Civil war veteran’s cremains headed home

A man’s cremains were transported from Oregon to Maine, but made a stop in Pocatello Tuesday. The man’s name was Jewett Williams, a civil war veteran who died in 1922. His cremains were not discovered until just recently.

Many Patriot Guard Riders came to the Maverick gas station, but it wasn’t for the gas prices.

“We’re here honoring a civil war veteran. Who’s cremains were discovered unclaimed in a sanitarium in Oregon. And somebody actually researched and found he was in the civil war,” said Lyle Frost, Patriot Guard Rider, Nampa.

His ashes were sitting away in a canister for over nine decades. And Findagrave.com had plenty of information on Williams and his rich history. He enlisted in Company H of the Maine 20th Infantry Regiment in 1864, and got out the following year.

He was married a few times throughout the mid to late 1800s and had 6 children. But by 1920, he lived alone in Portland, OR.

In 1922, he was admitted to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem for the insane, as the website puts it. It says he was admitted for having dementia. He died three months later and was cremated. Since then, no one had claimed his ashes until now.

The motorcyclists of the Patriot Guard Riders proudly switched over his ashes with a different biker on Tuesday at Maverick, all followed by a military solute. The rider went on to Idaho Falls and stopped around 1p.m. with the rest of the group.

Frost says it’s an honor to help the veteran who’s long overdue to go home.

“He needs to be honored. He deserves to be honored. And he is being honored. That’s what the Patriot Guard does, we honor our veterans,” said Frost.

Williams is expected to be buried with full military honors on September 17th in Chelsea, Maine.