Thomas W. McDonald, a stone-cutter for Jarvis Turner, purchased Mobile Marble Works in the early 1870s, with his brother Daniel J. McDonald and William March. The business carried on as McDonald, March and Co. though it was sometimes referred to as Mobile Marble Works after the sale.

January 28th, 1871
Having purchased the Business, Stock, Good Will & C. of Jarvis Turner Esq., we have now greatly increased facilities for serving our customers at low rates as are current in any other part of the country. We guarantee to complete any contract in Stone Cutting or Marble Working in all its branches, as elaborately, neatly and expeditiously, as any Northern firm. Thanking our friends for past favors, we respectfully solicit a continuance of the same, and, referring to Mr. Turner’s card below, we request the patronage of his friends and the public generally, with confidence in our ability to give satisfaction.

January 28th, 1871

Referring to the above, I take pleasure in recommending Messrs. McDonald, March & Co., to my friends and the public, and respectfully solicit, in their behalf, a continuance of the patronage with which I have heretofore been favored.

Jarvis Turner
March 22d, 1871.

Employees of McDonald, March and Co., late 1800s, Courtesy William E. Wilson Collection, Historic Mobile Preservation Society

Thomas and Daniel McDonald were the sons of William McDonald and Mary White, both buried in Magnolia Cemetery with their siblings Peter, John, Margaret, and William. The McDonalds immigrated to the United States from Queens County, Ireland in 1843.

Per the Mobile census, father William and son William were ship carpenters. Peter, Daniel and Thomas were stone cutters.

By 1884, the McDonald, March & Co. proprietors were Thomas W. McDonald, William March, Mathew J. Lawler and Michael J.S. McDermott (McDonald’s Brother-In-Law).

By 1898 the business was incorporated as “McDonald, March Marble Works Co.” by Sarah E. McDermott McDonald (Daniel’s wife), William March and John Glenn.

William March (1839-1902), son of John and Elizabeth March of England, is buried in Magnolia Cemetery with his second wife, Sarah A. Markham, next to his first wife, Mary J. Baker.

William worked as a marble cutter with Jarvis Turner’s Mobile Marble Works before partnering with the McDonalds.

The elaborate tombstone of Bettie Harris in Tuscaloosa’s Greenwood Cemetery caught the attention of the news:

The Marble Workers.–Among the beautiful works executed at the marble yard of McDonald, March & Co., North Royal Street, none have been more beautiful that that now in progress for a cemetery in Tuskaloosa. The cost of the work will be a thousand dollars, which is a moderate price considering the amount of labor already performed and to be performed before it is finished. Fashioned after the Easter Cross, only lilies and leaves, instead of blending lilies and roses, one side already present a beautiful appearance, while the other is a monogram front, bearing the letters I.H.S., the cross and the crown. The cross will rest on two bases, a lily at the foot and a couch tomb at the head piece, a vase and large lily footstone. Of the purest Italian marble, beautiful designs, skillfully executed, this will be one of the most notable specimens of marblework ever seen in Alabama. It is only approaching completion, and a great deal of careful labor has yet to be expended on it.

The Mobile Daily Tribune (Mobile, Alabama) · 19 May 1876, Fri · Page 3

Confederate Monument, Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama

The Ladies Memorial Association raised funds to restore the figure of the soldier at Confederate Rest in Mobile’s Magnolia Cemetery after it was demolished by lightening in 1932. The bust at left is all that remains of the full length figure that was designed by Mathew J. Lawler and carved by Daniel McDonald of McDonald, March and Co. The memorial was unveiled in 1874.