Abel P. Upshur - Legacy

Legacy

One ship has been named in his honor:

• The destroyer USS Abel P. Upshur was originally commissioned in 1920, and later a Lend-Lease ship for Great Britain.
• In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS Abel Parker Upshur was named in his honor.

(There was also a Barrett Class Military Sea Transport Service ship named USNS Upshur, but according to official USN records, this later vessel was named for Major General William Peterkin Upshur, USMC, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, who died in a plane crash in Sitka, AK, 1943, while he was Commander, Headquarters of the Department of the Pacific. It was originally laid down as a passenger-cargo vessel, the President Hayes, but was acquired by the US government in 1950 for the Korean War, and renamed for Secretary Upshur. It was later used to ferry troops and supplies during the Cold War including the evacuation of the civilian and dependent population of the US base at Guantanamo Bay during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, and during the Vietnam War to ferry troops and supplies to Vietnam. It later became the vessel that carried the first prisoner exchange in Vietnam.)

These places have been named in his honor:

• Upshur County, West Virginia
• Upshur Streets in northwest Washington, D.C., Arlington, Virginia, Maryland, and northwest Portland, Oregon.
• Upshur County, Texas
  • Another victim of the USS Princeton explosion was Secretary of the Navy Capt. Thomas W. Gilmer. The city of Gilmer, Texas, was named for him; Gilmer is Upshur County's county seat.
• Mount Upshur, aka Boundary Peak 17, a summit on the Alaska-British Columbia border near Hyder, Alaska.