Charles H. Stonestreet

Charles H. Stonestreet

Charles Henry Stonestreet, S.J. was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit. He served in prominent religious and academic positions, including as provincial superior of the Jesuit Maryland Province and president of Georgetown University. He testified in court as to his knowledge of the conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

About Charles H. Stonestreet in brief

Summary Charles H. StonestreetCharles Henry Stonestreet, S.J. was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit. He served in prominent religious and academic positions, including as provincial superior of the Jesuit Maryland Province and president of Georgetown University. He was born in Maryland and attended Georgetown University, where he co-founded the Philodemic Society. After entering the Society of Jesus and becoming a professor at Georgetown, he led St. John’s Literary Institution and St. John the Evangelist Church in Frederick, Maryland. He later became president of Gonzaga College and was involved in the legal incorporation of Boston College. He testified in court as to his knowledge of the conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, specifically Mary Surratt and Samuel Mudd. In May 1852, he commemorated the landing of the Catholic pilgrims in the Maryland Colony by traveling with them to Stigoes, Maryland, to commemorate the arrival of the pilgrims. He died in Washington, D. C. in 1855. He is buried at St. John’s Episcopal Church in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, and was buried at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Georgetown, Maryland in 1857. He also served as president of St. Francis College in Maryland, and as a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University from 1835 to 1851.

He taught French, mathematics, and grammar at Georgetown before becoming a priest in 1843. His last years were spent as pastor of Holy Trinity and Holy Cross churches in Georgetown and D.C., where he lived out his last years as a priest. His funeral was held in 1859 in Georgetown; he was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery. He had a son, Charles, who was also a priest and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1855 to 1859. He never married and died in 1881 in Washington; he is survived by his wife, Mary, and a daughter, Mary. He leaves behind a wife and three children. He has a son and two step-daughters who are still living in the United States; he also has a step-son who is also a Jesuit. His great-great-grandson, Thomas Fedy Mulledy, is the current president of the University of Delaware. He will also be remembered for his contributions to the history of the university, including his work on the First Plenary Council of Baltimore, which was held at Georgetown during his tenure as president. He wrote a book about his time as president, “The President of Georgetown: A Biography of a Jesuit, 1851-1852,” which was published in 1852. His son, Thomas, was the first Jesuit to be elected to the University’s Board of Trustees, and served as its president from 1852-1855.