Fundraising efforts toward the purchase of a Civil War memorial in Bethel began as early as 1866, a year after the war’s end. The local E. E. Whitney monument company was contracted to build it.

Several veterans and their family members attended the groundbreaking ceremony in the spring of 1908. From left, Leon Bartlett, Algeron Chapman, Mina Harriman, E. E. Whitney, J. H. B, Al Ward, Ira Bean, Asa Stowell, Stillman Littlehale, Albert Richardson, Herbert Hutchinson, Clint Baker, Ira Jordan, Ernest B., Silas Littlehale, Rollings Morgan, Mrs. Bertha Kendall, Mrs. Collins Morgan, Mrs. Allie W., Mrs. Putnam, and Mrs. J.