My hunting buddy Lee and I were heading to one of our old fairgrounds spots when we decided to change plans and check out an old 1800's house spot deep in the woods that I remembered locating on an old plat map back in the spring time. Without having the maps on hand it took a bit to locate the site deep in the woods, but we knew we were close when we found bits of foundation and stubs of hundreds of daffodils ready to sprout come spring. We weren't finding much for the first half hour or so but then in a patch of clear not far from the daffodils I got a banging 33 on the EQUINOX. I was thinking probably a can being that high of a conductor, but out popped something amazing. A solid silver bridle rosette with engravings that I thought said Chateau Cherry July 1918. I ran over to Lee and I was saying "wow, this much have been some famous race horse named Chateau Cherry to have solid silver rosettes!" Another 20 mins went by, Digger Lee got a super nice 1881 Canadian dime with his EQUINOX. Then once again, a loud 33 banging on my EQUINOX...could it be?? It sure was! Out popped another solid silver rosette and this one clued us in that these didn't belong to a famous horse but rather something more interesting. This one was inscribed C/O Roy Modglin. Sig C. Co. L1 52nd Tel Bn. Now I was amazed at what I was holding and was wondering who this guy and horse was?! They are both over 3/4ozt of silver. Once we got back to the truck I cleaned them up a bit more to reveal it was not Chateau Cherry but Chateau Thierry. A quick Google search ensued and revealed The Battle of Chateau Thierry was a well-known battle fought in France by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing. So amazing!! Apparently the owner of these rosettes fought in the battle, although I'm not sure if he did something special to earn the solid silver rosettes since something like that definitely wouldn't have been a common thing. After some more Googling and help from some forum members we were able to find a few photos, census records, and even a photo of him in uniform in France which just adds to the story. He was in Signal Company L1 52nd Telegraph Battalion. Now I feel like I need to do these pieces of history justice and plan to have them matted and framed along with Roy's photos and a paragraph about the Battle of Chateau Thierry.
