Cousins receive flag from Civil War veteran’s final salute a century after he died
By Ben Kaplan
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — The Final Salute for a Union Civil War veteran who died in Des Moines nearly 100 years ago got even better after he was discovered by two of his descendants at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Dallas County.
In September of last year, Joseph Chedester was buried with full military honors after his cremated remains were discovered at a funeral home in central Iowa. He had been sitting on the shelf there since 1929.
KCCI brought you this story when the nonprofit The Final Salute announced it had confirmed Chedester’s military service in November 2023.
It was their work that led cousins Barbara Aker and Carol Woosley to the IVC in August of this year.
“It started, Carol was going to come from Chicago to visit me in Kansas City, and she was going to go to Marshalltown, Iowa, which my mother’s family is from,” Barbara said.
The cousins, whose family has a passion for service and genealogy, knew of Chedester’s existence but little else about what happened after his death.
But since they were coming to Iowa…
“I just went to Find a Grave and looked it up Friday night. We were leaving Saturday morning for Marshalltown, and there was his headstone,” Barbara said.
“He was lost and you adopted him. You gave him respect and you gave him honor. And here he is. Here he is,” Carol said, emotionally.
KCCI was there in October as Barbara and Carol met the team from The Final Salute for the first time and were presented with the flag from their great-great-grandfather’s burial. Watch the full story in the video above.
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