A library is compiling a database honoring veterans from Gorham to preserve part of the town’s history, and a committee hopes townspeople answer a call to help fill out the roll.

Baxter Memorial Library, 71 South St., is conducting a survey of all veterans with ties to Gorham.

“The Gorham veterans database is an ongoing project,” Pamela Turner, library director, said. “It is an effort to make a record of this very important aspect of our local history.”

Gorham has supplied the country with military veterans in conflicts going back as far as the Revolutionary War. The survey of the town’s veterans is being undertaken as part of Gorham’s annual Veterans Day observance.

“The purpose of this survey is to honor and make a record of the service of all veterans from Gorham or veterans with Gorham ties,” a message on the library’s website reports.

Turner said the veterans’ database would be stored at Baxter Memorial Library.

Survey questions include name, branch of service and rank. Personal contact information will not be stored on the database.

Other survey questions are:

• What is your connection to Gorham? If you attended Gorham High School, include graduation year;

• What inspired you to join the service?

• What was the most rewarding thing about your military service?

• What was the most challenging thing about your military service?

• If you would like to share a specific experience from your service to our nation, do so;

• What advice would you give to a young person considering military service?

A separate survey form is available for a family member of a veteran.

Information about the survey was posted on the town’s website in August. Turner said on Tuesday that 50 surveys have been completed.

The town’s Veterans Day Ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 11, at Gorham Municipal Center, 75 South St. Turner said the Friends of Baxter Memorial Library would be providing refreshments. Local Girl Scouts will serve the refreshments and Gorham Police Department will provide the honor guard.

Turner is a member of the Gorham Veterans Day Ceremony Committee, along with Gorham Police Chief Ronald Shepard; Georgia Humphrey, station manager of Gorham Access Community Television; and James Rathbun, public services librarian.

Each year, the observance focuses on veterans from a different era. The Veterans Day theme this year is the Civil War and its 150th anniversary.

Turner said highlights of the observance include a salute to veterans and the Centennial Brass Band playing Civil War era music, and a yet unnamed keynote speaker.

Shepard is seeking residents who are willing to show their Civil War artifacts, relics, and correspondence or share stories.

Humphrey reported in an email that an observance feature this year would be a video titled “The Civil War – Gorham Connections.”

“It will include a section about Gambo Powder Mill but also other topics – dispatches from Gorham officers, Civil War monument, and a segment from the cemetery,” Humphrey announced

The veterans’ survey forms are available on the library’s web site and paper copies of the surveys are available at the Adult Services desk at the library.

“We will also have laptops available after the ceremony with volunteers, who will be happy to assist people with taking the surveys online,” Turner said.

A CLOSER LOOK

For more information or to access the Gorham veterans survey, visit www.baxter-memorial.lib.me.us or call 222-1190.

Gorham’s Civil War monument is on the Gorham campus of the University of Southern Maine. The Civil War is the theme of this year’s Veterans Day observance in Gorham while a survey of all military veterans with ties to Gorham is under way.