McNeal-Watters-Preston-Munnikhuysen photograph collection

Joshua Vasant McNeal, 1846-1917

Joshua Vansant McNeal was born on June 11, 1846 to James McNeal and Sarah Jane Golibard. He was educated in Baltimore public schools and attended Loyola College from 1860 to 1862. He was employed in the fire and marine insurance business until 1872 when he accepted a job with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as a clerk. He steadily progressed up the ranks of the company, being elected fourth Vice President and Treasurer in 1904. He was a patron of music and sponsored several young promising musicians. He married May Preston in 1873 and had eight children, four of whom lived into adulthood: Mark M. McNeal, Stella McNeal, J. Preston W. McNeal and Marie McNeal Tettoni. May Preston McNeal died in 1913. Joshua Vansant McNeal died in 1917.

Mark J. McNeal, 1882-1935

Mark J. McNeal was born in 1882 to Joshua Vansant McNeal and May Preston McNeal. He attended Georgetown University prior to seminary. He was a member of the Maryland – New York Province of the Society of Jesus, traveling to Japan in the 1890s to establish the Catholic University in Tokyo and the novitiate in Manila, Philippines. He founded the University bulletin “Sun Rise” and was a regular and lengthy correspondent with his brother J. Preston W. McNeal and his sisters, Stella McNeal and Marie McNeal Tettoni. He was in Tokyo during the 1923 earthquake that destroyed much of the University and he assisted in its reconstruction. He died in Manila in 1935 following a lengthy illness.

James David Watters, 1834-1908

James David Watters was born on January 11, 1834 in Harford County, Maryland, to Henry Godfrey Watters and Mary Clendenin Watters. He served in the Maryland Confederate Cavalry during the Civil War, returning to Harford County, Maryland where he was elected twice to the 3rd judicial court of Maryland. He married Frances (Fanny) Howard Munnikhuysen and had one daughter, Anna Mary Watters. He died March 30, 1908.