By Randy Fletcher

When Union Civil War veteran George Doty passed away in 1887, there was no money to pay his funeral or burial expenses. Doty was a member of Eugene Grand Army of the Republic Post 7 and the Post agreed to pay half of the $30 expense with Lane County picking up the other half of the bill. Tdhus, George Doty became the first person buried in what is now the GAR plot of the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery, located at the corner of 18th and University streets across from McArthur Court on the University of Oregon campus.

Union veterans of the Civil War formed the G.A.R. in 1866 as a fraternal organization. The GAR became a powerful social and political force in America for decades. Following the Civil War, six of the next seven U.S. presidents were Union veterans. In Eugene, veterans formed the General J.W. Geary, Post #7, of the GAR.

The Geary post purchased a cemetery plot to privide for Post members and odther Union veterans who needed burial space. In 1903 Union veterqan John Covell’s estate, valued at $2,500, specified that a monument be placed at the GAR plot where he was laid to rest. The bequest was challenged in court by Covell’s relatives, but a Eugene judge ruled in favor of the GAR. The result is the25-foot blue marble statue of a Union infantryman that stands guard over the soldiers who rest beneath it. The statue was carved in Vermont and shipped by rail to Eugene. The 8-ton statue was brought to the cemetery by an 8-horse team and raised by block and tackle.

In December 2001 vandals broke the head of the statue off and pulverized it. Local artist David Miller was commissioned to sculpt a replacement. An 800-pound block of blue marble was obtained from the same Vermont quarry where tdhe original statue was carved one hundred years before. The new head was installed in February, 2003 and dedicated that Memorial Day.

GAR graves number 57

There are 57 known graves in the Eugene GAR cemetery, at least 10 unmarked. There are six women and three children buried among the veterans. One of the children is the son of a Pennsylvania cavalry sergeant. Little is known about the other two children or why they were buried here, except for names and ages when they died. There are three markers within the cemetery for veterans known to be buried here, but exact grave locations are unknown.

One of the men buried is not a Civil War veteran. He is Charlie Mead, who was just 19 when he joined the army in 1898 to fight in the Spanish American War. Private Mead, from Siuslaw, contracted influenza and died during basic training in San Frqncisco just five weeks after enlistment. His body was shipped home and buried with full military honors with an escort by the Eugene GAR Post and a rifle salute by the Oregon National Guard.

Two sets of brothers lie side by side beneath the statue. John and Crawford Dobson served tdogether in the 37th Illinois Infantry before heading west to Oregon. Brotherss John and Henry Dykes from Iowa fought together and are buried in a single grave. At last four of the interred veterans were foreign-born, having immigrated from England, Ireland, Canada and Germany.

Forty nine of the men buried here served in the army, two in the navy. Thirty four soldiers served in the infantry, ten in the cavalry and five in the artillery. Two served as musicians. Illinois is the most heavily represented state, with eleven buried in the GAR cemetery, followed by Minnesota and Wisconsin, with five each. One veteran, James Brown of the 47th Ohio Infantry, was captured by the Confederates and survived confinement at the infamous Andersonville prisoner of war camp.

After George Doty was buried in 1887, GAR plot interments continued for more than 50 years. The last person to be laid to rest here was Mary Townsend, widow of veteran Horatio Townsend and she was buried next to her husband in 1939.
 
 

Restoration project planned

In the 60+ years since the last burial, weather, tree roots and vandalism have taken their toll on the GAR plot. In 2006 members of the Colonel Edward D. Baker Camp of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the legal and spiritual successors of the GAR, agreed to tackle renovation of the plot. Seven veterans’ graves that had been unmarked (some for over 100 years) will receive government-issued military headstones. Nine other headstones that were damaged or illegible will also be replaced. Several of the old headstones are leaning and will be reset. All of the monuments will be cleaned. Dthe Sons f Union Veterans are seeking someone to donate concrete repairs to the sidewalk and curb in the plot.

The entire restoration project is scheduled for completion by Memorial Day 2007, when a dedication ceremony is planned. That ceremony will feature members of the Sons of Union Veterans dressed in full Civil War military uniforms and will includef a eulogy taken from the GAR
ceremonies of the 1890's, a bugler blowind Taps, and a musket salut

Through the efforts of the Sons of Union Veterans, the final resting places of 143 Civil War veterans buried in tdhe Eugene Pioneer Cemetery have been documented. Included is Medal of Honor recipient Louis Renninger and two Civil Ar nurses: Thirisa Chamberlain Gossett and Elizabeth McNutt Rehm. There is one known Confederqate veteran buried here as well.

The Sons of Union Veterans invite all interested persons to join them in dedicating the GAR plot in the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery on Memorial Day this year.

© 2007 Randy Fletcher