[Terry Tiell]

Oh wow Ed I wouldn't know where to start. His name was Benjamin Franklin Bowles Sr.
He enlisted at the age of 16 for WWI and injured badly in the trenches by mustard gas. He had all his skin burned off and was blinded and spent the rest of the war in France and returned to the states with a purple heart with 3 clusters for being shot, had his buddy blow up from a land mine right next to him which then his buddy turned into shrapnel, shot again and then gassed and blinded. He also received the grenadeer with palms (mom thinks thats what it was called) He regained his sight and was the major of the minute men (national guard these days) based out of middle river Maryland. Not sure how he got back to France in WWII but according to my mom thats when he brought it home.

Between the wars he was a U.S. Marshal and he was the first one to use a car in West Virginia, he'd hitch his horse to the rear bumper and use it when the roads got too rough for the car. Back then and in the mountains he went by the name of Ben Bowles and hunted moonshiners.

All this information comes from my mother so I don't know how correct it all is but I grew up hearing the stories as far back as I can remember. I'll try to get pics and unit info for you but so much my grand dads stuff disappeared after he died all that my mom says she still has is his flag and some arm bands he used to were. I'll try to get them and take pics of these for you.