“From the Archives” — Charles Lloyd Neale

Throughout its history, Saint Mary parish has had many members who were artists. One 19th-century artisan with a rather unique specialty is Charles Lloyd Neale (1800-1886), Alexandria’s foremost tombstone designer and cutter for more than half a century. Neale was born in Saint Mary’s County, Maryland, a member of the large, prominent Neale family that included our first pastor, Father Francis I. Neale, S.J., and his brother, Leonard Neale, S. J., the second archbishop of Baltimore. Charles Neale’s grandfather was a commissary general under General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

As a young novice stone mason, Charles worked on the construction of the U. S. Capitol. In the 1840s, he moved to Alexandria to establish a stone-carving business, which thrived, on South Lee Street. Today, his work can be found in several Alexandria’s cemeteries, including our own Saint Mary Cemetery. Neale’s business lasted for several generations, carried on by four of his sons and other relatives. He and his wife, Ann Johnson Neale, had twelve children, eight of them lived to adulthood. Among his numerous descendants was a granddaughter, Aurelia Whitcomb O’Sullivan, founder of Saint Mary’s Catholic Daughters chapter.

A somewhat eccentric man, Neale attributed his longevity and good health to taking a cold shower outdoors in his stone yard every morning. He worked until shortly before his death on June 8, 1885, at the home of his son Francis C. Neale, at 802 Duke Street. (The cause of his death was pneumonia. Maybe the cold showers finally did him in!) He and his wife are buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery under a large, impressive tombstone (right) that he designed and constructed himself. A tribute to Neale stated that the inspiring monument preserved his artistic prowess and the enduring bond between him and his beloved wife.

— Kitty Guy, Parish Historian