douglas, who was also tutor to the future presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, and Parson Matthew Maury instructed him. Following his studies with Maury, who was father to the great naval mind of the Civil War Matthew Fontaine Maury, Meriwether began studying with Dr. Charles Everitt. The relationship between teacher and student was querulous and harsh. Later he was to transfer to the Rev. James Waddell in 1790. Waddell was to be the last tutor of Meriwether Lewis who briefly entertained thoughts of entering the College of William and Mary before settling down to manage his estate, Locust Hill.

On the farms of Locust Hill Meriwether Lewis continued his informal education by learning to run his estate successfully. During the early years of his managing, he increased the size of land and carefully observed all of the flora and fauna that grew on his land. Meriwether Lewis had become one of the gentleman farmers of Virginia. By 1792 John Marks had died and Meriwether brought his mother and half-siblings back to Virginia in a carriage built by Negros living at Monticello (Lewis p. 15).