Zebulon Leavenworth (1830-1877). His grave is
facing the Mississippi River, on Mausoleum Ave. Its
location is appropriate for steamboats were the life
of the Leavenworth family.
Zebulon Leavenworth was a pilot and friend of Samuel
Clemens. On the John J. Roe, in the summer of 1857,
Sam was the cub pilot and Zeb and Beck Jolly were
the co-pilots. The Captain was Mark Leavenworth,
Zeb's brother. The Leavenworth brothers were very
large men, "hospitable and good-natured, which is the
way of giants."
Zeb was also a co-pilot with Isaac Chauncey Cable on
the New Falls City with Clemens as the cub pilot.
The last time that Sam Clemens was on a steamboat
with Zeb Leavenworth, he was traveling as a pass-
enger.
Sam had been a licensed pilot on the Alonzo Child when
the Civil War began. The Southern sympathizing
captain of the Alonzo Child refused to return to St. Louis
from New Orleans with his steamboat.
A stranded and confused Sam Clemens, unsure as to his
loyalties in the upcoming war, chose to come home.
He took passage on May 14 aboard the Nebraska
which was piloted by Zeb Leavenworth. It arrived May
21; the last steamboat to gain free passage to the
Upper Mississippi through the Union blockade at Memphis.
Commercial traffic to the South had ceased and the
two-year career of Samuel Clemens as a licensed pilot
was over.
Entombed in the Leavenworth mausoleum and the
ages at their death:
Mark Leavenworth--age 40
John M. Leavenworth--age 38
Zebulon Leavenworth--age 46
Zeb died in 1877 of paralysis. He was the last of the
Leavenworth brothers.
The remains of James A. H. Lampton, Sam Clemens'
uncle, were in the Leavenworth mausoleum until
removed to a lot purchased by his wife, Ella.
Isaac H. Jones aslo had the remains of Richard Irwin
Jones removed from the Leavenworth mausoleaum to
his lot. Isaac Jones was the captain of the J. C. Swon
and Sam Clemens was the pilot from June 25 to July
28, 1859.
***Mark Leavenworth and his brother-in-law, Samuel
Pepper, left the river in June 1864 to form the St.
Louis banking firm of Gaylord, Leavenworth and Co.
The Missouri Democrat characterized them as "well
and favorably known steamboatmen."
There were also several members of Isaac Chauncey
Cable's family that were engaged in the steamboat
business. Their family mausoleaum is six mausoleums
west of the Leavenworth mausoleum. He has no
marker but there is a tombstone for Captain Cable's
wife.
The Alonzo Child was converted into the Confederate
ironclad warship, Arkansas. Its exploits against the
Union fleet on the Mississippi River are legend. A
detailed account of the Arkansas' encounters at Vicks-
burg July 12, 1862 can be found in the third volume of
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.
The builder of the Arkansas was St. Louisan, Primus
Emerson. He was the owner of the Carondelet Marine
Railway and Dock Company which was located at the
mouth of the River des Peres. Emerson left St. Louis
during the Civil War to build warships for the Confederate
Navy. He died in St. Louis in 1877 and is interred in
Bellefontaine Cemetery.
The Samuel Pepper family lived next to the Leaven-
worths on Chestnut Street, one block from the Moffets.
Samuel Pepper was a clerk aboard the John J. Roe
during Clemens cub-piloting days. His brothers-in-law
were Zeb, John and Mark Leavenworth.
The first entombment in the mausoleum of the
Leavenworth-Pepper families was in 1853.
All that remains of the tomb is the "Leavenworth" step
on a hillside.
The image used on this page is from my own
personal collection. The information that I
have on this page was compiled through
genealogy research and some information was
taken from resources through the Bellefontaine
Cemetery records.
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