Beatrice cannon remains, but vets' names are fading

Atop the memorial is a 9,200-pound, Civil War-era cannon -- an 1844 model, 8-inch howitzer thought to have come from a permanent fortification on a seaboard.

The memorial was the idea of Gilbert L. Cole, an architect who moved to Beatrice in 1878. He had fought for the Union Army and been seriously wounded. When he moved to Beatrice, Cole designed and built many businesses and homes in Beatrice, including the town's first opera house and the Masonic Temple.

Veterans and others paid $2.50 each to have the names placed on the memorial. Each inscription includes the soldier's company, regiment, state and branch of service. Among the names: Daniel Freeman, the first man to receive land under the Homestead Act. Homestead National Monument near Beatrice includes Freeman's site.

The cannon survived nationwide efforts during World War II to have cannons melted down for scrap metal. 

"I think (these cannons) can be put to better use now in winning the war than as decorations," state Salvage Committee Secretary Mark Caster told the Beatrice Daily Sun at the time. "After the war, there will be plenty of cannons to replace them, and newer models at that."

Beatrice residents apparently decided against relinquishing the cannon.

A bigger concern today: The names on the memorial are fading, and some can hardly be read.

"We need to protect the past," said Gage County Supervisor Rex Adams. "Those people fought and some died protecting our future. To me, even if it was 140 years ago, it's still part of what Gage County is today."

Adams said possibilities include building something around the monument to protect it from the elements or moving it to a place where it can be protected more easily.

"Maybe we can refurbish it, I don't know," Adams said. "But we need to make a decision in the near future. There will be a cost to protecting it, But the price of losing such a historic monument would be much more."