On 28 May 2016 at 1pm, a long lost WWI Purple Heart was returned to the grandnephew of CPL William Frederick Zartman. The ceremony took place at VFW Post 2506 in Hanover, PA.
Corporal William Frederick Zartman (a.k.a. “Fred” and “Frederick”) was born 20 April 1901, in New Vienna, Clinton County, Ohio. He was the youngest of the 14 children of Peter Krone Zartman (1844 – 1918) and the third child born to Peter’s third wife, Emma (Roberts) Zartman.
Corporal Zartman enlisted on 03 May 1917 and served with several different units to include the 33rd Company, 9th Battalion, 153rd D.B., Battery Echo, 7th Field Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, and the 29th Engineer Battalion. He was severely wounded during combat operations in France on 22 July 1918. Details of his wounds are not known, but was later issued Purple Heart medal #56142.
Corporal Zartman married Agnes Elizabeth Shue/Shuh on 11 November 1919. They had one child, William Frederick Zartman, Jr. (a.k.a. “Frederick Jr.”), born 4 December 1930. He died 15 September 2010 at the Hanover Hospital, York, York County, Pennsylvania, and is buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery, York, York County, Pennsylvania. No evidence has been found of a marriage or children for Frederick Jr.
Corporal Zartman was a barber who lived in North Codorous Township, Hanover, Spring Grove, and York, all in York County, Pennsylvania. He died of tuberculosis at the V.A. Hospital in Coatesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on 28 May 1948. He was buried in Beverly National Cemetery, Beverly, Burlington County, New Jersey. This return will happen on the memorial of his death day, 28 May.
The medal was returned to the grandson of Clara Naomi (Zartman) Bowers, sister of the Purple Heart recipient (Fred W. Zartman’s grandnephew), Mr. Wayne Francis Bowers in Hanover, PA.
The medal was rescued by the organization through an online purchase from a collector.
Returning the medals on behalf of Purple Hearts Reunited, was Mr. Michael Muscavage, a local Vietnam Veteran and Purple Heart Recipient.
