Benjamin Tilman Wylie was born on April 2, 1891, in York County, South Carolina. Wylie was a textile worker for the Marion Manufacturing Company in Marion, North Carolina, when he registered for the draft (World War I) in June 1917. He served with Company K of the 321st Infantry and was deployed overseas with this unit from July 1918 to June 1919. He was honorably discharged on June 28, 1919. Wylie died in Marion on July 15, 1964.