Westfield dedicates two headstones at previously unmarked graves of Civil War veterans

WESTFIELD — The headstones of two Civil War veterans were dedicated in a ceremony at Pine Hill Cemetery in Westfield on June 22. The ceremony was conducted by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and also featured descendants of one of the interred soldiers.

Eugene Theroux, commissioner of veterans’ graves in Westfield, said Lt. Lyman F. Hooker and Sgt. David Benson Furber, who both fought in the Civil War, were buried in previously unmarked graves. Theroux, a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, ordered their military service records from the National Archives and, after receiving them, applied for standard state headstones. The headstones were placed at their respective graves by volunteer veterans.

Hooker was born in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, in 1842. He enlisted in the Army as a corporal on October 1, 1861. He was a 21-year-old carpenter when he enlisted. He was drafted into Company C, 25th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He enlisted again on December 17, 1863. He was discharged on July 13, 1865, at Camp Meigs in Readville, now part of Boston.

After the war, he lived in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood and in Westfield. He married Delia A. Rider on August 14, 1861, and Emma Caroline Kendrick on May 20, 1866. Hooker died on April 3, 1910, in the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home.

Furber was born in Marlow, New Hampshire, in 1845. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1865 after serving in the Civil War. He left college and joined the Signal Corps, from which he was discharged with the rank of sergeant. He was a member of Lyon Grand Army of the Republic Post 41.

After graduating from high school, he came to Westfield and taught in the schools there. He was a member of the high school faculty from 1868 to 1876. He then went to work for the Crane Brothers Paper Company and served as paymaster until he retired from the Crane Company pension.

Furber was interested in local affairs and served on the school board from 1880 to 1886. While employed by the Crane Company, he handled much of the company’s foreign correspondence and was fluent in several languages. Furber was considered an expert in English.

During the ceremony, Theroux thanked Luann Bianco for the genealogical research that identified the descendants of the Civil War veterans and invited her to the service.

Participating on Furber’s behalf were his descendants Rick and Barbara Gallo of Estero, Florida, Robert and Kathleen Gallo of Westfield, and Alan and Heidi Gallo of Eastham. Alan Gallo is Furber’s great-grandson.

The tombstone dedication service used in Westfield is an adaptation of a 1917 service developed by the Grand Army of the Republic to dedicate tombstones for Civil War veterans, Theroux said.

Theroux also thanked the LA Tifft Camp 15 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, which held the service, the American Legion Post 124 Rifle Squad, the Sons of the American Legion, the Mount Moriah Lodge of Masons and the Westfield River Detachment 141 of the Marine Corps League. He gave special thanks to Kali Fantakis, the office manager of Pine Hill Cemetery, and her team for their hospitality, setting up the tents and chairs at each gravesite and providing refreshments after the ceremony.