Visiting the Civil War Memorial

With the transfer of planning for Memorial Day in 1923 from the Grand Army of the Republic to younger veterans and their organizations, one prominent name in the Sedgwick Post of the GAR came immediately to mind.

The 1905 GAR Civil War Memorial
at City View Cemetery this weekend

I run across Gideon Stolz' name regularly. He was one of the signers of the report of June 5th, 1923 and was also the last surviving member of those who chartered the Sedgewick Post in 1882. He also has a place in our brewing history. He had two cider plants downtown on what is now the Willamette University campus, and also made vinegar and pickles. It was nice to visit his grave in the IOOF Pioneer Cemetery this weekend.

Gideon Stolz, charter member
and leader of the local GAR Post

May 29th, 1923

January 11th, 1938

James Davidson, who settled on the north side slope and base of the Morningside hill, had served in the War of 1812, but he was missing a flag. His obelisk had a river rock base, which I had not noticed before. He died in 1876, and maybe another time there will more to say on the transition from rock to masonry foundations in the 1880s.

James Davidson, War of 1812, no flag
But a river rock foundation

You may recall that the first portion of what became the State Insurance Building of the 1880s, on the corner of Chemeketa and Commercial, had a fitted rock foundation, and the building expansion which gave it the three story, mansarded form we remember today, had a brick foundation.

Two distinct foundations from different phases
of State Insurance Building (April)

I wonder if we can locate a change in the 1880s to the establishment of a brick manufacturer here. That's a question and research for another day, though.

Samuel Thurston, not a Veteran

The flag distribution was a little hard to parse. Samuel Thurston was born in 1815 and died in 1851. He didn't serve in the War of 1812, he was on his way to Oregon during the Mexican American War, and was dead before the Civil War. 

He's also got a concrete or other solid base, and I wonder if this obelisk was reinstalled on top of it later.

Back in the Fall of 2020, the Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries made a strong advisory recommendation that Confederate Flags be banned from historic cemeteries. They used to fly on a few graves in the IOOF Pioneer Cemetery around Memorial Day, and it was very nice not to see any on this visit.