History was unveiled — and a mystery was solved — on Saturday, Sept. 21. at Vashon Island Cemetery during a commemoration at the grave of a long-unmarked Buffalo Soldier.
Master Sergeant Benjamin Louis Glover served in the 24th and 25th Infantry of the United States Army in the turn of the 20th century. He died in 1942 and was buried on Vashon, alongside his mother Rebecca.
But it would take more than 80 years before Glover’s final resting place was properly marked, thanks to the research of the Buffalo Soldier Museum in Tacoma.
“African Americans get ignored in history,” said Jim Dimond, the historian of the Buffalo Soldier Museum who discovered the true inhabitant of Glover’s unmarked grave. “If he would have been a banker or civic leader, it would have been different. … But he was a civic leader. Actually, a hero.”
The Buffalo Soldiers were segregated Army regiments, made up exclusively of Black soldiers, serving in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the American west. Their name is said to have been given to them by members of the Cheyenne Tribe they fought, representing both the soldier’s curly, kinky hair which resembled the bushy head hair of the buffalo, as well as the tenacity and fierceness the soldiers had in common with the buffalo.
At last week’s ceremony, Glover received a Grand Army of the Republic service, a modified version of the ceremony that Civil War veterans would have received, Dimond said.
Glover and his mother’s gravestones were unveiled, and Buffalo Soldier Museum Board Member and historian Darrel Nash delivered a speech on the occasion — one in which he expressed joy over the opportunity to honor Glover’s life and sacrifices “to this great nation.”
“And it is a great nation, I can attest today,” said Nash, who is Black. “Because of his sacrifice, I’m here, to be the successful man that you see standing before you. He paved way for hundreds and thousands more like him.”
As Nash and Dimond detailed, Glover lived a remarkable life.
He was born in Georgia in 1877, a century after the Declaration of Independence and barely more than a decade after the close of the Civil War, to Rebecca and Henry Glover.
He grew up in the racist and segregated world of Jim Crow, in a society that did not allow him to use the same restrooms as his white neighbors.
Glover’s mother Rebecca was born into slavery on a Georgia plantation near Savannah sometime in the early-to-mid 1800s and married Benjamin’s father, Henry Glover, in 1870, who died only about a couple decades later.
Benjamin Glover joined the 25th infantry in 1899 and served two combat tours in the American Philippine war. From 1909 through 1913 he was stationed at Fort Lawton, which Dimond believes is how he came out to the Pacific Northwest in the first place.
His military band, which played at Fort Lawton, Dimond said, “was considered one of the greatest bands in the country at the time.”
His unit, the 25th Infantry Regiment, went to Hawaii in 1915 to construct a trail to the Mauna Loa volcano. But “he wasn’t finished,” Nash said.
Glover next joined up with another Buffalo Soldier unit, the 24th Infantry Regiment, and was a member of the band at Camp Columbus in New Mexico. Glover was there during the Battle of Columbus, in which Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa led his forces in an attack on the border town of Columbus, Nash said.
In 1921, Glover and the 24th Infantry moved to Columbus, Georgia, where their band became well known, Nash said.
His service record from the Army read “excellent, excellent, excellent,” Dimond said. “He had an absolutely perfect record in the army.”
While completing his 30 year military service, Glover earned a four-year college degree, paid for by the military, and after his retirement from the Army in 1929 he became a music teacher in Seattle.
“What a life,” Dimond said.
In the meantime, Rebecca Glover lived with her mother until about 1900 and came out to live in the Seattle area. She died on Vashon in 1917. She and Benjamin Glover’s sister lived at Portage, Dimond said.
Benjamin Glover died in 1942, at 65 years old, and was buried at the Vashon Cemetery next to his mother. Dimond said Benjamin’s sister and brother-in-law are buried at the same plot next to Benjamin and his mother, and those who attended the ceremony said they hope to get markers placed for them soon, too.
One obvious question remains: Has the museum found any living descendants of the Glovers today? Not yet, Nash said, though the Buffalo Soldier Museum has been searching for them.
History unfolding
The idea that a Black soldier was buried nearly 80 years ago on Vashon initially provoked surprise — and incredulity.
The discovery began when Dimond, researching graves on Vashon Island, found an unmarked grave with no further listed information.
He pulled up the death certificate — matching it with Glover’s military pension index — and learned that this was an African American soldier born in the late 19th century.
“I realized, my gosh, there’s a Buffalo Soldier out there,” Dimond said. “At first, I didn’t believe it, because I thought it’s got to be a mistake.”
Vashon Cemetery Manager Lisa Devereau said she laughed when she first heard the news. She told Dimond: “When you called me, I said, ‘No there’s not. There’s no way there was a Black man buried here in 1942.’”
But learning about Glover, Devereau said, has been a reminder that “there’s so many people here I don’t know anything about.”
Dimond also confirmed his theory using Glover’s census and service records, photos and an obituary of his death in Seattle.
“It took me about a year to put this together,” Dimond said.
Devereau ordered the markers; the Buffalo Soldier Museum paid for Rebecca’s marker and the U.S. Military provided Benjamin’s marker, Devereau said. Island Funeral paid the setting fee.
Islander Bryan Davis, who attended the ceremony with his son, noted how it’s not common to be taught about the Buffalo Soldiers — nor to find their history extending to an island in the Salish Sea.
“So many individuals … specifically throughout American history, have gone without acknowledgement,” Davis said. “And so to stand for this Black soldier, who did commit to U.S. service at the time he did, is pretty special.”
He expressed appreciation that Vashon and the cemetery worked with the Buffalo Soldier Museum to acknowledge Glover — and to recognize that “there was something on this island that called him here to begin with, and that sort of community has remained.”
“It’s hard to put words to it,” Davis said.
“Our local history and the stories represented on this island are so much more diverse and complex than we ever think,” Vashon Heritage Museum Director Gretta Stimson said. “We have this idea of what things were like, but that’s always a truncated version of the truth.”
Glover’s story, and his mother’s, are reminders that “no matter where you are, there’s history that should be recognized,” said Tyrone Cunningham, a basketball coach at Vashon High School and member of the Island GreenTech board.
As a Black man, he said, that story is also something to take pride in and to share with the community — the story of a man who fought for a country even when it refused to recognize his full humanity.
“It’s … Black people not being welcomed in certain places, and making a decision to fight and go through all the struggles, and still be a hero,” Cunningham said. “And to hear that — it just solidifies being a proud Afro-American, knowing that this person fought for everybody, no matter what color.”
Islander Bryan Davis places a wreath on the grave of Benjamin Louis Glover during a ceremony at Vashon Island Cemetery. (Alex Bruell photo)
Rebecca Glover’s gravestone is now on display at Vashon Cemetery. Born into slavery, she lived through the tumult of the Civil War and came to live on Vashon Island. (Alex Bruell photo)
Jim Dimond is the historian of the Buffalo Soldier Museum in Tacoma. (Alex Bruell photo)
Benjamin Louis Glover’s gravestone is now on display at Vashon Cemetery. A Buffalo Soldier and veteran, he spent thirty years in the Army and became a music teacher after his service concluded. (Alex Bruell photo)
