Ceremony held to honor last Union soldier buried in Westmoreland County

IRWIN, Pa. —  A gun salute and the sound of taps filled the air at the Union Cemetery in Irwin just after noon on Monday to honor John Ernest Weigel.

“It’s crazy just to have so many people even like the musket salutes, that was really awesome,” said Kimberly Herman, Weigel’s great-great-great-great granddaughter.

Weigel was the last Union soldier to be buried in Westmoreland County. The ceremony to honor him is part of a project with the Sons of Union Soldiers fraternity that started nationwide more than 20 years ago.

“In Westmoreland County, we’ve never had the ceremony done,” said William Bray of the Sons of Union Soldiers Greensburg.

J.E. Weigel and his five brothers from Elizabeth Township all fought in the Civil War, and returned home safely after the fight was over.

Weigel volunteered with the 189th Ohio Volunteers and was discharged from service in 1865. He then moved to Irwin and served as the borough tax collector in the early 1900s.

“Which I thought was kind of ironic, because my dad was a banker, my grandfather was a banker, my mom worked in a bank, so apparently we had a strong financial background and I steered a little clear of that,” Herman laughed.

Herman, her husband, and their two children were able to lay wreaths at Weigel’s gravesite as part of the ceremony. She said she didn’t know anything about her ancestor who fought with the Union soldiers until the Sons of Union Veterans reached out to her.

“I had zero idea whatsoever,” she said. “My dad used to talk, according to my mom, about John all the time but I don’t recall personally any stories, so this was all brand new to me and totally awesome.”

Herman is a civics teacher with PA Cyber Charter School, and said she’s always had a fascination with history.

“To be able to go back and say, ‘hey, I’m actually related to Civil War veteran,’” that’s pretty awesome,” she said.

Her family received proclamations from local and state officials in honor of her ancestor, which she said she is going to give to the Westmoreland County Historical Society.

“I really think that’s something my dad would have wanted to do, I’ll take them [my children] there to see it and have actually be like, preserved, I think is really cool,” she said.  

Herman said now that she knows about her ancestor, she’s going to do some more research to try and learn more about him and his time in the Civil War. She said she was moved by how many people came out to the ceremony, and that her kids, Weigel’s youngest descendants, were able to be a part of it.

“This is so cool to be able to pass down to the next generation and hopefully we’ll be able to find out a bit more,” she said. “I definitely plan to do a little more research into it.”     

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