St. Paul's Cemetery (Alexandria, Virginia)

St. Paul's Cemetery is a cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.

Notable interments

• Wilmer McLean (May 3, 1814 – June 5, 1882) - a Major and wholesale grocer.
• The Female Stranger (1793-1816) - a 23 year old woman who succumbed to a disease on the ship she traveled on with her husband which arrived in Alexandria. On her deathbed, she swore the people around her to oath that they would never reveal her identity and the promise was kept; her grave, a table like structure is marked "Female Stranger". Her ghost is said to haunt the cemetery and Room 8 of the Gadsby's Tavern in which she died.^[1] The unusual monument and story surrounding it have long been noted as a peculiar oddity of the town.^[2]

Notable Visitors

In November 1912, 'Abdu'l-Baha (1844-1921), the son of the founder of the Baha'i Faith and its head between 1892 and 1921, visited the grave of Julius Adolph De Lagnel (d. June 3, 1912) in St. Paul's Cemetery. De Lagnel was the husband of Mrs. J. C. De Lagnel, a Washington DC Baha'i community member. Mrs. De Langel is buried alongside the spot visited by 'Abdu'l-Baha with a testimony to her faith inscribed upon her grave stone. The November visit by 'Abdu'l-Baha was made by carriage in the company of Charles Mason Remey, Eliza A. Duffield and Claudia Stuart Coles. De Lagnel had joined the Army in 1847 and later joined the southern forces in the civil war. After the war he ran a Pacific steamship service.

References