Meriwether Lewis Randolph died on September 24, 1837, at the age of twenty-seven, after becoming ill during a journey to obtain winter supplies for his new Arkansas plantation. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas describes him traveling by cypress dugout toward Ecore Fabre, now Camden, and enduring rain through much of the two-week trip. He fell ill and the fatal disease is identified as malaria; a local historical account preserves the older description bilious congestive fever. The weather and journey are the reported setting of the illness, rather than proof of its biological cause. Earlier that summer he had cleared and cultivated land between the Little Missouri River and Terre Noir Creek and was living with his wife Betty and their young son Lewis in a modest house. His plans to build a residence modeled on Monticello were left unfinished. He died without a will, his property was liquidated, and his wife and child returned to Tennessee. The available account supplies the journey, illness, date, and consequences, but not a detailed treatment record or reliable last words. His grave remained associated with the Arkansas home site and was later marked by a memorial.