By Stephen D. Bowling

The obituary of Wilson Edgar Terry, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, was printed on page 5 of the February 22, 1968 edition of The Jackson Times.

Hunted Aguinaldo

Oldest Kentucky-Born War Vet Claimed

Wilson Edgar “Willie Bill” Terry was born in Crockettsville, Breathitt County, Kentucky, on March 7, 1874, the son of Isaac Terry and Sytha Caudill.  He died February 15, 1968, at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Cincinnati, of complications following an operation.

He was a student at Lees Junior College in Jackson, from where he joined Company G of the 44th Regiment. of the U.S. Infantry Volunteers at Jackson, Kentucky, for a two-year term of service on September 19, 1899, and served in the Philippine Islands, hunting Aguinaldo”, and was discharged June 30, 1901, at San Francisco because the company was mustered out.

He returned to his home in Breathitt County, where he married Miss Ida Louise Kidd, a student at Lees’ College, in 1902.  To this marriage was born Grace Elizabeth, now Mrs. David Jones, a retired teacher of Bulan, Kentucky.  Mrs. Terry died in 1904.

He then married Ruse Wilder of Owsley County.  Of this marriage, seven children were born: two sons, Oakley L. and Howard C. of Mason, Ohio, and five daughters: Bernice Hiser of Indiana, Viola Riser of Richmond, Washington, Arlie McComas of Kings Mills,  Ohio, and Audrey Allen and Doris Dawson of Mason, Ohio.

He was survived by eight children, a brother, thirty-one great-grandchildren, two great-great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews in Kentucky.

In 1902, Mr. Terry became a member of the Old Regular Baptist Church of Cow Creek, Kentucky, in Owsley County and was licensed to preach by that church in 1926.  During his ninety-three years, eleven months, and eight days, he lived in Breathitt, Owsley, Perry, and Boone Counties, in Kentucky, at Kings Mills, Ohio, and, at the time he entered the V. A. Hospital on November 11, 1907, was living with his daughter, Bernice Hiser, at Logan, Indiana.

 Mr. Terry was a farmer and notary public in Kentucky and a merchant in Ohio for over thirty years.  He was a noted singer of folk and religious songs in his younger days.  He was a staunch Republican for over seventy years and was made a Kentucky Colonel on April 24, 1962, by Governor Bert T. Combs.

At the time of his death, he was the oldest native-born Kentucky veteran and the oldest one from Warren County, Ohio, where he lived for many years and was buried.  Burial was from the Oswald Funeral Home in Lebanon, Ohio, where the Reverend Hershel Gesner, Baptist minister at Franklin, Ohio, conducted burial services at 1 p.m. Saturday, February 17, 1968.

He was buried at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Mason, Ohio, beside his second wife, Ruse, who died in 1901.  He was given a full military burial by the Ft. Ancient, Ohio Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Jackson Times, February 22, 1968, page 5

© 2024 Stephen D. Bowling