“Mommy, why is there a grave next to the museum? Did someone die inside?”
As you are strolling along Park Ave., you may have noticed a white gravestone placed between the White River Museum’s Heritage Center and the Garrison building which was the officers’ quarters. There is no body buried there. It has no dates, only a name and “USA” inside an outline of the Federal shield, indicating a military grave. I have asked several local history buffs when the gravestone of Pvt. Cavanaugh was placed there. No one seems to remember.
The U.S. Calvary garrison named Camp on the White River had a cemetery. It was abandoned in 1883, when the garrison was closed. The gravestone was not actually from his Meeker grave. William Cavanaugh was killed Sept. 24, 1881, at The Camp on The White River by a fellow Private, Gerald Carpenter, of Company L, 3rd Cavalry. W.R. Hall, camp Army Assistant Surgeon (which was an army term for doctor), wrote in a report that Cavanaugh died of a single knife wound, which he deemed a “homicide.” No other details were recorded in the monthly Returns report from the garrison.
The White River Museum has a copy of a letter from the Chief Quartermasters Office, Headquarters Department of the Platte, authorizing payment to Shephard Fales of $200 for transporting two soldiers’ bodies from the abandoned cemetery in Meeker to the Fort McPherson National Cemetery outside Maxwell, Nebraska. The bodies were probably freighted by wagon and then transferred to the Union Pacific railroad in Wyoming.
The two soldiers were reburied in 1887, side by side in graves #544 and 545, Section B. The number 545 is significant because it also appears on our Meeker gravestone. An inquiry to the National Cemetery revealed that our museum had more information than they did on Cavanaugh. They were more than surprised that we had a gravestone that originated from their cemetery. Regulations forbid more than one official military tombstone. James C. Fisher combed the paper files but found no mention of when or why the gravestone was replaced with a more compete tombstone. It now reads, “William Cavanagh- Massachusetts- PVT 3 U.S. CAV. -September 24, 1881”. It is a total puzzle of how it came to be shipped to Colorado as a memorial. I can find no family connections who would have requested this special favor. Someone in Meeker knew where the body was reinterred, but why bother following up decades later? William almost certainly did not request it. He had no clue that he was going to die here or be reburied in Nebraska.
By ED PECK
Special to the Herald
