As part of the Mount Carmel Joint Veterans observance on Memorial Day, Garfield Camp No. 34 Sons of Union Veterans will honor Comrade Matthew Patrick Ward. Ward was a private and a member of the 129th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers in Company G.
Ward was born in Bristol, England, March 21, 1837. He moved to Mount Carmel in the late 1850s. Just before leaving England, he married Margaret George. Ward enrolled in the service at Ashland Aug. 8, 1862, and was mustered into the service at Harrisburg as a private Aug. 11, 1862. Company G of the 129th Infantry saw action at Antietam, Fredericksburg, along the Rappahannock and in the Chancellorsville campaign. He was mustered out May 18, 1863.
Ward returned to his home in Mount Carmel where he was an engineer at the Reliance Colliery. At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, 1897, the immense fly-wheel in the engine house at the colliery burst and Ward, who had attempted to escape through a window, was struck and pinned to the ground by an 800-pound section of the wheel. Doctors Millard and Harple had to trephined (drill open) Ward's skull and removed some shattered ribs, but Ward was too seriously injured to live. He died Oct. 19, 1897, at age 60.
Funeral services were opened at his home on South Hickory street by Rev. Dr. Stuart Mitchell of the Presbyterian Church. Post No. 92 G.A.R., Garfield Camp No. 34 S.U.V, and the G.A.R. Women's Relief Corp attended the funeral. After the service, the cortege left on the Reading Road for the Alaska Cemetery, where the deceased was buried with military honors. Surviving was his wife Margaret. The couple had no children.
The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is a patriotic and educational organization, similar to the Grand Army of the Republic, founded Nov. 12, 1881, and incorporated by act of Congress on Aug. 20, 1954.