Story from the August 19, 1905 Norwalk Hour about the gift of a gavel to the Buckingham Post in Norwalk by Edward M. Lees. The gavel was made from a wood rail located on Cemetery Hill at Gettyburg.
A little over 107 years ago, in August 1905, Edward M. Lees of Westport gave the gavel that had been used to call meetings to order at the McDonough G.A.R. Post in Westport to the members of the Buckingham Post in Norwalk. The two posts has merged recently as a result of dwindling membership in the Westport post.
The article posted here raises the interesting question (one of many I come across) as to the whereabouts of the gavel today. The McDonough gavel was made from a fence rail on Cemetery Hill, and I am fairly certain that it was from nearby the position the regiment held on July 2nd. Odds are that it ended up in the family of one or another of the veterans of the Buckingham Post…and perhaps still is.
So far we’re batting .000 in the search for any of these objects, but who knows – maybe this time something turns up!