History, Page 4
Walker Family Cemetery
founded 1804
The home of the "Madame" Le Vert , or "the Countess of Mobile," as she came to be called, was a magnet for the political, social and
intellectual elite who visited the city. Her summers were spent in the cooler climate of Saratoga and Newport. Over the years she
numbered among her friends such individuals as William Wadsworth Longfellow, Edwin Booth, Edward Everett, Millard Fillmore, Alexander
Stephens and Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, the daughter of the Duke of Rutland.(31) Her friendship with Lady Emmeline prompted Octavia
Walton Levert to expand her travels to Europe. On her first trip in 1853, Dr. Le Vert stayed in Mobile; however, he did accompany
her in 1855. While she toured Europe, Mrs. Le Vert was introduced to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Benjamin Disraeli, Pope Pius
IX, Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, and Alphonse de Lamartine, the French statesman
and historian who encouraged her to publish her travel journal. Following his recommendation, the two-volume Souvenirs of Travel was
printed in 1857.(32)
Through her discussions and correspondence with Henry Clay, Octavia Walton Le Vert came to believe that
compromise was far better than conflict. Therefore, when the talk around Mobile turned to secession, she supported the preservation
of the union through compromise. Most of Mobile turned on her and rumors even circulated that she was a "Yankee" spy, who had searched
the papers of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard while he was a house guest. Upset over the accusations, the general wrote a denial
of the rumors.(33) But, "Madame" Le Vert keenly felt the resentment she endured in Mobile both during and after the war. After several
years of periodic travel, even two years touring as a public reader, she returned to her birthplace, Augusta. Octavia Walton Le Vert
died on March 12, 1877, and was buried in the Walker Cemetery. As the years passed, the people of Mobile forgot the gossip and remembered
her with admiration and respect. In the restored "Oakleigh" House, a room was dedicated to the memory of the lady who had been called
the "Countess of Mobile."(34)
Painting of Octavia Walton LeVert (l.) by Rossignol and gravestone (r.) in the Walker Family Cemetery, Augusta, Georgia