A muggy morning, gray clouds appeared to touch the tops of the neat rows of headstones presenting a vibrant reminder of the sacrifice of an American military.

“We don’t get paid for this, but it sure is rewarding,” said Robinson. “This is where the new meets the old and the old returns home.”

Roland Lataille, of Bristow, said being part of the transport was the right thing to do.

“It’s our honor to hold, to be with the remains of a patriot,” he said. “There’s just no other way to say it. He was a patriot.”

Jewett was the oldest son of Jared Williams and Rosaline Jackins, natives of New Brunswick, Canada, according to Oregon-based genealogist Phyllis Zegers. He had at least eight siblings and grew up in Hodgdon, Maine, near the Canadian border, where his parents were farmers.

After his time in the Civil War, Jewett Williams married and divorced and then married again, moving ever west. A son of his died as a baby of scarlet fever, though he fathered at least five other children.