Spanish American War Medal

[HOA]

A hs classmate of mine (we are now 78 years old) recently sent this info to me and my question is: Is there any value to the medal and story and is there anyone interested in buying it? I have little or no knowledge of this subject. Thanks for any and all info.

Pete

 

"Marvin was working at the Ace Hardware store one day last month when a guy he knew came into the store. He and Marvin had collected arrowheads and Marvin asked him about his collection. He said that he had stopped collecting them and was finding metal objects now. He mentioned finding some Spanish American War medals and one of them had the name John Matthews on it. He didn’t know that Charlotte was a Matthews. Turns out it was a medal awarded to one of my dad’s uncles. Johnny said he remembers that Uncle John was a civil engineer working on the Panama Canal when he was pressed into service for the Spanish American War. Uncle John and his brother William were bachelor brothers of my grandfather and they both lived with my grandparents at different times of their lives. Uncle John was living with my grandmother when Daddy got called back into the Navy in 1950. When my mother went to work he would come to our house to stay with us until we left for school. He always wore a black suit with a vest, white shirt and tie and a black bowler hat. I think he was one of the oldest veterans of that war at some point. He went to Leavenworth to live in a veterans facility of some sort and died when I was a counselor at Campfire camp one summer. Charlotte saw the medal. His name was on one side and a citation was on the other. She would have been quite small when he died. He bought me my first bike an then walked up and down the street acting as my training wheels in his black suit".

[KASTAUFFER]

That's a very nice medal for the 20th Kansas Volunteers. They saw a lot of action during the Philippine Insurrection.

 

There would have been a Spanish Campaign, a Philippine Campaign, and a Philippine Congressional medal with it originally too.

 

Kurt

[HOA]

I will see if I can round up any of the other medals.

 

Pete