We have enough biographical detail on both Bill Wilsons of both locales that I have no doubt they were different men. Both Bill Wilsons previous to their war experiences lived much of their lives in those neighborhoods and had families there. They were both so well connected in their separate neighborhoods that there is no way they could take each other's place.

Besides, the physical distance between the two locations is immense. One was in Phelps County at the NW corner of Dent County and the other lived in northeast Morgan County. Between them, traveling in a straight line from northwest to southeast lies most of Morgan County, the full length of Miller County, SW corner of Maries County, and most of Phelps County. This includes miles of very hilly, much forested land of not so many roads plus the huge obstacle of the Osage River, which was wide and navigatible by riverboats through that porion from its mouth on the Missouri River all the way west to Bates County near the Kansas line. I calculated the straight-line distance between Syracuse to Lake Spring to be about 80 miles as the crow flies, and of course the route by period roads along the ridgelines would have been a lot longer--probably between 85 and 100 miles through rather rough country.

This was interesting to think about, but the theory just doesn't hold up to close scrutiny.

Bruce Nichols