William Dunbar
William Dunbar was born in Scotland in 1750, educated at Kings College in Aberdeen, and went to America in 1771, settling in Philadelphia and setting himself up as a merchant. In 1784 he and his business partner, John Ross, established a plantation near what became Natchez, Mississippi on what was then Spanish territory, with a land grand from Spanish authorities. After buying out Ross in 1800 and obtaining additional land from Spanish authorities, Dunbar had over 4,000 profitable acres planted in indigo and cotton. He named his plantation, The Forest.
Dunbar became noted for inventiveness, which he applied to his plantation management, inventing a screw press for the manufacturing of cottonseed oil. He was the first to bale cotton in squares. He was interested in meteorology and astronomy, and built an observatory. In 1799 he was introduced to Thomas Jefferson – then vice-president – in the form of a letter to Jefferson from a mutual friend, and Dunbar and Jefferson opened a correspondence.
When Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery to explore the land obtained through the Louisiana Purchase it was not the only expedition he sent into the west. There were three others, the Red River Expedition of 1804, the Red River Expedition of 1806, and the Pike Expedition of 1806-07. Jefferson assigned the task of organizing the expedition to southern Louisiana Purchase lands to Dunbar. Jefferson assigned another Scot, George Hunter, as second in command.
Dunbar’s party of fifteen men left in October 1804 and explored the region of the Red River and the Ouachita River. Hunter was a noted chemist, and his presence led to the first chemical analysis of the Hot Springs of Arkansas. The expedition noted and documented the region’s flora and fauna, obtained specimens which were sent back to the always interested Jefferson, and explored portions of the Ozark Mountains. They also irritated the Osage Indians, and were met with hostility by Spanish authorities in the area (although Louisiana had been sold by the French, it was largely administered by Spain, from which Napoleon had claimed it).
The hostility was one reason the journey was curtailed, returning in January of 1805. Jefferson was already planning a second expedition and had obtained the funding for it from Congress. Called the Great Expedition, Jefferson again tasked Dunbar, who organized the second journey. Dunbar used his experiences and discoveries from his first trip to plan and equip the second, but failing health prevented him from leading it. It too, was cut short by Spanish authorities.