The Ridge Historical Society
National Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day
By Carol Flynn
Sunday, September 26, the last Sunday in September, is National Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day. On this day, we recognize the women whose sons and daughters died during or because of active service in the U.S. military.
The Gold Star designation started during World War I. Families with members in the service displayed a service flag in their windows. A blue star meant that the person was in active service. The entire community mourned if the star was changed to gold, signifying that person had died. By the time the war ended in November 1918, over 110,000 Americans had lost their lives.
Gold Star Mothers joined together to raise funds to help other Gold Star Mothers, some of whom, dependent upon their sons for their living, were left destitute with their loss. Gold Star Mothers also helped servicemen returning from Europe. The Chicago Council of Gold Star Mothers started in 1918. The grassroots movement led to the formation of the American Gold Star Mothers, a national membership organization, in 1928.
The Ridge has a long affiliation with the Gold Star Mothers movement. The Chicago Council was founded by a woman named Jeannette (Mrs. Oscar J.) Sachs Grossman Vogl, who served as the first president. Her son from her first marriage, Corp. Homer Grossman, 19, was killed and buried in France.
Mrs. Vogl and her family moved from Chicago for her husband’s business career around 1920 and returned in the late 1930s, settling in Beverly, first on 105th Street by Hale Avenue, then on 97th Street and Winston Ave. Their son, Oscar J. Vogl, Jr., graduated from Morgan Park Military Academy and served in and survived World War II. She was written about in the newspapers for having sons who served in both wars. Mrs. Vogl was active in local organizations, and eventually moved to California where her son lived. She died in 1960.
In 1920, the planting of “memorial trees” to honor the WWI dead began, and many were planted in the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Several monuments were also installed in the preserves.
Dan Ryan served as President of the Cook County Board in 1921-22. He had four sons who served in the war. During his tenure, it was proposed to place captured German tanks in the preserves, but Ryan opposed this, stating the preserves should remain “peaceful.” However, he allowed the Gold Star groups to continue to place markers.
Ryan stated in a letter that appeared in the Tribune:
“We have paid tribute to the glorious memory of our men who fell in battle by our actions in authorizing the erection by Gold Star mothers and fathers of bronze tablets and the planting of memorial trees in several of the tracts within the boundaries of the district.”
A monument was installed in the woods that would be renamed for Dan Ryan, at 87th Street and Western Ave. We have not been able to find the exact date that the monument was installed although it was there before August 1932 when it was the site of a picnic mentioned in the Chicago Tribune.
By the mid-2010s, the monument in Dan Ryan Woods had deteriorated into a public eyesore. Beverly resident Tim Noonan, now a member of the RHS Board, led the efforts to restore the monument. The Dan Ryan Woods monument was rededicated in 2018, with the participation of local Gold Star Mothers.
In recent weeks, thanks to introductions by Tim Noonan, four American Gold Star Mothers were interviewed for a feature story in the Daily Southtown newspaper of the Chicago Tribune.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/ct-sta-gold-star-mothers-st-0923-20210924-cdkzfvwbuzh5zlezr3go6g2zd4-story.html