Assassination Trivia

[L Verge]

Read down for your answer:

John Lloyd was first a bricklayer by trade and is listed as such in D.C. city directories for 1855 and again in 1862. He also served on a Day Police Force beginning in 1851 with a salary of $480/year. An 1856 entry shows him as an officer in the 7th Ward, and the 1860 Federal Census shows him a member of the police force. He served on the force until 1862, when he left to return to farming in Charles County, Maryland, and ultimately to renting the Surratt tavern in 1864.

After the assassination, he floundered at the Surrattsville farm and returned to the city and his bricklaying trade in 1867. While supervising a construction project at 10th and B Streets, SW, he climbed the scaffolding to inspect some shoddy work. A load of bricks had just been placed on the scaffold, and as Lloyd stood on the boards, they gave way, pitching him to the ground. Bricks tumbled down on him - crushing his head, kidneys, and other parts of his body. He lingered for nearly two weeks before his death on December 18, 1892 - his 68th birthday.

The description of his death came years later from a great-niece, who had fond memories of him: "I was a small child but remember him well. He was a very kindly man, and we were devoted to him: he was a large man and a sort of Santa Claus to all of us. We called him Uncle Lloyd."

This is excerpted from an article that I did in 1988 for the Surratt Courier - with the assistance of research done by James O. Hall and a police lieutenant named Dennis Campbell. Much of their research came from a genealogical work entitled The Lloyds of Southern Maryland, published by Daniel B. Lloyd in 1917.