2016 STATEWIDE VETERANS DAY EDITION
VETS NEWS
Pages 8-9
statewide veterans day events
FROM OREGON TO MAINE: JEWETT'S LAST JOURNEY
Patriot Guard Riders (from left) Steve West, Milt Harden and Dan Halverson salute the cremated remains of Maine Civil War soldier Jewett Williams at a send-off ceremony organized by ODVA and Oregon State Hospital in Salem on Aug. 1. Photo by Beth Nakamura, staff photographer of The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reprinted with permission.
By Tyler Francke
O
n Oct. 12, 1864, a man named Jewett Williams joined the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army. The 21-year-old son of Canadian immigrants and small-town farmers, he went on to participate in several decisive engagements that helped secure the Union’s victory in the waning months of the Civil War. He was even present at that Appomattox, Va., court house on April 9, 1865, to receive the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, one of the most singularly monumental moments in our nation’s history. Sadly, history did not remember him. Almost 60 years later, he died in obscurity, at a mental institution on the other side of the country that he helped preserve.
He lived in Maine, Minnesota and Washington, before finally settling in Portland, Ore. On April 14, 1922, he was committed to the state asylum, which is now called the Oregon State Hospital. He was in poor health and suffering from progressive senile dementia and hallucinations. The only known photo of Jewett Williams is from his intake: It shows him with white hair, a white beard and wearing a black patch over his left eye. He died three months later, on July 17, of arterial sclerosis. He was 78 years old. His body was cremated, and his remains were put in a copper canister. They were never claimed. ...
... After the war, Jewett Williams became a carpenter. He was married twice and had at least six children, not all of whom survived into adulthood.
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In 2004, the canister containing Williams’ cremains, along with thousands of others, was rediscovered by Oregon Sen. Peter Courtney during a tour of the state hospital’s grounds. The find sparked outrage and calls
Vietnam War veteran receives the Purple Heart, 51 years later
for reform across the state, eventually culminating in a $458 million investment that helped build two new, state-of-the-art mental health facilities. “We owe them,” Courtney said of the cremains, which he often refers to as “the forgotten souls.” “We owe them. They’re the ones who built the Oregon State Hospital that has now become so extraordinary.” That 2004 discovery also fueled interest in the cremains themselves. A memorial was established at the Salem campus of the Oregon State Hospital, and efforts were renewed to locate family members of or final resting places for the cremains that remained unclaimed. Last year, the work of volunteer genealogist Phyllis Zegers caught the eye of a Maine historian researching the 20th Maine. Using online records, Zegers had written a bio of Jewett Williams that highlighted his service during the Civil War. The historian, Tom
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Veteran Benefit Expo in Portland was a major success
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