[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 192 (Monday, December 12, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H9671-H9672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ANDREW GOMER WILLIAMS POST OFFICE BUILDING
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend
the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7514) to designate the facility of
the United States Postal Service located at 345 South Main Street in
Butler, Pennsylvania, as the ``Andrew Gomer Williams Post Office
Building''.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 7514
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. ANDREW GOMER WILLIAMS POST OFFICE BUILDING.
(a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal
Service located at 345 South Main Street in Butler,
Pennsylvania, shall be known and designated as the ``Andrew
Gomer Williams Post Office Building''.
(b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation,
document, paper, or other record of the United States to the
facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be
a reference to the ``Andrew Gomer Williams Post Office
Building''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) and the gentlewoman from New Mexico
(Ms. Herrell) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York.
General Leave
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous
consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise
and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this
measure.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield myself
such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7514 to designate the
facility of the United States Postal Service located at 345 South Main
Street in Butler, Pennsylvania, as the Andrew Gomer Williams Post
Office Building.
Mr. Williams was born in Richmond, Virginia, on September 8, 1840. At
the age of 10, he went to work as a nail cutter in the local factory.
At age 21, he helped to raise three companies of men to become part
of the newly created 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was elected
captain of Company E but declined the honor and rank to initially serve
as the third sergeant.
In 1862, Mr. Williams was promoted to second lieutenant on the field
during the Second Battle of Bull Run. He fought in over a dozen battles
and was wounded four times.
During the Battle of the Wilderness, he was struck in the left temple
and was found barely alive 4 days later on the battlefield. He was then
mustered out with the rest of his regiment on August 6, 1864.
After his return home, he was unable to work due to his wounds. He
entered Duff's Business College in Pittsburgh to become a bookkeeper
and also read law at home.
Mr. Williams went on to serve one term in the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives and 4 years in the Pennsylvania State Senate.
Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to join me in honoring Mr.
Williams by naming a post office in Butler, Pennsylvania, after him,
and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. HERRELL. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly).
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, there are few times in our
lives when we really get to honor true heroes. Today is one of those
days that we have by naming a post office after him.
I am going to read through this document that I have to give you an
idea of just who Captain Andrew Gomer Williams was.
Now, this is at a dedication. It starts off with: ``Monuments are as
old as our race and all along the history of the dim and dusty age down
to the bright and joyous present we have been perpetuating the memory
of heroic men.''
These elegant words, so very appropriate this morning, are not mine
but were the actual words of Andrew Gomer Williams, whose monument we
gather here this morning to dedicate.
He delivered them in a speech on September 11, 1889, on the
Gettysburg Battlefield during ceremonies dedicating the monument to his
regiment, the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, who fought during the
famous battle on July 1 through July 3 in 1863.
Much like they gathered on that field 132 years ago, we gather here
today on this field to perpetuate the memory of a heroic man.
Ironically, Williams, who fought for the Union, was born in Richmond,
Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy on September 8, 1840, to a
Welsh immigrant father and an eastern Maryland mother.
{time} 1600
His family moved from Richmond to Pittsburgh in 1847 and from
Pittsburgh to Etna 1 year later. The recipient of very little
education, Andrew Williams went to work as a nail cutter in the local
factory at the young age of 10. He was a fourth grader.
Maybe it was the sense of patriotism that swelled in Andrew Williams'
heart, or maybe it was wanting to escape the dullness of factory work
for the great unknown adventure of war, but regardless of the reason,
we do know that at age 21, in 1861, Mr. Williams was helping to raise
three companies of men to become part of the newly created 63rd
Pennsylvania Volunteers and leave the smoky city of Pittsburgh for the
battlefields of his native South.
He was elected captain of Company E but declined the honor and the
rank to initially serve as their third sergeant when their 3 years of
service began on September 9, 1861.
He was promoted to 2nd lieutenant on the field during the Second
Battle of Bull Run in 1862, and then in the spring of 1863 he was
promoted to the rank of captain of Company E of the 63rd Pennsylvania
Volunteers. He fought in over a dozen battles and was wounded four
times including at the Charles City Crossroads on June 30, 1862, and
again at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862.
1863 would find Williams leading his men at the Battles of
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. During the Battle of the Wilderness on
May 5, 1864, Williams was thought to have been mortally wounded after
being struck in the left temple by a Confederate minie' ball and left
for dead. Miraculously, he was found barely alive 4 days later on the
Wilderness battlefield.
According to his great-granddaughter Mary Caroline Baker Hunt,
Williams' life was saved by falling wounded inside the muddy boundaries
of a spring with the muddy soil saving his temple wound from infection
and providing him with much-needed water. He was mustered out with the
rest of his regiment on August 6, 1864. But Williams would carry the
external scars from the near fatal wound for the rest of his life.
After his return home to Etna, he was unable to find work for the
next 3 years due to his wounds. He entered Duff's Business College in
Pittsburgh to become a bookkeeper and also read law at home.
In 1868, following his father's death in a boiler explosion at the
Fort Pitt Foundry, he was forced to return to cutting nails in the Etna
rolling mill to help support his family while continuing his law
studies at night. Besides his father's tragic death, Williams,
throughout his life, experienced the deaths of 13 members of his family
by explosions, railroad accidents, burnings, and drowning.
In spite of all the personal and family trauma, Andrew G. Williams,
marched on and came to Butler in 1875, and upon being admitted to the
Butler bar the following year, immediately formed a partnership with
Alexander Mitchell. This partnership would last until Mitchell's death
40 years later.
During these four decades together, the men claimed to have never had
an argument or ever having signed a lease for their office on the
Diamond with their word as their bond. The only day in the entire
history of their practice they did not open was when both men's Civil
War regiments were holding reunions on the same date in Pittsburgh. The
two lawyers closed up shop every day at precisely 4:45. It was said
that people along their walking route home
[[Page H9672]]
could set their watches by their passing.
The house Andrew Williams came home to each night he built himself in
1887 for his second wife and three sons and daughter and for his three
children from his deceased first wife.
Williams' military service in the Civil War continued to play an
important role in his life with his membership in the local chapter of
the Grand Army of the Republic, or GAR, a Civil War veterans' group,
and contributing his time to help those survivors scarred by the
effects of the war. He helped Civil War soldier spouses whose husbands
had served and had died to get them the benefits that they deserved.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Ms. HERRELL. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Pennsylvania.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. He also volunteered serving on the Board
of Directors of the Civil War Orphans' Home that was located on
Butler's Institute Hill from 1867 until moving to Mercer, Pennsylvania,
in 1905.
Outside of his legal practice and his Civil War-related activities,
Mr. Williams served one term in the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives and 4 years in the Pennsylvania State Senate. He also
served for 20 years as the choir director of Butler's First Methodist
Church and rose to the rank of Grand Commander, Knights of the Templar
of the State of Pennsylvania in the Masons.
After a full life devoted to his Nation, his church, his community,
and--most importantly--his family, Andrew Gomer Williams died in his
North McKean Street home on April 6, 1923, from pneumonia at the age of
83 at 10:40 that morning. Fittingly, for a man who had been a soldier
in the Civil War, his funeral and burial were held on April 9, the same
day, only 58 years earlier, that Robert E. Lee had surrendered his
Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at a place called
Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.
Now, the finish to this speech is not mine. But I think it is so
relevant as to where we are today. Allow me to conclude my speech today
the same as it began with the eloquent words spoken at Gettysburg by
Andrew Gomer Williams well over a century ago.
Mr. Williams said:
We have met again on this field after so many years to
perpetuate the memory and render our faint and feeble tribute
of praise to the valor of those Pennsylvania soldiers.
Especially at this time in our history, these are the heroes we
should be naming buildings and Post Offices with. It has taken a long
time to get to this point.
Madam Chair, I thank you for working together on this.
I do hope people listen to these words. These are the true heroes of
America. These should be the examples that we all try to live by today.
In a country that is getting too far apart and needs to get back
together, this guy is a hero. This guy deserves as much time as we can
give him.
Ms. HERRELL. Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this
bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I urge the
passage of H.R. 7514 for a true American hero, and I yield back the
balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 7514.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________