On 12 July 2015, the lost Daughters of the American Revolution insignia belonging to Eva Grace Goss was presented to the current leadership of the Vermont Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) at a special ceremony at the John Strong Mansion Museum in Vergennes, VT, conducted by Purple Hearts Reunited (PHR).

Eva Grace Ward Goss was born on 25 February 1896 in Barton, VT to Albert Ward and Mary Jane Hutchinson. In 1923, Goss joined the Ethan Allan Chapter of the DAR and would later become regent of that Chapter. She was assigned a national membership number (219547) and it can be seen engraved on the back of the medal along with her name. During her time with DAR, she was able to enlist 13 of her grandchildren to join the Green Mountain Boys Society of the Children of the American Revolution (CAR) which was organized in 1972. In September of 1917, she married Dr. Raymond Charles Goss, a local veterinarian. She had two sons who served their country in the Navy during WWII and she also had two daughters. Goss passed away on Christmas Day, 25 December 1985 at the age of 89 in Middlebury, VT.

In May of 2015, Purple Hearts Reunited was contacted by Nancy Comstock looking for help to return the insignia. Comstock told PHR that the medal was discovered several years ago by a friend of one of her daughters. Her father is a local electrician and found the medal in an old wall of an apartment building in Burlington, VT. Nancy’s former name Goss, so she was given the medal with the hope that it belonged to a relative of hers.

Receiving the medal was newly-installed Vermont regent Carol Patterson Schwenk and other members of local Vermont and New York DAR chapters. The insignia will be on permanent display at the John Strong Mansion Museum in Vergennes, VT. The museum was built around 1796 and served as the home of the revolutionary patriot and his family. Strong served as a Captain in the Colonel Ira Allen Regiment and actively participated in local and national governance. He was a member of the 1791 Convention that adopted the Constitution of the United States and approved admission of Vermont to the Union as the 14th State.

Read more about this return, in Vermont’s Addison Eagle >> Middlebury Woman’s DAR Medal Returns Home