[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.

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