A World War I Service Medal from My Town

In the beginning of February my local historical society received an inquiry about a medal found among a family’s other military keepsakes.  The medal was from World War I, and had the town name and a soldier’s name on the back.  The family in possession lives in another state and doesn’t know how or why this medal is among the past generation’s keepsakes.  They wanted to know if there was someone in town who could shed any light on the history of the medal or the person named on it. Images of the front and back of the medal were sent with the message. This intriguing problem was brought to me for my help in finding out more of the story.  I couldn’t resist trying to figure out who the soldier was and what the medal was all about.

I, of course, decided that I would try to build a family tree for the veteran.  How else would I figure out if there are living descendants to be found?  However, I was also curious about the medal itself since I knew nothing about such things.  So I started by going to the internet to search for information.  What I discovered there was that such medals are collectibles.  There are a number of websites that feature military medals from different times and different countries.  I also discovered that it was fairly common at the end of World War I (which was known as the Great War or the World War at that point) for towns or states or organizations to issue medals to their residents or members who were veterans, in appreciation and recognition of the service provided.   The internet sites I looked at showed me several examples of such medals, some identical to this one and some a different shape.  None of the examples I saw had a veteran’s name on the plate on the back of the medal.  In Massachusetts it was apparently done by towns and also churches as well as fraternal organizations, among others.  I’m not sure if there were any standard criteria used for who received one, i.e., only veterans who served in combat.  I also can’t find any information about when such  medals might have been presented, although it makes sense that it might have been the next November on the anniversary of the armistice, or perhaps on a Memorial Day.

We’ve also asked around town, looking for others with medals or for more of the story about how they were presented, etc.  However, we have discovered so far that no one in town seems to know anything about our particular medal nor anything about the town issuing such medals.  The town Veteran Services person hadn’t heard about it and didn’t have any archival information easily available.  The Veterans Memorial Committee didn’t seem to know, although there is a list of the WWI veterans on the memorial in the center of town.  The same list, which includes all the town’s veterans, is also on the town website, but there is no information about who was included on the list.  We tr4ied putting an article in the local newspaper showing the medal and the list of WWI veterans from the memorial, but haven’t heard yet from anyone having a similar medal or knowing anything about them.  A number of the families of these veterans still live in town and I assume that each veteran was given a medal but no one has reported that yet.  Finally, we’ve begun trying to search the local newspapers for information.  Our local newspaper was not in publication in the early 1920s, so any coverage would have been by one of the other local newspapers.  So far, there is no information to be had – yet – about how and when the medals were given.

So I have learned a little about the medal but raised many more questions for myself about the specifics of the medal the town issued.  I hope to find some answers about the medal and also to finish putting together a family tree for this specific veteran.  To be continued.