The lives of long-dead soldiers are recalled as communities set Memorial Day observances.

Local Memorial Day schedules on Monday, May 25, are packed with parades and solemn ceremonies as Westbrook, Gorham and Buxton plan to honor veterans.

Westbrook ceremonies include ones at Woodlawn Cemetery on Stroudwater Street and Riverbank Park on Main Street. The city’s parade features the Westbrook Police Department honor guard, three bands, Scouts, and Legionnaires from posts 197 and 62 riding on a float.

Bethel Christian Center, 36 Patrick Drive, Westbrook, has invited the community to attend a memorial service honoring veterans and their families at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 24. The service includes a choir from Curtis Lake Church in Sanford.

In Gorham, VFW Post 10879 will fire a rifle salute at ceremonies at Hillside and Eastern cemeteries. Betty Rines will play Taps at Eastern Cemetery.

Cindy Hazelton, director of Gorham Recreation Department, is organizing the town’s annual parade. Hazelton said highlights include Gorham police and fire departments, St. Andrew’s Pipe and Drum Corps, high and middle schools’ bands, antique vehicles, a team of miniature horses, and youth groups.

The South Buxton Cemetery Association is sponsoring a flag-raising with Girl Scouts. Jeff Grover, cemetery superintendent, is the ceremony organizer.

In commemorating Memorial Day, the American Journal this year selected a deceased veteran, who stood out in each community, to honor. Here are their stories:

Westbrook

Manchester was first to die

Stephen W. Manchester, who served with the U.S. forces in France, was the first Westbrook soldier to die in World War I, according to Westbrook Historical Society information.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports on its website that U.S. personnel sustained 53,402 battle deaths in World War I. Manchester died from wounds inflicted at the front.

Manchester is buried beside his parents in Woodlawn Cemetery on Stroudwater Street. Manchester’s tombstone reveals that he died July 18, 1918, at age 31, and the inscription says he died of wounds received in action in the Soissons-Reims sector.

A private, he served with the 101st Trench Mortar Battery in the 26th Division, the heralded Yankee Division. Its association has a memorial marker at Manchester’s gravesite.

Manchester was the son of Herbert and Ellen Manchester and the Manchester family once lived on Locust Street.

Stephen Manchester is the namesake of American Legion Post 62 in Westbrook. Rose Harriman, post manager, said Tuesday an enlarged photograph showing him in uniform is prominently displayed over the mantel in the post headquarters on Dunn Street.

Gorham

Slave earned pension

Prince, a slave from Gorham who has only one name on his gravestone, enlisted and served at sea during the American Revolution.

He is buried in Eastern Cemetery in Gorham. The inscription on his tombstone, obliterated by years, is mostly illegible. But, the inscription as transcribed in “Sprague’s Journal of Maine History,” briefly tells Prince’s story.

William McLellan of Gorham had purchased Prince as a young man in Portland in exchange for “shooks,” wood for making barrels or crates. Prince’s epitaph says he drove the team that delivered the goods used to pay for him.

Historical researcher Adam Ogden of Gorham located the grave of Prince, and learned he was from Antigua.

When McLellan marched off for duty in the Revolutionary War, Prince signed up for sea duty. According to the “History of Gorham,” by Hugh McLellan, Prince was a seaman onboard the Frigate Deane, later re-named Frigate Hague, under the command of Commodore Manley.

Prince was discharged in Boston in the fall of 1783, according to the town’s history. He returned to Gorham and was eventually freed.

Prince was given 10 acres of land, according to the tombstone inscription. In his latter years, he received a pension from the federal government for his war duty.

He died in 1829, more than 100 years old. He was married twice and the tombstone records the names of both wives, Dinah and Chloe.

Buxton

POW survivor in Korea

William “Billy” Camden, an Army corporal, endured 31 months as a prisoner of war in Korea, according to information provided by Buxton-Hollis Historical Society.

Camden survived the ordeal and was honored at a homecoming in Buxton on May 16, 1953. He became the first Maine Korean War prisoner of war to return home. Camden, who grew up in Buxton since the age of 3 months, had enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating from high school.

After service in the Army, he was stationed with the U.S. Customs Service in Jackman, where he died at 52 in a car accident in 1983. He is buried in the South Buxton Cemetery at Tory Hill.

Richard “Sandy” Atkinson, president of the South Buxton Cemetery Association, this week remembered Camden, who had joined the Army with his brother, Kenneth Atkinson.

Their mothers were close friends and met regularly when their sons were serving in Korea.

“It was a pretty stressful time,” Richard Atkinson said.

He recalled the solemnity that gripped the town while Camden was a prisoner of war and that their mothers “ cried a lot.”

Atkinson recalled Camden’s homecoming.

“He was given a new Chevrolet,” Atkinson said.

The historical society information reports that Camden was also honored with a 2-mile parade that ended at Weymouth Park, and 700 turned out for a dinner at the S.D. Hanson High School.

Richard “Sandy” Atkinson, president of South Buxton Cemetery Association, left, and Jeff Grover, cemetery superintendent, pause to reflect at the grave of Billy Camden, who was a prisoner of war in Korea.Staff photo by Robert LowellPhil LeClerc, commander of Stephen W. Manchester Post 62, left, and post member Bob Barton recently post a flag on the Woodlawn Cemetery grave of Stephen W. Manchester, who died in World War I.Veterans from VFW Post 10879 in Gorham, from left, Don Veilleux, Wayne Morrill and Bob Mountain, pay respects Saturday at the gravesite of Prince, a slave from Gorham who served at sea in the Revolutionary War. Prince is buried in Eastern Cemetery, where Gorham has a ceremony on Monday.Staff photos by Robert Lowell