MEDAL OF HONOR BELL'S STORY ALMOST LOST TO HIS CALHOUN BIRTHPLACE - Efforts To Move Bronze Plaque Failed

(11/11/2025)

The story of Calhoun's Bernard Pius Bell's Medal of Honor was barely noted in the county for over 40 years until Pleasant Hill resident, the late Jim Burrows, discovered a clipping from a newspaper pasted on his chicken coup a number of years ago. Burrows brought the clipping to historian Norma Knotts Shaffer which sent the Hur Herald in search of Bell, resulting in travels and paths dredging stories about the Henrietta man. A significant effort to relocate a bronze plaque placed on the Big Bend US Army Armory, barely in use by the military and rarely visited. Old soliders Paul Whystell and Victor "Gene" Whytsell, members of the local VFW, and the Calhoun Commission, both now deceased, made a year long effort to move the bronze plaque to the Calhoun courthouse, but the effort failed. VFW SEEKING TO MOVE BELL MEDAL OF HONOR PLAQUE (2011) Grantsville's VFW Post 5959 is seeking to move a large bronze plaque honoring Calhoun's Medal of Honor recipient Bernard Pious Bell. Post Commander Victor Whytsell says the effort is being made to move the plaque from the US Army Reserve Center at Big Bend to the Calhoun Courthouse. Whytsell said the infrequently used armory has virtually no public exposure. "Sgt. Bell is one of the state's few Medal of Honor recipients, and we should be proud of his World War II contribution," Whytsell said. The Calhoun Commission will be working with the VFW to relocate the memorial. See CALHOUN'S MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT REMEMBERED - Bernard Pius Bell Had Humble Roots

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