JOSEPH L. FRIEND, PASSED MIDN, USN

Joseph Friend '47

Date of birth: May 29, 1824

Date of death: October 18, 1851

Age: 27

Photographs

Joseph L. Friend, circa 1830, artist unknown.

Loss

Joseph died on October 18, 1851 "near Richmond, Va."

Other Information

He was born in, and appointed to the Naval Academy from, Virginia.

He is buried in Midlothian, Virginia and was survived by his wife, Catherine W. Murchie — married October 10, 1849 — and son, Joseph L. Friend, Jr., born ~1850.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

His middle name was Lawson.
After Joseph’s father died, his mother Matilda E. (Burfoot) married Joseph S. Walthall. Joseph’s half-brother Burfoot Madison Walthall died at four months of age on July 10, 1846.
In 1841, Joseph and his family were named in the probate of his father Edward’s will. Then, again in March 1847, Joseph’s appearance in court was demanded for the probate of his mother’s will.
Joseph’s brothers were John E., Peter R., and Charles T. Their sister was Martha A. In 1841, their grandfather Lawson Burfoot was their guardian ad litem. John became a doctor. He was born in 1826 at the Bellgrade Plantation (now Alandale). The Bellgrade planation was bought by Joseph’s father in 1824, and an addition was made to the house. The next man who bought the house, Robiou, was murdered. Currently, Ruth’s Chris Steak House occupies the house.
Since October 1848, he was home at Buck Hill near Manchester, Virginia, with coughing and lung hemorrhages. He wrote the Navy often but never got better. He was the son of Edward O. Friend, and his brother was Peter Randolph. His son Joseph died in 1853, and his wife Catherine died in 1866.