Rumor has it that either he was wounded in France, or he never left NC and was in camp near the mountains. Ben Pierce was named for him. The 1920 Gilmer Twp, Greensboro City, Guilford Co. Census, shows him at the South Elm St. Beuboro Arcade, as a roomer with others. On the same census he claims mother and father were born in Va. He was a photographer in private practice, begining in July of 1920.