The probate for Nathaniel K. Sullivan, deceased, was filed in August 1845 with the St. Louis Probate Court. Franklin T. Utz, brother of Sullivan’s wife Eliza, served as administrator of the estate. Court documents listed Sullivan’s children, Julius B. Sullivan and Eliza M. Sullivan, as his heirs. Among the estate’s property, appraisers listed three slaves: Ellen and her young daughters, Lucy Ann and Isabel. Court documents estimated their ages to be 22 years, 3 years, and 14 months respectively. On September 18, 1846, Probate Judge Peter Ferguson decreed that Ellen and her children be sold at the eastern door of the courthouse to pay the debts against the Sullivan estate. According to the Gateway Arch National Park Service web site, when slaves were auctioned by order of the Probate Court, the sales were usually conducted on the east steps of the Courthouse. The Probate Court was located just inside the east entrance. During construction and renovation, sales were conducted on either the south or the north steps of the building. "In addition to slave sales, the Probate Court also ordered slaves who belonged to an estate that was under the purview of the court to be hired out. Sometimes it took months or years to settle an estate, and if the estate included slaves, the heirs and administrators preferred that they not remain idle or languish in jail. For that reason, slaves were hired out by the court, usually for periods of a year at a time, and the money they earned was incorporated into the estate." (NPS, Slave Sales web page)