Tag Archives: Evergreen Cemetery

A soldier named Milo

He was one of a kind, the soldier named Milo Keech. Born to Hazen and Abigail (Swan) Keech in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in 1833, Milo moved eastward to Bethel with his family about 10 years later. The town’s 1850 census indicated that he was 17, living with his parents (Hazen was a millwright) and four […]

Milo residents re-dedicate town’s Civil War monument on August 12

Gathering at a local cemetery beneath a beautiful late summer sky, residents of Milo re-dedicated their town’s Civil War monument this August with capable assistance from Civil War descendants and re-enactors. Participating organizations included the Milo Historical Society; the Sarah Elizabeth Palmer Tent No. 23, Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War; the Col. […]

Al Williams escapes a Gettysburg grave, part 1

President Abraham Lincoln delivers his 271-word “Gettysburg Address” during the Nov. 19, 1863 dedication of the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery under development on Cemetery Hill in Gettysburg. (National Park Service) Despite some 8 inches of snow dropped by what the Weather Fools dubbed “Winter Storm Avery” (real people don’t name snowstorms), the 155th anniversary of […]

Meet the Heroes of Evergreen Cemetery: Part II

  Approximately 1,400 Civil War veterans — I call them “heroes,” if only because they fought to preserve our country — lie buried at Evergreen Cemetery on Stevens Avenue in Portland. On a recent sunny, warm summer’s day, Friends of Evergreen docent Lin Brown introduced me to about 50 of them. We toured the 239-acre […]

Meet the Heroes of Evergreen Cemetery: Part I

  Nowhere else in Maine can people meet so many Civil War veterans than at Evergreen Cemetery, located at 672 Stevens Ave., in Portland — — and through its well-organized docent tours, the Friends of Evergreen are anxious to make the introductions. Through the mid-19th century, burials gradually filled Eastern Cemetery and Western Cemetery in […]

Orland sailor finally gets his due

Maine isn’t known for its Civil War sites. The battles took place far away, no national park extols combat on Maine soil, and tourists don’t flock here to see monuments to Civil War heroes. Yet the monuments exist, as do Maine heroes, and as for Maine place names related directly to the war, well, you […]