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The long road home for Pvt. Jewett Williams begins after a ceremony Aug. 1, 2016, at Oregon State Hospital. He died there in 1922, but no one claimed his remains. Patriot Guard Riders are escorting him from Salem to Maine, where he will be interred. Capi Lynn / Statesman Journal
Jewett Williams, a Civil War veteran who served with the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, was admitted as a patient at Oregon State Hospital for the last few months of his life. He was 78 when he died July 17, 1922. No one came forward to claim his remains at the hospital, until now.(Photo: Oregon State Hospital records)
SALEM, Ore. —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Riders from Oregon to Maine<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are preparing to make a special delivery cross-country, handing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>off their cargo from one rider to the next until it reaches its final destination.
“It’s kind of like the Pony Express across the nation,” said Mike Edgecomb, state captain for the Maine Patriot Guard Riders.
Although delivery will be done by motorcycle instead of pony, and along paved interstate highways instead of dusty wagon trails, it<span style="color: Red;">*</span>still evokes the romanticism of the legendary mail service. And this cargo, the cremated remains of a Civil War soldier, is far more precious than any letter.
Members of the Patriot Guard Riders, a non-profit organization that performs services for fallen military heroes and deceased veterans, will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>provide<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Pvt. Jewett B. Williams<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a long-awaited escort to his final resting place in his home state of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Maine.
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The journey began Monday morning<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Salem, after a ceremony at the Oregon State Hospital<span style="color: Red;">*</span>during<span style="color: Red;">*</span>which custody of the cremains was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>transferred. Williams died at the hospital in 1922, and his cremains were never claimed, until now.
A typical mission for local<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Patriot Guard Riders might<span style="color: Red;">*</span>draw<span style="color: Red;">*</span>eight to 20 participants, but the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>circumstances surrounding<span style="color: Red;">*</span>this one could bolster the turnout.
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“Some people have contacted me and said they plan to take the day off work to do this,” said district ride captain Blake Lee, who lives just southeast of Salem. “It’s rare to get to do anything with a Civil War veteran, extremely rare.”
State captains for the Patriot Guard Riders — from John Hanan II<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Oregon to Edgecomb<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Maine — are handling logistics in their respective areas and coordinating handoffs<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with neighboring states.
Their mission is to deliver the cargo to Togus<span style="color: Red;">*</span>National Cemetery in Chelsea, Maine. The cemetery has been closed to new interments since 1961, but special permission has been given to bury Williams alongside his brothers in arms from the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
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Edgecomb figures hundreds, if not thousands, of Patriot Guard Riders will participate.
“I know they have done other multi-state missions, but this is probably the first nationwide,” he said.
Last year,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Patriot Guard Riders escorted the cremains of a Marine staff sergeant, who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, from California to Georgia instead of allowing the military to mail his ashes<span style="color: Red;">*</span>home to his mother.
The ceramic urn containing Williams'<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cremains has been removed from a memorial wall on the state hospital grounds<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and will be<span style="color: Red;">*</span>packed in bubble wrap and placed in a wooden box before being<span style="color: Red;">*</span>secured on the back of a motorcycle.
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His journey home<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will wind through at least 19 states and cover more than 3,200 miles.
“There’s been a lot of work involved to make this happen,” Lee said.
Williams has no known living relatives. After the war, he lived<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Minnesota for several years with his wife and six children. They<span style="color: Red;">*</span>moved to Washington sometime in the 1890s.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He later lived in Portland, where<span style="color: Red;">*</span>newspapers from 1914 to 1919<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reported that he was among veterans scheduled to speak during Memorial Day programs at local schools.
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Census records from 1920 list Williams<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as a widower living in Portland and working as a laborer at the age of 75. He was in poor health and suffering from “progressive senile dementia” when he was admitted to the state hospital on April 14, 1922. He died three months later of cerebral arteriosclerosis<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries in the brain —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to his death certificate. He was 78.
No one came forward to claim his cremains. Like those of so many other patients, they were placed in a copper urn and stored in various locations on the hospital grounds, including on a shelf in a shed, until a memorial was built in 2014.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The ashes of 3,423 people who died between 1914 and 1971 were placed in the niches of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>columbarium<span style="color: Red;">*</span>wall. Each<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is remembered with a marker<span style="color: Red;">*</span>engraved with their name, urn number and lifespan.
The spelling of Williams’ first name is Jewitt on that marker. It also is spelled that way on his enlistment and hospital admission records, although Jewett is written across a photograph accompanying the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hospital records.
That is the only known photograph of Williams, who has a white beard and a black patch over his left eye.
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The cremains of 18 veterans and two spouses of veterans from the state hospital were interred in May 2015 at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland. At that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>time, the hospital had no information indicating Williams was a veteran. He was just patient No. 5426 in urn No. 415.
Phyllis Zegers<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of Roseburg came across his enlistment record on Ancestry.com while doing research on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people whose cremains have not been claimed. She included the information in a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bio on Williams that she posted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Find<span style="color: Red;">*</span>A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Grave,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>online database of cemetery records.
An author and historian in Maine, while researching the fate of 20th Maine veterans,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>discovered records showing the cremains of a former private<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had been sitting unclaimed on a shelf at the Oregon State Hospital since his death in 1922. The historian proposed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the idea of returning the soldier's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cremains to his home state for a proper burial<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at a meeting of the governor's cabinet in 2015.
Nearly a century after Jewett Williams died and no one came forward to claim him, the veterans’ affairs offices in two states and an army of Patriot Guard riders are atoning for the slight.
“The fact that a Maine soldier's cremains are actually returning to Maine, and the fact that we re-enact that regiment. There are thousands of regiments. What are the chances?”
Mitch Rice, Civil War re-enactor
Mitch Rice, a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>member of the group that performs<span style="color: Red;">*</span>re-enactments of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the 20th Maine, said it's an honor to be a part of this mission.
“The circumstances are remarkable,” Rice said. “The fact that a Maine soldier's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cremains are actually returning to Maine, and the fact that we re-enact that regiment. There are thousands of regiments. What are the chances?”
A convoy of each state's Patriot Guard Riders will escort the cremains across their state and then pass them off to the next group of riders, with others joining the procession at entrance ramps and fuel stops.
Hanan, state captain for the Oregon Patriot Guard Riders, said extreme care will be taken in securing the cremains in a motorcycle trunk or saddle bag.
“It’ll be whatever bike has the best method and safest way to carry it,” Hanan said.
The ceramic urn will be packed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in a box 14 inches long, 10 inches high and 8 inches wide. For overnight security, some states will use<span style="color: Red;">*</span>extra care. In Idaho, for example, the cremains will be housed overnight at Cloverdale Funeral Home in Boise.
Edgecomb, state captain for the Maine Patriot Guard Riders, will meet the escort in Gettysburg, Pa. The cremains are scheduled to arrive at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Maine<span style="color: Red;">*</span>border around<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Aug. 22, when a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>full police escort will lead them on the final leg to Togus National Cemetery, which Edgecomb said is about 120 miles.
Williams will be interred with full military honors on Sept. 17<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as part of a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>150th anniversary celebration at Togus.
Follow Capi Lynn on Twitter: @CapiLynn
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>20th Maine
Pvt. Jewett B. Williams was 21 when he enlisted on Oct. 1, 1864, in Company H of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. His home state is listed as Maine, which reportedly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>answered the call for troops with a higher proportion of its men than any other state.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The 20th Maine is perhaps<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the state’s most famous unit,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>participating<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in several decisive actions that helped the Union secure victory during the later stages of the war.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The regiment made a daring downhill charge to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>defend<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Little Round Top and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>help<span style="color: Red;">*</span>win the Battle of Gettysburg. It also<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>part of the Union force that accepted Confederate Gen.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Robert E. Lee’s<span style="color: Red;">*</span>surrender at Appomattox Court House.
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