William Bratton: Lewis and Clark Expedition Member

Bratton’s Corps of Discovery discharge letter as issued by Meriwether Lewis, October 10, 1806. Bratton’s aged daughter, Ella, presented it to historian Olin D. Wheeler in 1901.

Although he was one of the nine young men recruited from Kentucky, William Bratton was actually born on July 27, 1778 in Augusta County, Virginia. While his father’s name is not known for certain (it was either George or James Bratton), the family migrated to Kentucky in about 1790; 13 years later, William signed on as a volunteer of the Corps of Discovery.

He was described as over six feet tall, square of build, somewhat quiet, and of strict morals. As a youth he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, so he could have assisted John Shields and Alexander Willard at times at the forge. He also was qualified to be a gunsmith and reliable hunter.

During the expedition, Bratton is a key figure in several circumstances. First, on May 11, 1805, he survived a terrifying encounter with a grizzly bear. In present day Garfield County, Montana, Bratton was assigned to walk the shore and hunt, due to an infected hand which kept him from paddling. Late in the afternoon, Bratton returned to the river running at full speed and yelling for assistance – he had shot a grizzly through the lungs, yet the wounded bear had chased him for a half mile.

From mid-February until June of 1806, Bratton suffered with extreme pain in his lower back, so severe that he couldn’t sit upright and had difficulty walking. William Clark felt it necessary to obtain an extra horse on the return journey just for Bratton to ride. It wouldn’t be until late May when, at Camp Chopunnish, John Shields would recommend a remedy that seemed to provide relief to the young private – a steam-induced sweat and drinking huge amounts of strong tea of horse mint followed by plunging twice in the nearby cold river. It seemed to work as Bratton was able to walk around camp and was nearly pain free. Lewis pronounced him cured two weeks later.

After his discharge, Bratton returned to Kentucky for a short while, but traveled back west to Missouri and was living in New Madrid, Missouri, at the time of the great earthquake of 1811. At the age of 41 he married for the first time, on November 25, 1819, to Mary H. Maxwell and they lived for a time at Greenville, Ohio. By 1822, they were in Waynetown, Indiana, and became the parents of eight sons and two daughters. He farmed and was elected justice-of-the-peace. Willliam Bratton died on November 11, 1841, aged 63, and is buried in Waynetown’s pioneer cemetery.