While Seibert and Newton made unsuccessful performance attempts to capitalize on the success of “Casey Jones” it was the vaudeville team of the Leighton Brothers who did succeed and soon even  harvested the credit for having composed it, erasing its "real" composers.

The ink was still wet on the Casey Jones sheets when the Leighton Brothers and Ren Shields rushed out "Steamboat Bill" about a lethal attempt to beat a speed record set on the Mississippi River by the Robert E. Lee in 1870.

 In the  December 16, 1910 issue of their hometown paper the Decatur Herald Frank Leighton said “Steamboat Bill” is only five weeks old….my brother and I worked all last season on it.”  (Below) 

The team wisely  kept the same narrative arc as “Casey Jones” (including the destruction of the craft and the concluding stanza about the endowed widow, etc.) merely  moving the action from land to water.  

The song was so popular that an article in the New York Times noted that after its publication, job applications for the last of the Mississippi steamboats skyrocketed. 

The Leighton Brothers and Ren Shield collaborated three times after "Steamboat Bill" but none ever struck popular acclaim lightning again.