19 Oregon veterans’ cremains to be interred
A final salute with full military honors will be made to 19 Oregon military veterans and two spouses of veterans whose cremated remains will be interred at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland on Friday at 10 a.m.
For nearly 10 years, the Oregon State Hospital Replacement Project has been working with Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs to identify the deceased who are eligible for veteran burial. This includes the cremains of a veteran’s spouse who also is eligible to be interred at a national cemetery.
The cremains had been stored in copper canisters at the State Hospital and had at one time been interred in an underground memorial where the canisters sustained water damage and irreversible corrosion.
In 2004, state Senate President Peter Courtney discovered the canisters in an outbuilding on hospital grounds and said he did not want these people to be forgotten. Since then, the State Hospital has been working vigorously to ensure the cremains of all patients are cared for and treated with the proper respect.
The State Hospital is the custodian of the cremated remains of approximately 3,400 people who died between 1914 and 1971 while living or working at the hospital, Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital, Mid-Columbia Hospital, Dammasch State Hospital, Oregon State Penitentiary, Fairview Training Center and other local hospitals.
The military service eras of these 19 honorably discharged veterans range from the Civil War to World War I. According to ODVA Director Cameron Smith the veteran’s cremains have been secured until their identities could be accurately verified.
“Identifying these veterans’ cremains after all these years ensures we honor and recognize their service,” he said. “Just as we thank all veterans for their service, we thank the amazing team from the Oregon State Hospital and their partners for all of their research and hard work to correct the record.”
Oregon State Hospital Superintendent Greg Roberts said it’s only proper that these veterans be interred in Willamette National Cemetery.
“It’s important to recognize them, not only for their service to our country, but also for the additional challenges they faced in life. Now, they have a final resting place with all due dignity and respect, and they are no longer forgotten.”
With the goal of reunifying these cremains with families, the Oregon State Hospital has posted online the list of names of the people whose cremated remains are in the possession of the hospital. The list of names – though hometowns are not known — is posted on the Oregon State Hospital website at http://www.oregon.gov/oha/amh/osh/Pages/cremains.aspx
The names of the veterans whose cremains will be interred include: Thomas A. Bond; Rollin Curd; Henry Gore; John Q. Howard; Arthur B. Hunter; Herman G. Kluedtke; Frank F. Moore; Curtis L. Oaks; Davis B. Parmenter; Matthew Ross, Jr.; Emma Rowland, spouse of William G. Rowland; John W. Sevedge; Edward C. Shaw; Charles Sherwood; John Tooley; Lawrence C. G. VanWert; Graham Cambell; John A. Walters; Edna May Ward, spouse of James E. Ward and Fred Warner.
Willamette National Cemetery is located in Portland at 11800 S.E. Mt. Scott Blvd.
