The following news article is extracted.1 I linked the names I could find to their Find a Grave memorials at the Pekin Cemeteries.
“DECORATION DAY AT PEKIN
OUR HONORED DEAD NOT FORGOTTEN
Address of the Hon. Thomas Root.
From our own Correspondent.
Pekin, May 31.
The day appointed for strewing the graves of our fallen heroes with flowers, was not allowed to pass unobserved by the citizens of this and the adjoining neighborhoods. Though the morning was rainy and the afternoon threatening, yet as the time designated by the committee drew near, the people began to come from all directions, until a much larger number had come together than any former occasion of this kind had called out.
The Hon. L. R. Sanborn was the marshal of the day, and in the performance of this duty he was assisted by Maj. Jas. Lowe, Captain S. Kittinger, Dr. W. Q. Huggins, Dr. E. T. Pyle, H. A. Collins and M. B. Fuller.
The people assembled in front of the M. E. Church, and the procession was formed in the following order: First the
PEKIN CORNET BAND,
which though a new organization and coming out on this occasion for the first time in public, did themselves great credit, and added much to the interest of the ceremonies.
Next in order were the veteran soldiers with the regimental flag of the old 28th. Among the veterans we noticed H. A. Collins, of the 28th N. Y. V.; W. D. Lovell, 23d N. Y. Battery; M. F. Barber, Co. M., 14th Heavy Artilley [sic]; James Hamilton, Co. A., 21st N. Y. V.; S. G. Natus, Co. E., 145th O. Vols.; S. W. Robinson, Co. B., 11th Mich. Infantry; Charles M. DePue, U.S.S. Corps; Matthew Pletcher, 18th N. Y. Battery; Nathaniel Hyatt, Co. C. 28th, N. Y. Vols.; Andrew Reigle, Co. F. 8th N. Y. H. Artilery [sic]; Wm. Dutton, Co. B. 8th N. Y. H. Artillery; Capt. S. Kittinger, 23d Battery, once chief of Artillery; Chaplain Foot, 151st N. Y. Vol.; Wm. Titus, Co. B. 8th N. Y. Artillery; Major James Low, 8th N. Y. Artilery [sic]; Dr. W. Q. Huggins, of the 33-136th N. Y. Vol’s; Wm. Kinney of the 1st N. Y. Batery [sic] Co. F, and A. E. Wentworth, Co. F. 151st N. y. Vol’s. Following the veterans, were the clergy and the orators of the day. Next was a company of 25 young ladies each dressed in white, bearing floral wreaths, to be placed on the monument; next came the children of the Sunday School, followed by the citizens generally. The procession moved to the old cemetery, which contains the grave of a single soldier, and while there are the veterans filed in bearing the flowers provided, and laid them upon the grave of Andrew Miller. From thence the procession moved to the new cemetery, visiting first the family burying ground of John Robinson, on the monument of which was inscribed the name of Charles P. Robinson, who fell in the battle of Fair Oaks, and who sleeps in an unknown grave in the Sunny South; next to the grave of Capt. Thos. Low, then to that of Lyman Pyle, and from thence to the monument. Forming around that, the names inscribed on it were read, and as each name was called one of the young ladies before designated stepped forward with a wreath of flowers which was placed on the monument.
The audience was called to order and the Rev. Wm, Scism offered prayer, after which Thos. Root, Esq., delivered the following address:
…
Men, the mention of whose names brings to our minds the memory of their forms, their features, their voices, their childhood, their youth, their manhood, all that they were in life. Even now I seem in retrospect to see Benjamin J. Rose reverently kneeling in yonder sanctuary, and her his devout supplication at the mercy seat. I see him as he leaves this temple of devotion. I think, too, of that other scene where stranger eyes might not observe, when he takes leave of the wife of his bosom and the children of his love. I see him take his place as a soldier of his country and march away to the field of strife. Here, too, I seem to see Alexander Mabon, Emory Wilcox and John Root, companions of my school boy days. They, too, depart, and each followed by a father’s and a mother’s prayers; and with William Ireland and Andrew Lapworth, shoulder to shoulder, upon the tragic field of Cold Harbor, followed the gallant Colonel Porter to glory and a grave. Rose, Mabon and Wilcox, Root, Ireland and Lapworth –
They on the field of battle fell,
In unknown graves they lie.
Their memory we cherish well,
Their names shall never die.
But recollection brings to our presence other voices and the remembrance of other associations, and we seem even now to listen to the fervent exhortations of Isaac Williams, the charming song of Henry Houstater, the lively voice of Lyman Pyle as he acts so well his part in the humorous dialogue, and we seem again to listen to the address or declamation of Charles Robinson, Samuel Williams or Russell Titus. We seem to see before us that brace of brothers Lewis and Andrew Miller, and there are Albert Empy, Charlie Wright and Daniel Porter.
But their places are vacant now. They all went out from us to fight their country’s battle, and have not, will not return to us. Isaac Williams, Andrew Miller, Russell Titus, Henry Harrington, Daniel Porter, Henry Houstater, George Williams and Lester Atkins fell victims to disease, included by the exposure and hardships of the camp and the field.
Charles Wright died of a wound received in the march to Petersburg, and the boy hero sleeps in his soldier grave at Annapolis.
Albert Empy was killed in the fierce battle of the Wilderness, and the gallant little color-bearer rests in a spot unmarked and unknown.
Lyman Pyle was one of the victims of the bloody fight at Reams Station.
Joshua Smith fell at the closing fight before Lee’s surrender.
At Hanover Court House, Lewis Miller, twice wounded, refused to leave the front and was there slain in the thickest of the fight.
At the gallant but disastrous fight at Cedar Mountain, Samuel Williams was numbered with the slain.
Somewhere on the three days battlefield of the Peninsula, Charles Robinson met his fate and slumbers in a spot unseen and unknown to any earthly friends.
Thomas Low and Edward Pierce though fatally wounded on the field, were cared for by friends in their last hours, and their remains were interred by kindred and friends near their homes.
I am fully aware that all I have said, and much that I have failed to say, about the honored dead has been often said and better said before. But I am also reminded that the number of those to whom this narrative is a familiar one, is less to day than on any former occasion of our annual gatherings; that the proportion of those present, who never saw and never knew the men whose memory he has to honor, is larger to day than ever before; and that at each returning anniversary, the proportionate number of the former will be less, and of the latter more; even here now, we are standing by the graves of the honored fathers of Thomas Low, John Root and Charles W. Robinson, and the mother of William Ireland; fathers and mothers who gave their sons to their country, followed them with their prayers and their benedictions, and who by their fall were bereaved of as noble sons as ever gladdened parents hears; and with us to day, the places so lately fliled [sic] by those fathers and mothers, are vacant. They will meet with us here, nevermore.
And the time is not far distant in the future, when, among all the living, there shall be not one, who ever saw, or ever knew a single one of the men whose names are chiseled upon that marble shaft. The recollection of form and feature, and vice and mien shall, how soon alas! be lost in utter forgetfulness.
…
At the close of the address and while the band were playing the “Star Spangled Banner,” the promiscuous offering of flowers was made, which literally covered the base of the monument.
We noticed that many took this occasion to strew flowers on the graves of their friends, to which we could see no objection.
The citizens of Pekin and vicinity may justly pride themselves on the success which has attended their efforts to observe this beautiful custom. A noble marble shaft erected by the contributions of the people, express what they felt years ago in regard to honoring the brave men who went out from them and fell in the defense of their country, and the increasing interest which is manifested in these annual gatherings, is a pledge that they will not soon be forgotten. Much credit is due to HOMER COLLINS, a veteran of the 28th, for the tasteful decorations of the cemetery for the occasion.”
- “Decoration Day at Pekin,” Lockport (NY) Daily Journal, 3 June 1872, p. 3, cols. 2-4; digital images, Old Fulton New York Post Cards (https://www.fultonhistory.com : accessed 7 August 2025), Historical Newspapers United States and Canada: Lockport NY Daily Journal 1872 Feb-Jun – 0418.pdf.