Frederick Swinnerton Titus was born in Marion County on 25 February 1874. His parents were Samuel N. Titus & Elenor (Swinnerton) Titus. Fred S. Titus was married to Theresa (Herman) Titus.
Fred S. Titus had always wanted to be an army officer like his father, S. N. Titus. He was said to have worn his father’s shoulder straps at a very young age. When Fred S. Titus was eighteen years old, he would join G Company, 14th Regiment, O. N. G. The company was based in Prospect, Ohio, at this time. He would promote from Private to Corporal in the year he joined. He would see the company moved to Marion, Ohio, on 31 October 1892. He would be made a sergeant the following summer and then in the spring of 1894, he would be the companies first sergeant.
On 16 March 1894, Fred S. Titus would become a second lieutenant, and first lieutenant on 8 March 1898. On 25 April 1898, when G Company had received its call to arms for the War with Spain, he would help to organize the volunteers into the company. He was detailed acting chief quartermaster on staff of Major General James H. Wilson, 1st Division, 1st A. C., 4 July to 21 August, 1898; detailed as quartermaster at division headquarters, 21 August 1898, until ordered to Columbus to muster out with regiment on 20 January 1899.
While in Puerto Rico he would be credited with a peculiar capture of the town of Coamo. The account is below from The Marion Daily Star dated 26 August 1828.
He would return to serving with G Company in Marion, Ohio, after the War with Spain. He would see the Company re-designated as D Company. He would serve as a Captain beginning 21 August 1899. Titus and James W. McMurray would be very active in the reorganization of D Company following the Spanish American War.
Titus would be promoted 16 July 1900, to the rank of Major and serve with the 4th O. N. G.
When World War One broke out, Fred Titus was accepted for service and given a captain’s commission. A few days after he was mustered into service, he would sail for France and take charge of a labor battalion in Brest. He was overseas for about sixteen months before returning to Camp Sherman. He was here about a month in the hospital recovering from a hernia operation. He was awaiting discharge at the time of his death.
Major Fred S. Titus would die at Camp Sherman, Ohio, on 5 September 1919. Fred S. Titus is buried at Grand Prairie Cemetery, Brush Ridge, Marion County, Ohio. Major Fred S. Titus is not at this time listed on any World War One Honor Rolls.

Capture of Town.
Captain Breckenridge and four others in capturing Coama, Puerto Rico, written by Richard Harding Davis in the New York Herald.There were two aides of General Ernst, Captain Breckenridge and Lieutenant Titus, who were riding to the infantry skirmish line. Captain Paget, the British naval attache and four correspondents were all with them, they all forded the river together. They had been General Ernst and his staff hurrying toward the town half an hour before along the Ponce road and they supposed he had already entered it. Moreover the road leading into the town was the shortest distance leading to the place from which the firing came so they rode down it at a gallop in order that they might still be in time to see the surrender of it. “For a mile the road was quite empty and the houses on either side were either shut or barred or open and deserted. A rifle pit, also deserted, stretched across the road, but the horses scrambled around it and, turning with the road, brought us into the main street of Coamo. General Ernst was not in the street nor were there any Spaniards. There was a man with a white flag in the middle of it and he seemed inclined to drop it and run if needful.

“The horses were racing now, and the clatter they made in the empty street was impressive as we passed. A few men crawled out from under porches and shouted, “Viva Americanos’ and then ran back again and hid. More men with white flags peeped out from around corners and shook the flags at us frantically.

“It was like a horse race, with the starters stretched out along the course. Barricades of iron pipes across the street and more rifle pits failed to discourage the horses. They were excited by the shouts and the flags, and they carried us, racing neck and neck, to the other end of Coamo. It was found, to our embarrassment, that it was empty of American troops and that, unwittingly and unwillingly, we had been offered its surrender.

“Captain Breckenridge and Lieutenant Titus, looked at each other’s shoulder straps and Lieutenant Titus congratulated his superior officer on having captured a town of 5,000 inhabitants with six men.

“Then they borrowed a flag of truce and wigwagged to the Sixteenth that it was safe to come in”.

Friday August 26, 1898, The Marion Daily Star carried the above story regarding the exploit of Lieutenant Titus.