Medals and Awards Presented to the Next of Kin of Servicemen Who Died in Service in WW1

[mikes militaria]

  After I purchased a few WW1 local medals with Gold Stars, in which I knew were KIS medals but nothing else about the subject, I’ve decided to see what the Forum has to say.

 Federal and State issued medals for military service had been around for some time. I’ve seen state issued Service Medals for the Civil War and Span Am war. There are state and local medals for the Mexican Border Service. Mostly bigger cities. I haven’t seen any small town Civil War, Span Am or MBS medals. If they’re out there, they probably pretty rare. The Service medal gained popularity after WW1. Not only from some states, but local jurisdictions also issued Service Medals to their citizens. From big cities and counties to towns and villages, they wanted to honor their servicemen.
 

 Many service families had a “ Son in Service flag “, a red and white flag with a blue star on it, hanging in their windows. This practice originated during WW1. If a son (or daughter? Another subject to consider) was killed, the blue star was replaced with a gold star.  The local jurisdictions, including some states, seem to have adopted this practice by adding a gold star to the ribbons of their medals for servicemen killed in service and awarded to the serviceman’s next of kin.

I’ve also purchased medals with Black ribbons. I automatically assumed a black ribbon meant Killed in Service. I was mistaken. Most black ribbons were chosen as the jurisdictions’ ribbon of choice for all of their medals. I would think there are probably medals that have a black ribbon meant to signify KIS. I haven’t seen any that I know of.

 

 There are also “Mothers Medals”.  I have a medal that was from the Mothers of the 32nd Division. My first thought was that it was a medal issued to a mother of a soldier KIS. It says “In Appreciation of Heroism and Sacrifice”. It has a black ribbon and it was engraved with a soldiers name. Nope, it was issued, apparently, by an organization of Mothers of the soldiers of the 32nd I.D. to the soldiers. It appears the soldier survived the war. A big thanks to Dennis (bertsmedals) for his research. I’ve had many discussions with Dennis about this subject. I’ve known him for years and his knowledge, insight, and research skills are far better than mine. I am grateful for people like Dennis who are willing to share their knowledge.

There are many variations of “Mothers Medals”. I personally do not know if they are for mothers of servicemen KIS or from mothers groups to servicemen, or just to mothers of servicemen. Maybe all of them. I’ve seen a generic medal from different cities, mostly from cities of New York and I’ve seen one from an Ohio city, Dayton I think. “For Mothers of Defenders” from a specific city. It’s a star covered by a city seal hanging from a brooch. No ribbon. The only differences in these medals is the specific city seal covering the star. It doesn’t say anything about the mother’s son. I don’t own one but I am interested to know more about them. Please feel free to post any information you may have.

 

WW1 was the beginning of a lot of changes to the serviceman and the awards and insignia he wore on his uniform. The Distinguished Service Cross was instituted in 1918. The Navy Cross in 1919. The unit patches, or SSIs also became mainstream during and after the war.
 The Purple Heart medal wasn’t instituted until 1932. Once instituted, the Purple Heart medal was retroactively issued to servicemen  wounded in action during WW1. Until then, a soldier wore a wound chevron on his right sleeve of his uniform. I haven’t researched if WW1 KIA servicemen were retroactively awarded the Purple Heart. I would think they could be but I really don’t know. I’m guessing the retroactive medals had to be applied for. The Gold Star represented a soldier Killed in Service. Not just for those Killed in Action. I would have to think that WW1, being the first truly mechanized war, with the addition of Airplanes and Tanks to Trucks and Trains already in service but on a much larger scale than ever before, many servicemen died in accidents not related to battle. Those servicemen’s families, as well as KIA servicemen’s families became “Gold Star Families.”

I encourage everyone to jump in and share what you know, or just share your NOK medals.

 

Gold Star medals from The state of Oregon, the City of Springfield, Massachusetts and the Village of Melrose Park,Illinois.

 

 

 

[mikes militaria]

Here are two medals from the City of Marlborough, Massachusetts. Of the four black ribboned medals that I have, three of are made into watch fobs. Only one, from the City of Marlbough Massachusetts, is a wearable medal. It has what appears to be a custom brooch with a Gold Star hanging from it. My only reference is the Small’s book. It doesn’t show this specific brooch. 

 Of the four black ribboned medals, this seems to be the only KIS medal.

[mikes militaria]

The town of Medway Massachusetts. Only 122 were issued. No info on Abraham Rubenson was found.

[mikes militaria]

From the Mothers of the 32nd Division to EJ Behne. Dennis (bertmedals) researched this for me . EJ Behne survived the war. 
I would have bet this was a NOK medal. It’s not. There isn’t a Gold Star.

[mikes militaria]

Here are two medals, same maker different towns. One from the Town of Union NJ and the other from the City of Mount Vernon NY. The ribbon copies the “Son in Service” flags that families displayed in their windows. The picture in Small’s book appears to show a ribbon with a Gold Star instead of blue. It’s a B&W picture and not a real good one. But that’s what it appears to be.

[mikes militaria]

Here’s an interesting one. From the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. The original medal was suspended from a brooch with no ribbon.

We will never know who installed the ribbon with a Gold Star. 

[bertmedals]

Mike, thanks for starting this thread.  This is timely due to the growing interest in and collecting of WW1 state, county, town, and organization medals across the board.  The sheer number of these medals, incredible variety of styles, and their place in local history make them very collectible and, in my opinion, extremely interesting.  I saw in some reference that there were over 2,000 states, counties, towns, and organizations known to have presented medals to their WW1 veterans with previously unknown examples still being “discovered”.  

 

After a couple of decades collecting these medals, here are my observations on WW1 state, county, town, and organization medals for personnel who died in service.
As a first point, while the focus is on “medals”, tributes made to the next-of-kin by states, counties, towns, and organizations included 1) ribboned medals; 2) badged medals (my term for medals made to be worn and manufactured with a brooch but no ribbon); and non-portable awards (table medals and the like).

I think a fundamental point is that each county, town, organization, etc., that awarded a medal made their own rules for design, eligibility, etc.  There were no laws/regulations like there are with US and State Government medals that regulated their design, award criteria.  There are instances where a town, county, or organization published their rules, etc.  Most of the time they did not.  Occasionally, you can find news reports or town council minutes that fill in the blanks.  Consequently, there are a lot of anomalies with these medals especially when it comes to eligibility.   What you have, in effect, is an assortment of unique circumstances. It's true that a number of communities used similar rules but there is danger in over-classifying or over-organizing them when there was no overarching organization to them.  Plus, many veterans and their families modified, re-ribboned, refashioned or otherwise changed the medals.  This also occurred in the case of medals commemorating those who died in service.

For the next-of-kin medals this gets even more complicated because some counties and towns had one medal for their servicemen who survived the war and a different one for the NOK of those who died in service.

The Gold Star affixed to the ribbons on medals to those who died in service is a case in point.  Some towns, counties, etc., did that but some did not.  It certainly became more prevalent starting in late May 1918 following initiatives by President Wilson and Dr. Anna Shaw, Chairperson of the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense to designate the Gold Star to commemorate the loss of a family member in the war.

The black ribbon also is a case in point.  Some were meant to signify a next-of-kin for a serviceman who died.  Some were the normal ribbon color for that county, town, etc.  Some were simply the color of the ribbon used when the medal was mounted as a watch fob.  Each instance must be determined on its own merits.  

Some medals for those who died in service were named but not all.  This presents an opening for “enhancing” an original medal with a separately obtained Gold Star and creating a “made up” Gold Star medal.  It can be nearly impossible to determine that an unnamed medal with a Gold Star is “made up”.  My rules of thumb for medals with a Gold Star are 1) if the medal is named always research the name to confirm the person did die in service and they lived in or entered the service from the entity or surrounding area presenting the medal; 2) if the medal is unnamed, try to confirm that the county, town, etc., did present medals with Gold Stars and look for other examples to determine if the preponderance were/were not named; and 3) in both cases, examine the star to ensure it matches the type used by the manufacturer of the medal.  Richard Planck’s book “State, County, City, and Organization Medals for World War One” illustrates the Gold Stars used by Whitehead & Hoag and Bastian Brothers which appear to be the most common ones used.
 

I'll post a few examples over the next few days to illustrate these points and others.  First up, Rochester, NY.

 

Dennis

[bertmedals]

Here are 2 examples of the Rochester Gold Star Medal:

Gold Star Medal commemorating Raymond J. Hasenauer.  Corporal Hasenauer was assigned to F Company, 2nd Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Division.  He was wounded-in-action om October 31, 1918, near Olsene, Belgium and died later that day of the wounds he received.  

The Gold Star medal for Corporal Hasenauer is pictured below.  The black box it came in is named to him as is the medal.  The medal’s pin has been replaced (or perhaps modified) to a double prong that is pushed through the box’s inner pad.  This allows the medal and box to be displayed as shown in the last picture.  As noted in Planck’s book Gold Star Rochester medals have the pin replaced/modified to a double prong feature. Every Rochester Gold Star medal I have seen has this feature.

Also pictured below is the Gold Star Medal commemorating Private Charles A. Phillips.  Private Phillips was assigned to 79th (F) Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment.  He was killed-in-action near Soissons, France on July 19, 1918.  The pictures show several views of the medal including the prongs described above.  This medal did not have a box when I acquired it.

 

 

The Rochester medals were manufactured by Bastian Brothers.  The Gold Stars on the two medals pictured both have the Bastian Brothers Gold Star.

 

Dennis

[3mxd]

In my experience collecting these medals for over 20 years, all of the Rochester medals to NOK have the broach prongs. I can only assume they were made that way and not modified.

[bertmedals]

1 minute ago, 3mxd said:

In my experience collecting these medals for over 20 years, all of the Rochester medals to NOK have the broach prongs. I can only assume they were made that way and not modified.

Yes, as stated in #8 above.

[bertmedals]

Here are 3 named Gold Star medals. All three were manufactured by Whithead & Hoag and have the Whitehead & Hoag gold star. 

 

First is a Richmond, VA medal named to Paul Ashton Cofer who was from Richmond.  Private Paul A. Cofer served in B Company, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division.  He was killed-in-action on October 23, 1918.

 

Next is Guernsey County, Ohio medal named to Clarence Currens.  Private Clarence Currens was from Murray City, Ohio, a small village in Hocking County.  He registered for the draft while working as a miner in Guernsey County, Ohio which earned him the Guernsey County Medal.  Private Currens served with Company I, 54th Infantry Regiment, 6th Division.  He died on November 21, 1918 of pneumonia he contracted after being wounded in action during the Meuse Argonne battle.

 

Last is a Harriburg, PA medal named to John F. Sattler who was from Harrisburg.   Private John Sattler served with Battery F, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd DIvision,  He died of pneumonia on December 11, 1918 probably as a complication of the Spanish Flu.  As you see in the pictures. the ribbon is completely deteriorated.  Fortunately, the person I obtained the medal from kept the remnants.

[bertmedals]

Here are three more Whitehead and Hoag manufactured medals with the appropriate Whithead and Hoag Gold Star.  From left to right are another example of the State of Oregon; Rockingham County and the City of Harrisonburg, Virginia; and another example of Melrose Park, IL.  All three are unnamed.  The Oregon medal has no place set aside for a name but the other two do.  

 

When I first saw an Oregon medal with a Gold Star I was skepticlal of it.  Fortunately, the Oregon State Archives published an article about the origins of the state's WW1 medal that documented that 800 of the medals with Gold Stars were produced.  The salient part is quoted below:

 

"Still, after receiving bids from several Oregon and national companies, the state pressed ahead, awarding the contract to the Whitehead and Hoag Company of New Jersey. They were to produce 32,000 medals, 800 of which were to have gold stars to honor those who died. Although many more Oregon men and women served during the war, the committee believed only 32,000 would claim medals. The final design of the medal read "World War Service" and included an eagle and the state seal. The back of the medal read "Presented by the State of Oregon in grateful recognition of faithful service during the World War 1917-1918."

 

I have not seen a Rockingham County and the City of Harrisonburg, Virginia or Melrose Park, IL medal with a Gold Star that was named.  If you have one, please post it here.  I have not yet found any documentation on the medals for either of the medals.

 

[bertmedals]

Some towns and perhaps states and counties, presented named medals to personnel who died in service without Gold Stars affixed to the ribbon.  These presumably were presented to next-of-kin.  

 

Here are 2 examples of town medals named to soldiers who died in service that do not have Gold Stars or show any evidence of ever having had Gold Stars affixed to the ribbons..  

On the left is an Andover, Maine medal named to Corporal Lyman Swasey.  Corporal Swasey served with B Company, 103rd Infantry Regiment, 26th Division.  He died of disease in France on April 5, 1918.

 

On the right is a Utica, NY medal named to PFC Albert Phillips.  PFC Phillips served with A Company, 107th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division.  He was killed-in-action on September 29, 1918.

 

I have seen only one other Andover, Maine medal (planchet only) and it was not named.  Only a small number were awarded.

 

I have seen a Utica, NY medal with a Gold Star on the ribbon.  However, the ribbon was a replacement and it had an incorrect brooch and therefore was not named.  In my opinion that medal was "enhanced".  Unfortunately I did not take a picture of it.

 

[bertmedals]

The bulk of the WW1 state, county, town, and organization medals with Gold Stars appear to be either Whitehead & Hoag or Bastian Brothers manufactured medals.  This begs the question – were Gold Stars used on medals made by other manufacturers and if so, what do they look like?

The Marlborough, MA medal with a Gold Star pendant on the brooch Mike posted in #2 above was manufactured by Whitehead & Hoag and constitutes another style used by that company.  A similar Gold Star (thin, flat) was used on the Almeda, CA medal for personnel who died in service.  That medal was manufactured by Irvine & Jachens, a California badge and belt buckle manufacturer. 

A couple of years ago I obtained a Beacon, NY medal with a small Gold Star which may be another type.  The Beacon medal was manufactured by E. H. Hufnagel, a jeweler in Mt. Vernon, NY.  That firm also produced similar medals for Mt. Vernon; Philipstown, NY; Union, NJ; and New York B.P.O.E. Lodge No. 1.  All 5 of these medals used the same ribbon – white center with red edge stripes and with a blue star embroidered in on the middle of the central white stripe like a “son in service” banner/pin.  Like Mike, I also always suspected there were versions of these medals with an embroidered Gold Star in lieu of the blue star for personnel who died in service, but have never seen one or found any documentation for one.

The Beacon medal has a finely made Gold Star affixed to the ribbon directly below the blue star.  The Gold Star is ¼ inch wide. It appears to be attached to the ribbon by two prongs.  It is similar in size and shape of the large bronze battle stars frequently seen on WW1 Victory Medal ribbon bars (comparison photo below).  The person I obtained the medal from could offer no provenance for it.  That leaves its origin – official version, a family modification, or an “enhancement” by someone else – an open question at least until some documentation or other evidence is discovered.

Beacon, NY’s memorial to its WW1 dead honors 12 men who died in service.  The Poughkeepsie Eagle News published a list of all WW1 veterans from Duchess County, NY (including Beacon) on September 10, 1919.  That list identifies 15 men from Beacon who died in service during the war. Regardless of which is correct, it is a small number.  

 

[bertmedals]

In addition to presenting one type of medal to both returning veterans and to the families of personnel who died in service (with or without Gold Stars), some communities used a completely different medal for soldiers who died in service from the ones presented to returning veterans. These tend to fall into several distinct categories.

1.    Several counties and towns differentiated between returning veterans and personnel who died in service by varying the color of the medal’s planchet.  In most of these cases returning veterans received the medal in bronze and families of personnel who died in service received the same medal but in gold.  One such case of this is Bethlehem, PA that used a bronze medal for returning veterans and an identical medal in gold for families of the deceased. This particular medal was discussed on the Forum here:   

2.    At least one town used the same medal for returning veterans and families of deceased personnel with the same color/finish for the planchets but with a differently worded reverse for the families of the deceased.

3.    Several other counties and towns used a completely different medal for the families the deceased than the ones presented to returning veterans.  Bridgeport, CT, for example, presented men and women who entered the service a medal (better described as a coin) commemorating their enlistment.  On return from service, they received a “War Service” lapel pin or button.  Families of the deceased were presented a ribboned medal.  The following pictures show the three different Bridgeport awards.  The reverse inscription on the Bridgeport ribboned medal reads “PRESENTED BY THE CITY OF BRIDGEPORT, CONN. IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF SUPREME SACRIFICE IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY WORLD WAR 1917-1918”

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.    In some of these cases completely different tributes were used.  For example, Detroit, MI presented a silver finger ring to its returning veterans and a circular bronze table medal to families of personnel who died in service.  The table medal is shown below.  I don’t have one of the Detroit rings that I could photograph.  Hopefully someone on the Forum has one and will post photos of it here.

 

 

 

 

5.    In at least one case, Jackson County, MI, a silver table medal was presented to returning veterans and a differently designed bronze table medal was presented to the families of the deceased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bertmedals]

For years I assumed that counties and towns that used medals that could be worn but did not have a ribbon (what I call "badged medals") did not have Gold Star versions of them having never seen one or even a reference to one.  About 7 years ago I acquired a Paterson, NJ WW1 service medal with a small Gold Star affixed to the top center of the planchet.  My take at the time was that it was a one-off medal probably made by the family of a deceased veteran.  My original post on it is here:  

 

Then a couple of years ago I acquired a second one from a completely different source.  Well, as the saying goes, one example is an anomaly, two is a trend so I’m on a quest to confirm the origins of these medals.  Pictured below is the usual Paterson, NJ WW1 service medal (left) and next to it the Paterson, NJ medal with Gold Star (right).  I have since seen a 3rd example of the Paterson, NJ medal with Gold Star.  I have not seen any other county or town that awarded a "badged medal" that had gold star added to it.

 

 

[bertmedals]

However, most, if not all, the other "badged medals" for personnel who died in service did not have a Gold Star. This State of Wyoming medal is an example.

 

Private Roy Mays was born and raised in Jonesboro, Texas.  He was working in Wyoming in June 1917 when he registered for the draft.  That qualified him for the State of Wyoming WW1 service medal.

 

He was assigned initially to G Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 40th Division and deployed to France with that unit.  In France, the 40th Division was redesignated a depot divsion and its personnel became replacements for units in action.  Pvt Mays was eventually assigned as a replacement in M Company, 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division.  He died on Oct 5, 1918 of wounds received earlier that day.

 

Pictured below is his Wyoming State medal.

 

[bertmedals]

In addition to states, counties and towns, several orgaizations are known to have presented medals to the next-of-kin of personnel who died in the war.  In the case of organizations, the "rules" for them are even less understood than for states, counties and townd.  In some cases, they followed the convention of adding a Gold Star to the ribbon of the medal they presented to returning veterans.  In some cases a unique medal for next-of kin was presented whether or not there the organization presented a medal to returning veterans. 

 

In post #6, Mike showed an organizational "badged medal" presented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen with a ribbon and Gold Star substituted for the bar that was used for the general issue medal.  

 

Here are two more examples of organization medals for personnel who died in service.

 

First is the Akron, Ohio Army and Navy Club medal that recognized the sacrifice of mothers of personnel who died in service.  At least one reference (Planck) says that it included mothers of the wounded as well.  

 

 

 

Second is the medal of the Polish Legion of American Veterans Post #14 (Pvt. Eugeniusz Jablonowski Post) in Syracuse, NY.  This medal came in a WW1 Pilgrimage Group of Mrs. Minnie Newell whose son, Corporal Karl H. Newell died of wounds received on September 29, 1918 while serving with Company F, 308th Infantry Regiment in the Meuse Argonne.  The Newells were from E. Syracuse.

 

Pvt. Eugeniusz Jablonowski for whom PLAV Post #14 was named was killed in action on July 18, 1918 while serving with Company F, 9th Infantry Regiment near Soissons, France.

 

 

[mikes militaria]

A nice simple pin. Nothing fancy. 

 

Saw this sign driving in West Virginia.

 

 

I’d like to thank Dennis/ Bertmedals for sharing his collection and information. He definitely made this a far more interesting thread.

[JMcCulloch]

That Andover, Maine medal is insanely rare. Andover is not a big place today and in 1919, it was tiny. The Maine roster I think has 25 total service people therefrom?