Westmoreland veterans organization seeks descendants of Civil War soldier for Memorial Day ceremony

Penn Township resident Bill Bray has made it his mission to ensure the Civil War veterans buried in Westmoreland County are not forgotten.

An Army veteran who served from 1984 to 1993, Bray has worked to restore abandoned cemeteries for more than two years — cleaning and replacing headstones of World War I, Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans throughout the county and beyond. He led the charge in 2022 to restore the Brush Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Cemetery in North Huntingdon.

Now, Bray aims to track down descendants of John E. Wiegel — the last Union Civil War veteran to be buried in Westmoreland County — for a Memorial Day ceremony.

Civil War veterans group

Bray kick-started in September a Westmoreland County branch of national organization Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Based in St. John’s Harrold Reformed United Church of Christ in Hempfield, the George A. Cribbs Camp 276 is one of less than 30 across the state.

The group is dedicated to preserving and educating community members on the stories of Union Civil War veterans.

But for Bray, the mission can be summarized in a handful of words: “Through their lives, we exist.”

“It’s true,” Bray said, “because if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.”

Scouring online ancestry and family tree records, Bray has unearthed part of Wiegel’s life story.

Born in 1846, Wiegel served in the Civil War with the 189th Ohio volunteer infantry before moving to Irwin. He lived in the borough nearly six decades, working as borough tax collector from 1902 to 1913.

Wiegel died in Florida in 1946 and was buried in North Huntingdon’s Union Cemetery along Pennsylvania Avenue.

Cribbs Camp 276 plans to honor Wiegel on Memorial Day, following Irwin’s annual parade and ceremony. Though Bray has identified some of Wiegel’s family tree, he has not yet pinned down any living descendants.

Educating the community

Inviting descendants to learn about and honor their ancestor’s history is a key role of the 200 Sons of Union Veterans branches across the country, said Richard Essenwein — who volunteers with the organization’s Pennsylvania sector.

“It makes it all worthwhile when you see your ancestor be recognized,” said Essenwein, of Kittanning. “And the descendants, their faces all light up and they’re all excited.

“It is really awesome when you stand at the foot of a grave and you’re looking at this headstone with the descendant and you’re doing a ceremony. It just brings a tear to your eye.”

Secretary-treasurer of John T. Crawford Camp 43 in Kittanning, Essenwein helped Bray pull together the paperwork to start the Westmoreland camp.

But it wasn’t the first time the city attempted to branch into the area. After returning to the county in 2010, Cribbs Camp 276 lost its charter two years later when members failed to submit required paperwork to the governing body on time, Essenwein said.

It is important for the Sons of Union Veterans to be in as many communities as possible, Essenwein said.

“When these organizations pass off and disband, people tend to forget what the history is of that town, that area,” he said. “Especially in Western Pennsylvania, because when you say ‘Civil War,’ you think Gettysburg. You think down south, Tennessee, states and battles that happened far away.

“When you form a camp like the Cribbs Camp,” he said, “all of a sudden people are starting to realize ‘Hey, Greensburg contributed a lot of people to the Civil War. My ancestor was in that war.’ It kind of jogs their memory, brings it back home to them and they can be proud of their community.”

Since its inception in September, the 18 members of Cribbs Camp 276 have laid wreaths at the headstones of Union Civil War veterans, worked with local Eagle Scouts and administered awards to local JROTC and ROTC students.

Bray also plans to create a database of every veteran buried in Westmoreland County’s cemeteries — a project that could take until April 2026.

“(The goal is) just to remember the service of the veterans that have gone before us,” he said.