[M] #34355 Joseph Mechling ( Jacob Mechling • Jacob Mechling • Diebold Mechling◊ • Martin Mechling◊ )
Joseph was born Abt 1771 in Berks Co., Pennsylvania (probably). He died 25 Feb 1839. He was buried in Range I.W. #110, Congressional Cemetery, Washington D. C..
Joseph was in the first graduating class from West Point. In 1800, they moved to Washington, DC. He was the engineer that built Ft. Washington. He was the first auditor for the Treasury Department, and was also the first Governor General of Liberia. His home, which he built on I St. in Washington was known as Spider Hall.
He was originally buried in a Public Vault in the Congressional Cemetery. On 27 May 1840, he body was moved to the current location.
From the Washington Daily National Intelligencer of 26 Feb 1839:
On the morning of the 25th instant, in the 68th yr of his age, JOSEPH MECHLIN, Esq of the office of the Fourth Auditor.He removed from Philadelphia to this city w/the General Government in 1800 & faithfully & efficiently discharged the important duties of the office which he held under that Government. He was much esteemed as a neighbor & as a friend by the community among whom he so long resided. As a husband & as a father, his conduct was most exemplary; & deep & painful are the wounds inflicted by his death on the hearts of his widow, the tenderly attached companion of his journey through life, & his estimable & affectionate children.
Mr M had been subject to occasional attacks of asthma for many years, & was suffering under the most violent attack which had ever seized him when the decease of his son, Dr Joseph MECHLIN, who departed in New York, on his way from Mobile to Washington, little more than two weeks ago, was announced. This painful event added greatly to his affliction, which increased in severity as the crisis approached. BUt his body “sleeps where the weary are at rest,” & his spirit has returned “to God who gave it.” Here we have “no continuing city.” Reader, seek one to come! “A city which hath foundations, whose builder & maker is God.”
Joseph married #34400 Margaretta White.
Relationship notes |
They married 31 Oct 1795. |
Margaretta died 5 Apr 1853 in Washington D. C.. She was buried in Congressional Cemetery, Washington D. C..
She was previously married to a Mr. Wright.
Family story has it that she was found in an open boat on the Atlantic Ocean and adopted by the Whites.
In 1816 she was the manager of The Washington City Orphans Asylum.
[Mercy IV-96] lists her death date as 10 May 1960. Since this would have made her almost two hundred years old, it's suspect. The date given is from an obituary.
Children of this relationship:
| #34401 | M | i | William Mechlin | (1797–Bef 1870) |
| #34402 | M | ii | Joseph Mechling | (–6 Feb 1839) |
| #34404 | M | iii | Alexander Hamilton Mechlin | (Abt 1805–) |
| #34422 | F | iv | Living | |
| #34405 | F | v | Agnes Marie Mechling | (1810–) |
| #34407 | F | vi | Lucretia L. Mechlin | |
| #34408 | F | vii | Margaretta W. Mechlin | (1822–) |
Caral Mechling Bennett, email to Tad Deffler, dated: 11 Dec 2011.
Caral Mechling Bennett, email to Tad Deffler, dated: 25 Jul 2013.
Dorothy Hallarn Mercy, Mechling - Descendants of Jacob Mechling, Theobald's Brother, Montgomery County, PA Mechlings, Other Mechlings, 1827-1996, Volume IV, (Butler, PA: Mechling Associates, 1996). Ref. as [Mercy IV-96].
Line Generation: 5
Relationship: Second Cousins Six Times Removed through Diebold Mechling◊