Private Owen Fowler November 9, 2018 Image: Alabama Department of Archives and HistoryOwen Fowler (standing at right in this photo) was born on March 30, 1894, in Hartselle, Morgan County. His father, Robert, was a former slave who briefly served in the Union Army near the end of the Civil War. Twelve members of the Fowler family lived together on their Morgan County farm. Fowler worked the land with his parents and siblings and was employed at a local cotton gin. He signed his draft registration card with an “X” in June 1917 and indicated that he was employed as a laborer with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company in nearby Albany, Alabama. Inducted into the U.S. Army at Decatur on October 28, 1917, Fowler was assigned as a bugler to Company E of the 366th Infantry Regiment, part of the fabled 92nd Division Buffalo Soldiers. He sailed for France in June 1918. Nearly 3,500 soldiers in the American Expeditionary Forces died on the morning of November 11, 1918, before the cease-fire that would end the Great War at eleven o’clock. As his regiment advanced upon the town of Bouxieres in the Marbache Sector of France, Fowler was mortally wounded by shrapnel from a mortar shell. He died in a field hospital the following day, among the last of almost 2,500 Alabamians killed in France during the war. Casualty reports published in the state’s newspapers shortly before Christmas erroneously reported that Private Fowler was wounded but alive. Official confirmation of his death arrived in Hartselle two months later. Fowler’s remains were returned to his family in May 1921. His older brother, Mordechai, later requested a government-issued headstone honoring Owen Fowler’s service to his country.

Alabama Eagle Scouts Commemorate World War I November 8, 2018 (Image: The Wetumpka Herald)This Sunday, on the centennial of the conclusion of the Great War, officials will dedicate a new monument on the grounds of the Elmore County Courthouse in Wetumpka listing the names of the men from the central Alabama county killed during the conflict. This project was undertaken by seventeen-year-old Owen S. Tilley, a member of local Boy Scout Troop 13. “I wanted to do something that would enhance my home county and be worthwhile for the entire community,” Tilley said. Tilley used the Alabama Gold Star Database, compiled from the files of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, to create the list of forty-three soldiers and sailors from the county who died during the war. Among the historians he consulted in writing brief biographical statements on the individuals were Elmore County Archivist Linda Blankenship, Nancy Dupree of the Alabama Archives, Air Force Historian Matt Scales, and Ken Tilley, his father, who works at Fort Rucker’s U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, and who previously worked at the Alabama Archives for many years. Owen Tilley raised money to complete the granite monument, which stands five feet tall and features the names on two columns below an etching of a WWI soldier. The piece was produced by Farmer Memorial, a local company. It will join similar monuments on the courthouse grounds honoring the sacrifice of soldiers and sailors in other conflicts. “They came from all corners of our county,” Tilley told the Elmore County Commission when he appeared before them requesting permission to erect the monument. “During this centennial year, I feel it is appropriate to recognize them.” The Elmore County World War I memorial will be dedicated at 2:00 pm on Sunday, November 11, 2018. https://www.thewetumpkaherald.com/2018/09/26/boy-scout-given-go-ahead-on-wwi-memorial/ (Image: The Wetumpka Herald)Thanks to Eagle Scout Noah Hudson, a familiar attraction at Wetumpka’s Memorial Park has recently received a much-needed facelift. Hudson refurbished the World War I cannon that formerly stood on blacktop in the park and moved it to a new spot near the Coosa River. “The cannon had been sitting there on what used to be a basketball court for some time,” Hudson said. “I thought that it would be a good idea for a project because it’s unique.” Because of the blacktop's dilapidated condition, Hudson said the cannon deserved to be in a better location." We couldn't just put it right back there. Right here, it's overlooking the river and lot more pleasing to the eye," he said. In the future, Hudson hopes the area around the cannon will be landscaped and the cannon will be designated as a historic monument. At noon on November 11, the public is invited to gather at the cannon to pay their respects to the forty-three soldiers from Elmore County who died during World War I. https://www.thewetumpkaherald.com/2018/11/08/local-boy-scout-refurbishes-memorial-park-cannon/