Upon completion of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, William Clark was appointed Brigadier General of Militia and Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Louisiana Territory by President Thomas Jefferson. Clark held this post for nearly 30 years and he made St. Louis his home. After a brief illness, he died on September 1, 1838, at the age of 69. Following a grand funeral procession that was over a mile long, Clark was buried with Masonic and military honors outside the city, on the farm of his nephew, Colonel John O'Fallon. A son by his second wife, Jefferson Kearney, bequeathed money for a monument over the grave, which was erected in 1904. Today the gravesite is incorporated within the boundaries of Bellefontaine Cemetery.