Your Own Corps of Discovery
Last Monday Ray and I drove from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where we had enjoyed a church reunion, to Missouri, where we enjoyed a few days with our son and his family. We began our visit with a picnic along the Missouri River . . .
. . . and a stroll down Main Street in St. Charles.
St. Charles is considered the first permanent settlement on the Missouri River. Like nearby settlements along the Mississippi River, its settlers were French. Many scenes are similar to ones we saw last year in Canada’s French-speaking colony of Quebec.
German and American settlers later joined the French in St. Charles. One of those Americans was frontiersman Daniel Boone.
From 1821 to 1826, St. Charles served as the first capital of Missouri. The owners of Peck Brothers Hardware Store offered space on the second floor of their building as a place for lawmakers to meet.
At noon on Wednesday, May 16, 1804, Captain William Clark arrived in St. Charles. Captain Meriwether Lewis finished up some business in St. Louis before he and his dog Seaman arrived in St. Charles on Sunday, May 20. At 4:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon, Lewis and Clark and a crew of thirty-one men set out on the Missouri River to explore the new Louisiana Purchase.
They reached a settlement of Mandan and Hidatsi later that year and spent the winter with them. In the spring Sacajawea joined them as guide, along with her baby boy and her French husband. They explored all the way to the Pacific Ocean and returned to St. Louis in 1806. There they met surprised citizens who had given them up as lost.
Lewis and Clark and the members of their expedition were called the Corps of Discovery. I think that is a wonderful description of a homeschooling family. Mamas and daddies discover their children, children discover themselves and the world around them, while together they discover the knowledge of God and His will for their lives.
My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:1-5