35th Iowa Infantry

Obituary - Hiram B. Jewell

PERU POINTER, Peru, Nebraska Thursday, May 2, 1940

H.B. JEWELL, CIVIL WAR VETERAN GONE by Louise M. Farley

The death Thursday, April 25, of Hiram B. Jewell, marked the passing of the last civil war veteran of southeastern Nebraska. He  has been a resident of Peru since 1897, and passed away here at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Cannon, with whom he made his home.  He was ninety-seven years, nine months, and five days of age. Mr. Jewell's birthplace was Middletown, Ohio. He was the son of John and Miriam Burge Jewell on July 20, 1842. After the death of his father when Mr. Jewell was seven years old, he made his home with an uncle, Arch Jewell, at Dowagiac, Michigan. In 1855 he, with his mother, brothers and sisters established a home of their own in Cedar County, Iowa. There he grew to manhood, voted for Abraham Lincoln for president, and upheld his faith in Lincoln by becoming a member of the thirty-fifth Iowa Regiment, Company G Infantry as a soldier in the Union Army.

His first enlistment was for a period of three years, at the end of which, he re-enlisted for the remaining duration of the war between the north and the south. He was with Sherman on his march to the sea, was wounded in the battle of Tupalo, Mississippi, in 1863, and was still confined in the hospital at Vicksburg at the close of the war. His duty to his country completed, Mr. Jewell left the south returning to Cedar County, Iowa.

There, near Atalissa, Iowa, in 1867, he was united in marriage to Eliza Lambert. One son and four daughters were born to this union. In 1872, Mr. Jewell, with his family, went to Elk County, Kansas, near Coffeeville. After pioneering there for seven years he returned to Iowa, settling at Springdale where he remained until 1886. In that  year, he took a claim in Dundy County, Nebraska. Moving his family to this new land, he farmed and practiced as a veterinarian surgeon. Possessing a mind intellectually keen he was ambitious for educational advantages for his children. In 1897, he again moved his family to Peru that they might benefit from the state normal school located there. This village has since been his home.

Nine years ago, before the passing of his wife in death, the Jewells celebrated their sixty-fourth wedding anniversary. He was alo preceded in death by two daughters, Lula (Mrs. Lorette), and Alice (Mrs. Warnock). His son George of Springdale, Iowa, and two daughters, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Canon and Mrs. Lillian Jewell Barnes of Peru, survive him. During his lifetime, Mr. Jewell was interested in the affairs of his government. He voted for nineteen presidents, and had expressed his desire to live to vote for a twentieth one. He was a member of the Methodist Church, and was a devoted student of the Bible. His Bible, from which he read daily, was sixty years old.

A military service was held for him Sunday afternoon at two-thirty at the Methodist Church. Rev. H. A. Taylor, pastor of the church, conducted the services. Interment was made in the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Peru. The funeral was in charge of Casey & Timms, of Auburn.

They sounded the taps this morning
For a soldier, so worn and spent.
Who answered the call of Lincoln
And into the army went.
He was young, stalwart, and handsome
That summer of sixty-three
When he marched to the south with Sherman.
To the city, beside the sea.
He stood in the line of battle
So grave, so straight, so tall,
And saw comrades fall beside him
And wondered the need of it all.
He paced back and forth the picket;
He stood guard in front of Lieut's tent,
In spring, summer, winter or autumn
Ever on duty bent.
Then when the struggle was over
Back home so worn and thin,
He searched in vain for the comrades
Who entered the ranks with him.
Lonely, for more than half century
He pondered and tried to know.
Why his comrades and he were targets of guns
In the hands of the so-called foe.
At last, when his old eyes were closing,
He gazed on eternity's shore;
There's a better way to live with our brothers
Please God we'll fight them no more
We can live and help live always
The weak as well as the strong.
'Twill do away with the war cloud.
And bring peace dreamed of so long.
They draped the loved flag on his casket
And brought flowers red, white, blue
And lovingly gazed at this soldier
With heart to his country so true:
Yes, they mustered him out this morning
The flags are draped at half mast
At dawn, he answered God's roll call.
This soldier, so brave to the last.
MRS. LILLIAN BARNES

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