Tilden, Nebraska Continues Tradition of Honoring Their Civil War Veterans

It is a tradition I've tried to revive. Back when I was a kid growing up in Yankton, South Dakota, my folks and I would stop in Norfolk, NE, pick up my Aunt Neta, then drive the 22 miles west to Tilden to tend to the James family graves. With my folks now living in Kansas and most of my mom's brothers and sisters deceased, I'm one of the few remaining members of the James clan still in the area.

After we laid our flowers and I told Sarah and Matt what I knew about my departed grandparents and other relatives, we went on a short tour of the Odd Fellows Cemetery. As a kid, I used to walk around the graves and was struck by the number of Civil War veterans buried in the little cemetery.

On the this cool yet sunny day, the three of us did the same thing. There are a lot of veterans buried in the cemetery. Their graves are marked with small American flags. Many of them, however, also have iron stars planted by the headstones that indicate "Grand Army of the Republic" or "GAR" Many of the simple white marble headstones, besides indicating the name and birth and death dates of the deceased, also noted what unit they fought in in the Civil War.

There were lots of men who fought in units from Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois.

While I didn't take a formal count, I would be nearly half of the graves that indicate a veteran is buried there come from the Civil War era.

Think about this for a minute.

These men fought in the Civil War. I don't know what battles they fought . . . Shiloh, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Antietam, etc. But I'm sure many of them saw the absolute horrors of that bloody war.

Then, a few years later, either on government grants or the Homestead Act, they pulled up roots from their established towns and farms and came to northeast Nebraska to establish Tilden (about 1868), other small towns along the Elkhorn River, and farms.

Based on their burials in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, their impact on the society of this part of Nebraska must have been huge.

Can you imagine what these men and their wives and families lived through? A Civil War. Homesteading. Town building. These were tough people who lived tough lives.

These veterans fought to save the United States and to free their fellow man. Then they did even more, by building wonderful little towns like Tilden and prosperous farms.

As we remember our veterans today, it is easy to forget about the veterans of wars long past. The Civil War, the Spanish American War, even World War I are just words in a book to most of us.

But the sacrifice of these extraordinary men and women also built America and we shouldn't forget as we rightly celebrate the sacrifice of our more recent veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars.

And thankfully, in the little town of Tilden, Nebraska, population 1,078, they haven't forgotten about those who made their town, their state, their nation, and our freedom possible nearly a century and a half ago.