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A Historical Tour of Bellefontaine Cemetery by Michael W. Pierce The story of Bellefontaine Cemetery begins in the year 1849, when many prominent citizens of St. Louis recognized that the old cemeteries along Jefferson Avenue would soon have to be abandoned and moved, since they were in the path of the city's westward growth. William McPherson, a prominent St. Louis banker, and John Darby, a former mayor of St. Louis, began the movement which would become Bellefontaine Cemetery. They, along with other prominent citizens, purchased 138 acres of the old Hempstead farm on Bellefontaine Road. On March 7, 1849 they incorporated as the Rural Cemetery Association, later dropping the Rural and replacing it with Bellefontaine, because the cemetery was located on the old military road that led to the former Fort Bellefontaine. In June, 1849, the worst cholera epidemic in the city's history came upriver from New Orleans, By the middle of August, more than ten percent of the city's total population had died. Approximately 100 funerals came each day from the various St. Louis churches. As the epidemic subsided, James Yeatman, a member of the Cemetery Association, traveled to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York to engage the services of thirty-year-old Almerin Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss came to Bellefontaine in the fall of 1849 and held the position of Superintendent until his death in 1895. He was succeeded by his son Frank, who held the same position for about twenty years. Bellefontaine Cemetery, as you see it today, is largely the work of Almerin Hotchkiss. By 1900, the original 138 acres had expanded to 332.5 acres. Fourteen miles of curved roadways afford beautiful views of the landscape, foliage, lakes, and wildlife within its borders. In the cemetery are buried many prominent Americans, and a visit to their graves gives you a greater appreciation of our history. Bellefontaine Cemetery is also an outdoor museum, containing some of the finest memorial sculpture and art in the United States. I would like to thank the cemetery staff for their patience in dealing with my inquiries. I also thank Gene Dressel for providing a list of notable ex-Confederates buried here. Thanks also to Jack Grothe for information on Union veterans, and to Nancy Herndon for the information on Frederick Dent. The tour is a combination driving and walking tour, so take it on a warm, beautiful day, and take family and friends with you. Bellefontaine Cemetery is at its best in the spring and fall. I also hope that this tour will encourage you to bring others to this place, to do some research yourself, and I hope that you come to view it as I do: with reverence. Mike Pierce, January 1992 The Tour Begins * As you enter the cemetery from the West Florissant Rd. entrance, you are on Willow Avenue. Take the first turn on your left (Mulberry Avenue). Take the first right off of Mulberry (Hazel Avenue). Stop at the first intersection you come to after turning onto Hazel. To your left, amongst a group of small stones, you'll find the grave of... 1. William Chauvenet - In 1841, Chauvenet was a professor of mathematics in the United States Navy, serving on board the USS Mississippi. Instruction aboard ship proved to be impossible, so in 1842 Chauvenet was placed in charge of the United States Naval Academy in Philadelphia, which had been established in 1839. Not satisfied with the eight-months course at the academy, he expanded it to two years. In October, 1845, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft ordered the academy moved to its current location at Annapolis, Maryland. Chauvenet was the first commandant at Annapolis, a position he held until 1859, when he accepted a post at Washington University in St. Louis. He was chancellor of the university from 1862 through 1869. * Go straight ahead on Hazel. Turn left onto Poplar Avenue. On your right you'll see the large granite and bronze marker of... 2. Major General John McNeil - McNeil, a brevet Major General, USV during the Civil War, is probably best remembered as the engineer of the infamous Palmyra Massacre, where he had 10 Confederate prisoners in his custody shot for the alleged execution of a Union spy by Colonel Joseph Porter. After the war, he settled in St. Louis. He announced himself in later years as a candidate for City Marshal, but his deed at Palmyra came back to haunt him. He died of a heart attack in an office building that once stood at the intersection of Jefferson and Cass. * Follow Poplar to Primrose Avenue and turn right. Then turn right onto Cottonwood Avenue, right onto Meadow Avenue, then left onto Althea Avenue. At the intersection of Althea and Vine Avenues, near a large tree to your left, you'll find the small gravestone of... 3. Anna Clapp - A devoted public servant, Anna came into her own during the Civil War. She was the founder of the Ladies Union Aid Society, she worked as a member of the Western Sanitary Commission, and she was a nurse at Benton Barracks. After the war she, along with Annie Wittenmeyer, became one of the area's leading spokeswomen for veterans benefits and pensions for female nurses. * Follow Althea to Aspen Avenue. Turn left onto Aspen. Follow Aspen to Meadow Avenue. Turn right onto Meadow. Park near the large William Clark family plot. Our next three stops are nearby... 4. William Clark - This American soldier, together with the famous Meriwether Lewis, secretary to Thomas Jefferson, led the expedition that explored the upper Louisiana Territory to the Pacific coast. Starting near Wood River, Illinois in May 1804, the expedition pushed north and west to the Pacific Ocean by boat, horseback, and on foot. After two years and four months they returned to St. Louis. In 1809 Meriwether Lewis started back to Washington, DC to report to President Jefferson, but he was murdered en route in Tennessee. The crime remains unsolved. Clark remained in St. Louis and became the Indian agent for the Missouri Territory. When he died in 1838, he was put in a small Gothic tomb on the farm of his nephew, Colonel John O'Fallon, in what is now O'Fallon Park. After Bellefontaine was established he and his three deceased children, together with his second wife, the former Mrs. Harriet Radford (a cousin of his first wife, Julia Hancock), and later his firstborn son, General Meriwether Clark and wife, George Rogers Hancock Clark and wife, and Jefferson Kearney Clark and wife were all placed here. The monument was unveiled in 1904 during the World's Fair, in the presence of a large assemblage of relatives and historians. The will of his youngest son, Jefferson Kearney Clark, who died in New York in 1900, provided $25,000 for the erection of the monument. The bronze bust is by William Ordway Partridge, a New York sculptor. Pay special attention to the stones in this plot which read "Faithful Servant." 5. General Meriwether Lewis Clark - As a temperamental young man, Clark once burst into a wedding ceremony to demand the bride for himself. A graduate of West Point, he became a well-known architect, designing the first regular theater building west of the Mississippi in 1837. During the Mexican War, he commanded a battalion of artillery under Alexander Doniphan. When the Civil War began, he sided with the South, serving for a time with General Sterling Price. After the war he resided for a while in Kentucky, serving as an architect for the Commonwealth and as Commandant of Cadets at the Kentucky Military Institute. 6. Edward Bates - A respected attorney, Bates was one of the primary figures in the Dred Scott case. A law partner of Thomas Hart Benton, he was often Benton's assistant on the dueling field at Bloody Island. He also served as Missouri Attorney General and as US Attorney General under Abraham Lincoln. 7. Hempstead Family Plot - The former Hempstead family burying ground is the oldest section in Bellefontaine. The Hempstead farm made up most of the original acreage of the cemetery. Stephen Hempstead was a veteran of the Revolution, having served in Nathan Hale's regiment. One of the largest monuments in this section is that of Manuel Lisa, the famous fur trader of Spanish descent, who built the stone building on the St. Louis riverfront that was known as the Old Rock House. Lisa married Mary Hempstead. Mary was the first white woman to go into the Indian country along the upper Missouri River. * Stay on Meadow. Just before the road turns sharply downhill and left you will find, up the hill on your right, an obelisk marking the grave of. 8. Reverend John Berry Meachum - Reverend Meachum was born a slave on May 3, 1789 in Virginia. He became a skilled carpenter, cabinetmaker, and cooper, saving his money until he was able to purchase his and his father's freedom. Meachum arrived in St. Louis in 1815, and in 1822 formed what later became the First African Baptist Church. By 1836, Meachum had purchased about 20 slaves. He would train them in work skills, and let them purchase their own freedom. Meachum was operating a school for African-American children in his church, in violation of state and local laws prohibiting the teaching of blacks and mulattos and forbidding blacks to hold meetings unless a law officer was present. This school was closed, so he came up with what was called the Freedom School. He built a boat and anchored it in the Mississippi, and hundreds of black children learned to read and write. On February 19, 1854, Meachum died in the pulpit, having served the church for 38 years. * Follow Meadow across Ravine Avenue and turn right onto Lawn Avenue. Park near the intersection of Lawn and Balm Avenues. Our next 9 stops are in this area. 9. Thomas Targee - A true hero, this 41-year-old auctioneer was also Captain of Volunteer Fire Company No. 5. On May 17, 1849, fire began to sweep the steamboats docked along the St. Louis riverfront. The flames quickly spread to the warehouses and old colonial buildings on shore. Targee surmised that the only way to save the city was to blow up some of the buildings in the path of the fire, in essence creating a firebreak. He kissed his wife and children good-bye, then he went to the Arsenal and requisitioned the necessary kegs of gunpowder. He and his men blew up three buildings, and Targee determined that Nathaniel Phillips' music store at 42 N. Main would be the fourth and last. He took a keg of powder upon his shoulder and ran into the already burning building, and seconds later there was a terrific explosion. Thomas Targee had given his life in the line of duty. 10. Margaret A.E. McLure - A native of Virginia, she served the South during the Civil War. When it was determined that her St. Louis home was a stopping point for Confederate agents and Absalom Grimes (the Confederate Mail Carrier), she was imprisoned for a time in St. Louis, then banished by the provost marshal. She then worked tirelessly as a nurse in southern hospitals. After the war she returned to St. Louis, where she helped found the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She also worked diligently to establish the Confederate Soldier's Home at Higginsville, MO. The "Mother of the Confederacy," Mother McLure is still respected among Confederate descendants. 11. Mason/Buell Plot - Brigadier General Richard Mason was the first military and civilian governor of California. He died at Jefferson Barracks while he was the commanding officer there. After his death, his widow married Major General Don Carlos Buell, a veteran of the Union Army. Both generals and their wife, Margaret Hunter Mason Buell, are buried in this lot. The marker was made in Philadelphia by John Struthers, the man who designed the sarcophagus of George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon. 12. General Sterling Price - Price came to Missouri as a young man in 1831. He served Missouri as a U.S. Congressman from 1844 until 1846. He served during the Mexican War, and was made military governor of Mexico after the war. From 1853 until 1857 he was governor of Missouri. During the War Between the States Price served as Major General of the Missouri State Guard and was also a Major General in the Confederate States Army. After the war Price and several other ex-Confederates set up a plantation in Carlota, Mexico. He returned to St. Louis in 1867, where he died on September 29th. 13. Captain Isaiah Sellers - Captain Sellers was a steamboat man, plying the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans for over 40 years. Sellers would occasionally write pieces on river conditions for a New Orleans newspaper under the pseudonym Mark Twain. When Samuel Clemens later adopted the same nom de guerre, he said "...I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one, and have done my best to make it remain what it was in his hands - a sign and symbol and warrant that whatever is found in its company may be gambled on as being the petrified truth; how I have succeeded, it would not be modest in me to say." Clemens devotes an entire chapter, titled The Original Jacobs, to Sellers in his book Life on the Mississippi. It is said that Sellers ordered the monument which stands over his grave long before he died, and that he carried it on board ship. Of this monument, Twain writes: "It is his image, in marble, standing on duty at the pilot wheel; and worthy to stand and confront criticism, for it represents a man who in life would have staid there till he burned to a crisp, if duty required it." 14. Adolphus Busch - Forty breweries existed in St. Louis when Eberhardt Anheuser bought, before the Civil War, the Bavarian Brewery. His daughter, Lily, married Adolphus Busch, who sold supplies for the brewery. After the Civil War, Busch joined his father-in-law in the brewing business. Carl Conrad, a native of Budweis, Bavaria, was Busch's good friend. Conrad developed a formula for a new, light lager beer. Anheuser-Busch, Inc. is today the world's largest brewery. The magnificently carved Gothic style mausoleum, built in 1915, two years after the death of Mr. Busch, resembles a miniature church. Its walls are made of Missouri red granite, not polished, with a roof of heavy gray-green slate. The beautiful fleche and elaborate gates with the hopvines at the top are also worthy of note. 15. General John Pope - Pope is probably best remembered for his boasting when he assumed command of the Army of the Potomac in 1862. He came to the position from the Union armies in the west where he had "seen only the backs of the enemy." His remark that his "headquarters are in the saddle" led some of his subordinates to remark that Pope didn't know his headquarters from his hindquarters. After his defeat at Second Manassas by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, President Lincoln sent Pope's headquarters (and his hindquarters) to Minnesota to fight Indians. 16. Captain Alexander Skinker - Captain Skinker was a member of the 138th Infantry during World War I. On September 26, 1918, at Cheppy, France, during the campaign in the Argonne Forest, Captain Skinker's company was pinned down by terrific machine-gun fire from German pillboxes along a section of the Hindenburg Line. Captain Skinker personally led an automatic rifleman and an ammunition carrier in an attack on the iron pillboxes. The carrier was killed instantly, but Captain Skinker seized the ammunition and continued through an opening in the barbed wire, feeding the automatic rifle until he, too, was killed. Captain Skinker received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Cheppy. 17. Susan Blow - Susan Blow founded the first public kindergarten in the United States at the Des Peres School in Carondelet, now home of the Carondelet Historical Society, in 1873. At that time the public schools of St. Louis were the model for the entire nation. * Follow Balm Avenue to the old receiving tomb. Nearby is the Gothic-styled marker of... 18. Kate Brewington Bennett - A victim of the fashions of her time, Kate died suddenly at age 37. Long regarded as the most beautiful woman in St. Louis, her pale white complexion was the envy of many. An autopsy revealed that she had been taking small doses of arsenic, not realizing that arsenic is a cumulative poison. Her husband erected an elaborate Gothic canopy of white marble, one of the finest memorials in the cemetery. * Follow Balm across Tulip Avenue, then turn left onto Woodbine Avenue. Our next 2 stops are on your left. 19. Colonel John Wimer - A former mayor of St. Louis, he was with Colonel Emmett MacDonald's cavalry in Marmaduke's Division, CSA (Missouri State Guard). Wimer and MacDonald were both killed in battle at Hartsville, MO on January 11, 1863. When the bodies were brought back to St. Louis, they were taken from the families by Franklin Dick, the Federal provost marshal, and buried in a potters field to prevent the funerals from becoming a rally for Confederate sympathizers. Colonel MacDonald is also buried near here. 20. William Lewis Sublette - This fur trader and merchant was born in Kentucky but grew up in St. Charles. He left Missouri in 1822, to become a trapper and later became a partner of Robert Campbell in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He helped open the Oregon Trail by using wagons in the Rocky Mountains and by finding a short cut, "Sublette's Cutoff." * Follow Woodbine past Amaranth Avenue to Prospect Avenue and turn left. Our next 3 stops will be on your left. 21. David Rowland Francis - Born in Kentucky, Francis came to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He was elected mayor in 1885, Governor of Missouri in 1889, and appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Cleveland in 1896. As President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition he saw the St. Louis World's Fair become a huge success in 1904. In 1916 President Wilson appointed him ambassador to Imperial Russia, where he served until the Bolshevik Revolution forced out all diplomats. He never fully recovered from the exposures he underwent making his way back to the United States. 22. John Robert Gregg - Perfected in 1888, the Gregg Shorthand System is used throughout the world and has been adapted to 11 languages. Gregg also founded a shorthand school in Chicago, directed his own publishing company, and edited two business magazines. 23. Lemp Family Tomb - The Lemps were German immigrants who made their fortune as brewers. They became art collectors, importing craftsmen from Bavaria to decorate the mansion that was built just north of their brewery. The family's history is filled with tragedy - suicides, fatal illness, and insanity. The brewery closed during Prohibition. After four generations none of the family with the name were left. * Follow Prospect until it again intersects with Woodbine. To your left is... 24. The Brown Brothers Mausoleums - George Warren Brown made his fortune as a manufacturer of shoes. The hexagonal mausoleum was designed by Mauran, Russell, and Crowell, St. Louis architects, in 1928. Opposite is the circular mausoleum of A.D. Brown, older brother of George. He was an early president of Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company, which he helped organize. This tomb was designed by Isaac Taylor, a St. Louis architect, in 1910. * Turn right onto Woodbine. Near the intersection of Woodbine and Walnut Avenues, on your right, is... 25. The Spink Family Mausoleum - Charles C. Spink joined his brother, Al, in St. Louis to help publish THE SPORTING NEWS. His son, J.S. Taylor Spink, took over as publisher when his father died in 1914. At age 26, Spink set out to build up the paper and steadily expanded his staff. THE SPORTING NEWS is known as "The Bible of Baseball." When J.S. Taylor Spink died in 1962 he passed on the publishing empire to his son, C.C. Johnson Spink. * Turn left onto Walnut. Near the intersection of Walnut and Memorial Avenues you will find, on your left... 26. James S. McDonnell - A former Army Air Corps pilot and engineer, McDonnell operated a small aircraft factory in St. Louis in 1939. He turned it into one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial jet liners, military aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles. McDonnell created and financed research programs in science and medicine at Washington University, where he once served as chairman of the board of trustees. He and the McDonnell Foundation donated more than $28 million to the university before his death. * Turn right onto Memorial. At the intersection of Memorial and Wintergreen Avenues is the "Girl in the Shadow Box," marking the grave of... 27. Herman Luyties - During a trip to Italy in the early 1900's, Luyties fell in love with an Italian model. He proposed marriage, she declined. Heartbroken, he commissioned a sculptor to render a 12 foot tall marble statue of the beautiful woman. He kept it in the foyer of his Portland Place home, but due to its immense weight he soon moved it to the family burial plot in Bellefontaine. When the marble began to deteriorate from exposure, he enclosed her in a glass-fronted case. He died at age 50 and is buried at the foot of "the girl in the shadow box." * Also near this intersection is the grave of... 28. Major Albert Bond Lambert - Lambert was a moving spirit of early aviation and former president of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners. Shortly after graduating from the University of Virginia, he went to Paris on business for the Lambert Pharmacal Company. There he learned to fly a balloon. In 1907, St. Louis was host to the first International Air Race in the country, held in Forest Park near Barnes Hospital. In 1909, he bought a plane from the Wright brothers and Orville Wright taught him to fly. In 1923 an unknown flyer, Charles A. Lindbergh, landed in a newly cleared cornfield near Bridgeton. The cornfield had been leased by Lambert for use as a flying field and later became Lambert-St. Louis Airport. Lambert was one of Lindbergh's backers on his flight across the Atlantic in 1927. * Continue on Memorial. Turn left onto Chestnut Avenue, then right onto Hemlock Avenue. On your right is the grave of... 29. Senator George Graham Vest - Senator Vest served as Judge Advocate for General Sterling Price and as a Confederate Congressman during the War Between the States. In 1879, he was elected to the United States Senate from Missouri, retiring in March, 1904. Vest is probably best-known for the 1870 case involving "Old Drum," a dog that had been killed by his master's neighbor. The jury was so impressed by Vest's oratory that they awarded Drum's owner 10 times the amount of the suit. Vest also was responsible for the establishment of Yellowstone National Park. He was a champion for the rights of American Indians, working for their citizenship and education in the 1890's. * Follow Hemlock and turn left, then immediately right onto Lake Avenue. Turn right onto Vale Avenue. Nearby is the grave of... 30. William S. Burroughs - A white granite obelisk marks the grave of the inventor of the mechanical calculator. At the age of 28, he perfected the machine which led to the formation of the company that later became the Burroughs Corporation. The inscription on the monument reads: "Erected by his associates as a tribute to his genius." * Continue on Vale Avenue. On your right you will see the grave of... 31. Lt. General A.P. Stewart - Stewart graduated from West Point in 1842. He resigned his commission in 1845 to teach mathematics and philosophy at Cumberland University. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Stewart was commissioned a Major in the CSA and commanded artillery at the battle of Belmont, MO in November, 1861. Stewart became a corps commander in the Army of Tennessee upon the death of General Leonidas Polk. In 1869, Stewart took a position with the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in 1874 he was elected chancellor of the University of Mississippi. In 1886, he was appointed commissioner of Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park. Stewart retired to Biloxi, MS where he died at the age of 87 in 1908. * Follow Vale to the next intersection. Park in this area, and prepare to do some walking. 32. Sara Teasdale - Sara was brought up to think of herself as sickly, and she spent long hours in her room writing beautiful poetry. Reedy's Mirror, a St. Louis weekly, first published her works. In 1918 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Love Songs, a collection of her poems. 33. Dr. Joseph McDowell - McDowell was born in Kentucky. As a young man he came to St. Louis and founded McDowell Medical College. When the Civil War broke out he sided with the South, becoming Medical Director for General Sterling Price. The building which housed his school was then confiscated by the Federal government. It then became Gratiot Street Military Prison. 34. Thomas Fletcher - Fletcher was elected governor of Missouri in 1864. At first, he urged moderation in dealing with southern sympathizers, thus causing a major split in the Republican party. Fletcher then became one of the state's leading "Radical Republicans," and on January 11, 1865 he signed bills into law that gave slave owners no compensation, that ousted all state and county judges, clerks, recorders, and circuit attorneys from their positions (this included a number of his fellow Republicans), and initiated the Iron Clad Oath. This oath became a major thorn in the side of many Unionists, as we will see later. 35. General Stephen Watts Kearny - Kearny was a veteran of the War of 1812 and later commanded Fort Leavenworth. He also served in the Mexican War, dying shortly afterward and leaving a widow and nine children. Many of his descendants still live in this area. 36. Captain Henry Shreve - Captain Shreve built the first practical Mississippi riverboat, riding on the water instead of plowing through it. He later removed driftwood that obstructed navigation on the Red River in Louisiana. Shreveport, Louisiana is named in his honor. 37. Colonel John O'Fallon - Descended from Irish kings and the Clark family, he was a War of 1812 veteran and a successful St. Louis businessman. He donated land for St. Louis University and Washington University. 38. Colonel Thomas L. Snead - During the Civil War, Snead served as AAG to General Sterling Price, and was a Confederate Congressman for the state of Missouri. After the war, he wrote The Fight for Missouri and became a champion of the Confederate cause and a fighter for veterans rights. 39. Colonel Hugh Garland - Garland came from a distinguished family, his father being one of the attorneys to argue the Dred Scott case in St. Louis. He organized the Minutemen during the days preceding the Camp Jackson Massacre in St. Louis, and later joined Major General John S. Bowen in Memphis to form the First Missouri Infantry, CSA. He was killed leading the First Missouri in the charge at Franklin, Tennessee in 1864. 40. Colonel William Wade - Colonel Wade formed Wade's Artillery in 1861, and joined the Missouri Brigade, CSA. The battery saw much fighting and rendered very effective service. Wade was killed at Grand Gulf, Mississippi on April 29, 1863, beheaded by a shell from a Federal gunboat. 41. Robert A. Barnes - Barnes was born in Washington, DC in 1808 and came to St. Louis in 1830, beginning his career in the grocery business. He established Barnes Hospital when, upon his death, he willed one million dollars for the establishment of a "hospital for the needy." This hospital was to be administered by three laymen of the Southern Methodist Church, although neither Barnes nor his wife belonged to that denomination. 42. Christ Von Der Ahe - The St. Louis Browns, St. Louis' first baseball team, was once owned by Von Der Ahe, who also was proprietor of a saloon at Grand and St. Louis Avenues. Von Der Ahe, along with Browns first baseman Charles Comiskey, led the Browns to prominence in the mid-1880's. Von Der Ahe was one of a handful of owners responsible for establishing the "World's Championship of Base Ball" in 1884. He was also responsible for establishing first and third base coaches boxes in 1887, and the use of umpires from both leagues to call the games of the championship series. His statue is the work of a relative in Germany and was erected long before he died. While he was still living the year of his death was placed on his monument - his clairvoyance was amazingly accurate. 43. Captain James Eads - The Eads Bridge serves as a daily reminder of this man's genius. During the Civil War, he built ironclads at his shipyard in Carondelet (now St. Louis Ship). General Grant could not have taken Vicksburg without the services rendered by Eads' gunboats. 44. Thornton Grimsley - Grimsley, who was orphaned as a small child, had been apprenticed at age ten to St. Louis saddlemaker John Jacoby. When Jacoby died in 1820, Grimsley and a partner took over the business. Grimsley, who literally grew up with St. Louis, became wealthy after his invention of the dragoon saddle. Soldiers liked Grimsley's Patented Dragoon Saddle so well that Grimsley did more work for the government than any other saddler in the country. He had little formal education, and he was known for his fondness for serving as grand marshal in parades. In 1836 he and Mayor John Darby won city approval for setting aside about 30 acres of the old City Commons as a public park and military parade ground. At first nicknamed "Grimsley's Folly," the area is now known as Lafayette Park. 45. Colonel Frederick Dent - The man whose "damned, no-good son-in-law" became General-in-Chief of all Union armies and later President. Dent was a pompous old man. Of English descent, he was at one time a wealthy businessman, investing much of his money in steamboating ventures. When it got to the point that people no longer made deals on a handshake, he bought from Anne Lucas Hunt some property on Gravois Road, which he named Whitehaven. He never really cared for his famous son-in-law, but he took advantage, as many others did, of Grant when he became President, living for a time (and dying) in the Executive Mansion. 46. Robert Campbell - A native of Northern Ireland, Campbell came to St. Louis in 1824. He and William Sublette became partners in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and founded Fort Laramie, Wyoming. In later years Campbell invested some of his fortune in banks and real estate. His home at 1508 Locust, which he and his wife Virginia built around 1855, is now a museum. 47. Samuel Hawken - The Hawken Rifle was famous from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. The .30 and .50 caliber weapons quickly replaced the Kentucky rifle as a favorite of trappers, being powerful and accurate at long range. 48. Thomas Hart Benton - When Missouri became a state in 1821, Benton became our first senator, serving in that capacity for thirty years. A devoted follower of Andrew Jackson, Benton's fight for gold and silver currency won him the nickname Old Bullion. He was a stout defender of the Union in Congress, and a noted Congressional orator and historian. In his support of westward expansion, he was responsible for the eastern portion of the Missouri Pacific Railroad starting at St. Louis, thus making the city a nineteenth century railroad center. The most notorious of local duels in St. Louis in that era was fought between Benton and Charles Lucas in 1817, on Bloody Island in the Mississippi River. Lucas was wounded and survived the first duel but was mortally wounded during the second fight. Benton once said that he would rather be buried among the dead of St. Louis cholera epidemics than apologize to his enemies. He seems to have gotten his wish. The tall polished red granite memorial was erected in 1902 by the state of Missouri. 49. Frank Blair - Blair came to St. Louis as a young man, and soon became a respected attorney. He eventually became a Republican Senator, and it was he who realized the importance of the German people to the party's development in St. Louis. He helped to organize the home guards in St. Louis, got Captain Nathaniel Lyon assigned to command here, and was present at the Camp Jackson Massacre. He later became a Major General under Grant and Sherman, and he urged moderation during Reconstruction. In 1865, Blair was denied the right to vote in upcoming elections due to the actions of Governor Thomas Fletcher, also a Republican. When Fletcher signed the Iron Clad Oath Act, it stated that a person had to be able to swear that he had never taken up arms against the government of the United States or the state of Missouri. This created a problem, since Blair had taken up arms against the government of Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson in 1861, even though Jackson was a staunch Secessionist. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court where, in 1870, Blair lost his case. The Court split evenly, thus affirming the validity of the Radical test for voters. 50. Private Francis E. Brownell - Private Brownell was a member of Company A, 11th New York Infantry, during the War Between the States. On May 24, 1861 he accompanied Colonel Elmer Ellsworth to the Marshall House in Alexandria, VA. Ellsworth invaded the home, determined to remove the Confederate flag which flew above it. Ellsworth was shot and killed by an occupant of the house. Brownell returned fire, killing Ellsworth's killer. Brownell received the Congressional Medal of Honor on January 26, 1877 for his action. 51. Primus Emerson - Prior to the War Between the States, Emerson worked with James Eads at his Carondelet shipyards. When the war began, Emerson went with the Confederacy, becoming a gunboat builder at Memphis. He is probably best known for building the CSS Arkansas. 52. Thomas Brougham Baker - During the War Between the States, Baker was a clerk in the Quartermaster Corps at the War Department in Washington, DC. Baker is credited with being the founder of the National Cemetery System, and he personally conducted the first funeral to be held in Arlington National Cemetery. 53. Dr. William Beaumont - Beaumont gained international recognition for his studies of the processes of digestion observed through an open stomach wound sustained by a French Canadian fur trapper, Alexis St. Martin. Beaumont revolutionized the practice of medicine by publishing his observations in 1833. The patient recovered but refused surgery to close the wound. St. Martin died at age 83, surviving by 27 years the doctor who saved his life. 54. Virginia L. Minor - An early supporter of the women's suffrage movement in Missouri, she was the wife of a St. Louis attorney, and studied law after the death of her only son. Upon admission to the bar, she brought suit against the election commissioners for refusing her the right to vote. The suit was fought to the Supreme Court, and although she lost the legal battle, the publicity helped speed the cause of suffrage for women. 55. Joseph Charless - Charless fled to America in 1795 after the Irish Rebellion. He arrived in St. Louis in 1808 and established the Missouri Gazette, the first newspaper west of the Mississippi which was printed in both French and English. He also left a bequest in his will which established the Charless Home for Indigent Women, located at I-55 and South Broadway. 56. James E. Yeatman - Yeatman, a St. Louis banker, served as the first president of Bellefontaine Cemetery. It was he who went to the eastern cemeteries looking for a capable landscape architect, and a more fortunate choice could not have been made than Almerin Hotchkiss. During the Civil War Yeatman headed the Western Sanitary Commission, which raised funds, administered hospitals and cared for the wounded in St. Louis. The commission was one of the forerunners of the American Red Cross. The fine marble monument at the grave of Mrs. Angelica Yeatman is the work of Robert Von der Launitz, a New York Sculptor. 57. William Greenleaf Eliot - Eliot arrived in St. Louis in November 1834, shortly after graduating from Harvard Divinity School. Most St. Louis ministers ignored Eliot, but they greatly underestimated his determination. He established the first Unitarian church in the city, and he eventually became the most significant Protestant religious leader in St. Louis.