With all the "down" time I have on my hands, I decided to do a little digging into the background of this pistol. The background story on this is that it was given to me by my father-in-law (via my wife) as a wedding present as I had admired it for some time before getting married. I had my father-in-law write down what information he had on this, which he did on an index card. With this information available, I began to dig in to see what I could find out on this pistol. My father-in-law has since passed so the small index card is the only information that I have available regarding the history of this pistol.
The story (from the index card) was that this pistol was carried during WWI by a "Capt McMasters" and was later given to a Mr. Nyland when McMasters died. According to the index card, McMasters had been faculty at the Univ. of Colorado, and that Mr. Nyland's son (Fred) used this during his Army service and in fact had his name and service number engraved on the slide (normally a bummer, but in this case, I think you would agree that it is actually interesting). When Mr. Nyland died in 1965, this pistol was given to my father-in-law, who was renting a home on the Nyland's property. My father-in-law kept this pistol until 1985 when he passed it on to me.
With that information in hand, I was able to find a page from the 1932 Univ of Colorado Year book showing an Allen S. McMasters and Waino S. Nyland who were faculty members of the Theta Xi fraternity. Further research revealed that Allen S McMasters had been a 1st Lieutenant in the US Army during WWI, and served in the Army Corps of Engineers primarily building roads to support the movements and operations of the AEF in France. I found an interesting document which appears to be a compilation of service records made by various engineer officers speaking about their time of service. From this information, I did a summary write up of McMaster's service in WWI.
As far as Fred Nyland, I did find a census document which showed that he was the son of Waino Nyland, lived in Boulder, Colorado, graduated from the Univ. of Colorado as part of the Class of 1950, and an article which mentions his service during the Korean War. So the story does tie together based on the information on the index card. Hopefully I will be able to dig a little deeper into Fred Nylan's military service to round the pistol's history out.
So this 1911 has apparently seen service in France to the Korean War and hopefully you will enjoy the story as much as I had in researching it.
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Background info on Allen S. McMasters
The story (from the index card) was that this pistol was carried during WWI by a "Capt McMasters" and was later given to a Mr. Nyland when McMasters died. According to the index card, McMasters had been faculty at the Univ. of Colorado, and that Mr. Nyland's son (Fred) used this during his Army service and in fact had his name and service number engraved on the slide (normally a bummer, but in this case, I think you would agree that it is actually interesting). When Mr. Nyland died in 1965, this pistol was given to my father-in-law, who was renting a home on the Nyland's property. My father-in-law kept this pistol until 1985 when he passed it on to me.
With that information in hand, I was able to find a page from the 1932 Univ of Colorado Year book showing an Allen S. McMasters and Waino S. Nyland who were faculty members of the Theta Xi fraternity. Further research revealed that Allen S McMasters had been a 1st Lieutenant in the US Army during WWI, and served in the Army Corps of Engineers primarily building roads to support the movements and operations of the AEF in France. I found an interesting document which appears to be a compilation of service records made by various engineer officers speaking about their time of service. From this information, I did a summary write up of McMaster's service in WWI.
As far as Fred Nyland, I did find a census document which showed that he was the son of Waino Nyland, lived in Boulder, Colorado, graduated from the Univ. of Colorado as part of the Class of 1950, and an article which mentions his service during the Korean War. So the story does tie together based on the information on the index card. Hopefully I will be able to dig a little deeper into Fred Nylan's military service to round the pistol's history out.
So this 1911 has apparently seen service in France to the Korean War and hopefully you will enjoy the story as much as I had in researching it.
- - - Updated - - -
Background info on Allen S. McMasters