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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 2016)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2016 Civil War vet’s ashes are on motorcycle ride across America By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM — Jewett Williams served in the 20th Maine Regi- ment in the Civil War. When he died in 1922 at an Oregon insane asylum, he was cremated and his ashes were stored and forgotten along with the remains of thou- sands of other patients. With a color guard in Civil War-era uniforms present, Ore- gon State Hospital oficials handed over Williams’ ashes to a group of motorcycle-riding mili- tary veterans for a journey across the country to his home state. “He was a son, a brother, a husband and a father. At the end of his life, however, he was alone and institutionalized here,” Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney said at the ceremony. “When he died, nobody came. Nobody came to honor him. Nobody came to take him home. Nobody came. Until today.” Members of the Patriot Guard Riders, a group that attends the funerals of U.S. military veter- ans, ireighters and police, then solemnly received the ashes, started their Harleys and began the long journey to Maine. Wear- ing leather vests festooned with patches describing their branches of service and American lags lapping from their bikes, the group will escort the remains in relays across America. The ashes of hundreds of other patients remain at a memo- rial on the grounds of the hospi- tal made famous in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” a ilm starring Jack Nicholson and adapted from a novel by Ken Kesey. It was in 2004 that Court- ney, on a tour, found the ashes of more than 3,600 people who died at the Oregon State Hospi- tal and other institutions, stashed away in a shed in corroding cop- per cans. In 2014, the memorial was opened with the remains of patients unclaimed by relatives kept in urns labeled with names, birth and death dates and embed- ded in a wall. A gap now exists where Williams’ urn had been. Over 300 other remains have been claimed. “Here we are in this honored spot with all these unclaimed souls,” Geno Williams, a U.S. Army special forces veteran and Patriot Guard Rider from Van- couver, Washington, murmured to a reporter after blinking away tears. “It is an emotional moment for me.” The 20th Maine famously prevented a Union defeat at Get- tysburg with a bayonet charge at Little Round Top. Williams, of Hodgdon, Maine, joined in October 1864, more than a year later, but many engagements remained. His regiment was at the siege of Petersburg, Vir- ginia, and in battles with the reb- els right up to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, in April 1865, said Maine historian Tom Desjardin. “The New Englanders were actively engaged with Grant’s army in the long siege of Peters- burg and the running ight with Lee to Appomattox,” said James I. Robertson Jr., retired profes- sor of Civil War history at Vir- ginia Tech. Jewett shared a tent with his cousin, Albert Williams, who, in a letter relecting his rudimen- tary education, described long marches in bad weather and sleeping in the open, accord- ing to a family history published online in 2005 by Barbara Ann Estabrook. He also described a scorched-earth campaign. “i didnt have a chance to get a shot at a reb when we on the rode but i made the Cattle and Sheep and hogs suffer. You bet we killed every thing that we see and burnt every thing as we went,” Albert Williams wrote on Dec. 18, 1864, less than four months before he died of fever at age 21. Jewett Williams was married and divorced, then remarried and moved to Michigan, then to Min- nesota where he was a carpen- ter. His irst child died after only 19 months. He and his wife had ive more children and moved to Washington state, where the couple separated. In the 1920 census, Williams was listed as a widower in Portland, Oregon. In April 1922, Williams was admitted to the Oregon State Hospital for the Insane in Salem, as the hospital was then known. He died on July 17, 1922, at 78, of cerebral arteriosclerosis. ‘When he died, nobody came. Nobody came to honor him. Nobody came to take him home. … Until today.’ Patriot Guard Riders, from left to right, Steve West, Milt Harden and Dan Halverson salute the cre- mated remains of Maine Civil War soldier Jewett Williams in Salem, Mon- day, before the ashes are handed over for a motor- cycle journey across the country to Williams’ home state where he will be bur- ied with military honors. Williams served in the 20th Maine Regiment and died in 1922 at an Oregon insane asylum. Peter Courtney Oregon Senate president None of Jewett’s descendants has been found. His remains are scheduled to arrive in Maine on Aug. 22 and will be buried with military hon- ors in Togus National Cemetery in Maine on Sept. 17. A peri- od-correct white marble veter- ans headstone will mark the spot, said Dave Richmond, deputy director of the Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services. “He will rejoin his com- rades-in-arms in Maine,” said Greg Roberts, the superinten- dent of Oregon State Hospi- tal. Also buried at Togus are ive other 20th Maine veterans, including one from Williams’ Company H. AP Photo/Andrew Selsky clip or CLICK! Valid 8/2/16 thru 8/9/16 ® 10 OFF $ 50 or more $ * Save on your next grocery purchase of $50 or more * with your Safeway Club Card and this Savings Award. *Use this Savings Award on any shopping trip you choose at any Oregon Safeway store and S.W. Washington stores serving Clark, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Skamania, Walla Walla and Klickitat counties by 8/9/16. 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