Photo: Marcia Straub / Moment / Getty Images
(Des Moines, Iowa) -- A U.S. Civil War veteran with Des Moines connections will finally receive a memorial service and interment, 95 years after his death. Joseph Chedester was born in Greenville, Tennessee, in 1847, and served in the Union Army from July of 1864 until August of 1865. Dennis Allen from the Final Salute project says Chedester's unit helped stop the Morgan Raiders. "Their unit was the who killed the Confederate General John Hunt Morgan," Allen said.
After the war, Chedester lived in the Kansas City area with his wife and family of six children. "They ended up moving to Redlands, California, where his first wife passed away [in 1927]."
Chedester was very active with the Grand Army of the Republic and met his second wife, Anna Belle Stombaugh, in Des Moines and they were married on June 14th, 1928. The timeline after this remains a bit of a mystery according to Allen. Chedester's wife had reportedly been visiting friends in Des Moines.
"While she was here, a daughter in Kansas City took ill, so he came back to visit the daughter. And while he was there, he went up to Des Moines to visit his wife, and during that time period, he passed away," Allen said.
Joseph Chedester passed away on August 18th, 1929. Allen says it is unclear why Chedester's wife or family did not claim his remains at the time, and also a mystery as to why he was cremated, as that was a much less common practice in those days.
Chedester's cremated remains have reportedly been in storage with Dunn's funeral home up until just recently, when they were acquired by The Final Salute.
Chedester will be honored in a ceremony at Iowa Veterans Cemetery (near Van Meter) on September 27th.
Dennis Allen is a retired Des Moines Firefighter and 9-year Navy Veteran as well as a genealogist with the Final Salute project. He says if you find unclaimed cremations, contact a nearby funeral home, and that The Final Salute can help. "We do it for veterans, they're the highlight, but the veterans wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the civilians, so we also take care of our civilians as well."
You can learn more about The Final Salute on their Facebook page.