Dred Scott died on September 17, 1858, of what many believed was tuberculosis. Three days later the St. Louis Evening News and Intelligencer ran an article with news of Scott’s death:
The somewhat eminent Negro known as Dred Scott whose name is intimately connected with perhaps the most famous and important decision the United States Supreme Court ever rendered, died in this city last Friday He was born in Virginia and was brought to this city by Captain Peter Blow, father of Henry T. and Taylor Blow, to whom he originally belonged. His last owner was Rev. Mr. Chaffee of Massachusetts, who got possession of him by marriage, and by whom he was emancipated soon after the last Supreme Court decision. Dred was a good-natured, harmless, faithful Negro, and was about fifty-seven years old at the time of his death.
Dred Scott was buried at Wesleyan Cemetery, formerly located in what is now the St. Louis University campus; when that cemetery closed, his remains were removed to an unmarked grave in Calvary Cemetery, Section 1, Lot 177, in north St. Louis County by the man who freed him, Taylor Blow.
In 1957 Father Edward Dowling (now deceased) tried to raise enough money for a headstone for Scott’s grave. Taylor Blow’s granddaughter made a donation large enough to cover all costs.
Dred Scott’s headstone reads as follows:
front:
DRED SCOTT
BORN ABOUT 1799
DIED SEPT 17, 1858
FREED FROM SLAVERY BY HIS FRIEND TAYLOR BLOW
back:
DRED SCOTT BORN ABOUT 1799 DIED SEPT. 17, 1858 DRED SCOTT SUBJECT OF THE DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1857 WHICH DENIED CITIZENSHIP TO THE NEGRO, VOIDED THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE ACT, BECAME ONE OF THE EVENTS THAT RESULTED IN THE CIVIL WAR
No one really knows what happened to Harriett Scott or where she is buried. Their daughter, Eliza, had no children, and she died at the age of twenty-five in 1862. The whereabouts of her remains is unknown. Her sister, Lizzie, married Henry Madison. When and where the couple died or where they are buried is unknown. They had seven children. Some of the descendants of those children still live in St. Louis, Missouri.