The Schmeltzer family decorates the grave of their ancestor, Conrad K. Schmeltzer. Conrad was a cook in the Union Army during the Civil War. Yes, believe it or not, we have a few-- but very few-- Civil War veterans entombed in the Sherwood area. Above photo was taken at Gibbs Cemetary atop Chehalem Mountain during a cermony conducted by the American Legion.
7 comments:
Ol'e Koon. We used to call him Koon as in Raccoon. He had these deep circles around his eyes. He lost his first wife, ya know, and when he got to Chehalem Mountain he raised his kids for a few years before he found another wife. His cooking speciality was fruit pies.He would make pie for the kids sometimes the pie would go bad, but that's all there was to eat.
Sounds like somebody you could use in your next book, Lilly.
Thus far, in my time travels, I have been able to gather some information. It is on page 110-112 in the Sherwood History Book. There is a bit of drama on those pages and it gives us a true glimpse into the hard lives of those settlers.
Was he a pioneer?
You could say he was a pioneer, although native Americans were here a whole lot sooner than us white folks. They were the true pioneers.
If anyone has the article from the May 21st Newberg Graphic, I'd like to have a copy. It was about the event at the cemetery for Conrad Schmeltzer.
This was a significant event: 140 years ago was the Civil War D-Day--as in "Decoration day",later changed to Memorial Day. On May 30, 1868, graves were strew'en with flowers by orphans at Arlington Cemetery. Most of the graves were from the union army. This historical event was highlighted in the May Smithsonian.
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