Homer Byron Myler

Homer Byron Myler was born on April 18, 1855, in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He was the third of eight children to parents Samuel and Sarah Ann [Cleland] Myler. In 1859, Samuel moved his family to Jefferson County, Ohio, where they settled in Warren Township. Homer's father, Samuel, was a farmer, a skilled woodturner, and the sexton of Spring Grove Cemetery in East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio.

At the age of 22 years old, Homer married 17-year-old Mary Aditha Bucey on March 23, 1878, in Jefferson County, Ohio. Together, they raised eleven children (6 boys, 5 girls) in East Liverpool. Homer was a farmer, worked as a sexton of Spring Grove Cemetery, as well as a kiln fireman for various pottery factories. Homer’s youngest brother, Ulysses Simpson Grant, was a potter for Homer Laughlin (renamed Fiestaware).

In 1910, upon the death of his daughter, Sarah Lowessa, Homer welcomed his son-in-law, Louis Earl Lonsway, and little granddaughters, Ruth Lillian (1904-1992) and Marian Elizabeth (1905-1976), into his home. Shortly after, Louis Earl contracted tuberculosis, and the family moved to Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, to be near the best tuberculosis hospital of its time, Boehne Camp Hospital. Louis Earl succumbed to this disease five years later. Homer and Sarah Ann continued to raise their granddaughters in Evansville. Homer worked as a kiln fireman at the National Pottery Factory in Evansville.

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.

Marian Elizabeth (Lonsway) Werling

Marian Elizabeth Lonsway was the youngest of two daughters born to Louis Earl Lonsway and Sarah Lowessa Myler. When Marian was 5 years old, her mother, Lowessa, died at the young age of 26 due to neuralgia of the heart. Shortly after her mother’s death, her father, Louis, died from tuberculosis at 32 years old. Orphaned at nine years old, Marian and her older sister, Ruth Lillian, were raised in Evansville, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, by their maternal grandparents. In 1920, Ruth moved to Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, and stayed with her paternal Grand Aunt Ida Haefling, where she finished her senior year at Columbian High School. Her sister, Marian, soon followed her sister.
 
Leo and Emma [Stine] Werling lived next to Aunt Ida. Their oldest son, Vincent Ignatious Werling, soon began dating the girl next door. Vincent and Marian were married on January 21, 1924 by the circuit court in Monroe, Monroe County, Michigan. The couple made their first home in Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana. Their son, Richard Victor, was born on August 10, 1924, and  their son, Vincent Leo, was born on December 5, 1925.  The family stayed in Kokomo until 1934, when the family moved back to Tiffin to raise their sons near their family.