John Shields (explorer)

[1] Shields, born in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, moved at about 14 years old to the wilderness of Tennessee, helped build and lived in a family fort that provided protection from Native Americans, traveled with Captain Meriwether Lewis, Second Lieutenant William Clark, and Native American Sacagawea to the Oregon Coast where he helped build Fort Clatsop, and then returned to St. Louis, Missouri.

At the completion of this great adventure Shields hunted and trapped with the famous American pioneer Daniel Boone.

Richard, David and William were all elder siblings, followed by John himself, James, Joseph, Arnett, Ezekial (who did not survive his first year), Benjamin, Joshua and Robert.

In about 1784 the Shields family moved from Virginia to what is now Sevier County, Tennessee, and settled on the south side of the French Broad River.

[3] John and his brothers helped his parents to build Shields Fort, which is located where modern-day Pigeon Forge is, near where the Dollywood theme park currently stands.

On January 15, 1807, Captain Meriwether Lewis wrote to the US Secretary of War Henry Dearborn: "John Sheilds [sic] has received the pay only of a private.

Nothing was more peculiarly useful to us in various situations than the skill and ingenuity of this man as an artist, in repairing our guns, accoutrements, &c. and should it be thought proper to allow him something as an artificer, he has well deserved it."

There is a headstone for Private John Shields (1769–1809) in the Little Flock Baptist Cemetery, Elizabeth, Harrison County, Indiana.