Frederick Grant Myler (aka John Keller)

On April 6, 1889, Frederick Grant Myler (often known as Grant) was born in East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio. His mother, Mary, was 28 years old, and his father, Homer, was 33. He was the younger brother of Marian and Ruth Lonsway's mother, Lowessa. Alongside his father, Grant worked as a potter and machinist. Grant joined the US Navy at the age of seventeen and began traveling the world. He hurt his ribs and one leg when he fell out of the ship's riggings three years later. On April 19, 1909, he was released from the US Navy and went on to work as a potter in Tiffin. 

Later, he continued his pottery business in Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, after moving there with his parents. He married Mamie Daum in Evansville on April 8, 1911, when he was 22 years old. While they were married, they had two kids. Lowessa, named after Grant's sister (Marian Lonsway's mother), and Mary Pauline. While Grant was in the service in 1916, Lowessa passed away at the age of two. 

In learning about the RMS Lusitania (British luxury liner) that was torpedoed and sank by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, Grant was upset that the United States did not join the fight. Not telling his family, he traveled from Indiana and crossed the Canadian border in order to join the British military.  He took the oath of allegiance to King George the Fifth on October 11, 1915. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal. 

When the United States entered the Great War in Spring 1917, Grant left the Canadian military to join the US military. Grant’s wife, Mamie, was against him joining the U.S. military so he traveled to Salem, Ohio, where he signed up under a pseudo name of John Keller.  Only his sister, Lillian, knew the name which allowed her to be the first contact should something happen to him, avoiding his name in the newspapers for his mother and wife to read of his death.

“John Keller” became a Sergeant for the Company M, 310th Infantry. He died as a young father on September 22, 1918, in Thiaucourt-Regnieville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, at the age of 29. He is buried as “John Keller” in the Arlington National Cemetery.