In Memoriam
1932 – 2025 · Beaverdam, Virginia
The Lewis and Clark Trust remembers William Dabney Terrell — a friend, a supporter, and a devoted steward of one of the quiet landmarks along William Clark’s 1809 return journey through Virginia. Bill was a grand personality and an early investor in the work of the Trust, and his generosity helped preserve a piece of the Lewis and Clark story that might otherwise have been lost.
Bill lived at the site of Brown’s Ordinary in Beaverdam — the old tavern and stagecoach stop where, in December 1809, William Clark stopped for breakfast as he traveled east to report to President Jefferson on the fate of Meriwether Lewis. The present-day residence stands on or near the foundation of the original ordinary, in the vicinity of the intersection of VA 684 and VA 738, a location confirmed by Robert Selig’s Revolutionary War Roads and Transportation Survey in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
When the ground at the old foundation was opened before new construction, Bill recovered coins, Spanish pieces of eight, and other materials left behind by two centuries of travelers who had passed through Brown’s Ordinary. He kept and shared them — a small, tangible link to the men and women who traveled the Mountain Road in Clark’s day, and to the expedition’s eastern legacy that the Trust works to tell.
“10th Sunday — Breakfast at Brown Ordinary. I Stayed all night with Rich Thompson, met several old school mates who appeared very glad to see me and have old talk.”
— William Clark’s Journal, December 1809
A few years before his passing, members of the Trust visited Bill at his home and photographed the coins spread across his table — a moment of shared history between an old tavern site and the people working to keep its story alive. We are grateful for his friendship, his stewardship, and his belief in the work.
In gratitude and remembrance,
The Lewis and Clark Trust