Carol Witherell of Tionesta was surprised to get an email about her great-uncle through Ancestry.com.
She was even more surprised when she saw that The Era had the dog tag he wore during his World War I service.
“Imagine my delight!” she told The Era on Monday.
The dog tag is that of Cleo H. Moyer, who served in World War I in Co. B of the 112th Infantry. It had been in the possession of a Bradford man, who gave it to The Era after reading a story about the dog tag of a Ludlow native, Cpl. James Uber.
He wasn’t sure where he had obtained it, but asked The Era to see if family could be found, or to turn the tag over to the National Guard. In turn, The Era reached out to retired Lt. Col. Gregory Davis of the Pennsylvania National Guard, who tracked down Witherell.
“I would be a first cousin, twice removed from Cleo Hubert Moyer,” she said. “Basically his mother and my great-grandfather were brother and sister.
“My great-grandfather was George Norton,” she explained. “His mother was Verna Norton. Cleo never had children. He was married twice.”
She never knew Moyer, but had done some research on him after finding his photograph in a box of family photos passed down to her through an aunt.
Her interest was sparked when she saw his military uniform. “My husband is a military man,” Witherell explained.
Moyer was a veteran of World War I, serving in the U.S. Armed Forces — the Pennsylvania National Guard. He lived in Bradford for about 20 years before moving to Buffalo, N.Y., where he passed away in 1953, leaving a wife and brother as survivors.
Davis tracked down information about Moyer’s military service, finding that Moyer enlisted July 17, 1917, in Meadville. He found, too, that Moyer received a Purple Heart after being wounded in the right hip from a grenade explosion on Oct. 1, 1918. He had fought in the battles at Chateau Thierry, Fismes and Argonne Forest.
It was at the Battle of Argonne Forest where Moyer was wounded. The battle was part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, one of the attacks that brought an end to the war. More than a million American soldiers participated — more than 26,000 were killed in action and more than 120,000 were wounded.
“He was awarded the Purple Heart,” Witherell said. “I would love to know whatever became of that medal. … You just never know.”
Davis said he does what he does because it’s “one old soldier looking out for another.”
“The world is full of these stories,” Davis said, “and each one of them deserves to be told and remembered. The men were sent off to a faraway place and many paid a heavy price.”
Witherell said she’s hopeful that sharing the story of the dog tag making its way back to family after so many years gets other people looking in their closets or desks to see if they have something that might mean so much to someone else.
“That would be a good thing,” she she said.
