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Another Interesting 1911

3K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  ljoconnor 
#1 ·
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.

- - - Updated - - -

Background info on Allen S. McMasters
 

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#2 ·
Tie-in documents from McMasters to Nyland:

1. Page from the 1932 Univ of Colorado year book showing that both McMasters and Nyland were faculty members of the same fraternity (establishes the friendship/relationship between the two men).

2. Waino S. Nyland's headstone which references his tenure as a teacher/professor at the Univ of Colorado as well as his death in 1965 (referenced on the index card given to me by my father-in-law).

3. The page from the 1940 US Census which shows Waino S. Nyland and his son Frederick S. Nyland who lived in Boulder, Colorado.

4. An article about Fred Nyland stating that he grew up in Boulder and served in the military during the Korean War.
 

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#6 ·
wow, what an interesting story that you surly can tie the story to the gun. as stated above, with Mr. Nyland's service number being inscribed you should easily be able to find his service record. You actually found the more difficult one, which was Mr. McMaster's. The gun itself is in super condition as well. Congrats and thanks for sharing.
 
#8 ·
Thanks to all for the comments. I have 3 of these 1911 bring backs, all in very good condition. What is interesting is that they were all carried by non-combat personnel and specifically 2 were carried by engineers (one road building - the one posted here - and a second railway https://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=565225), while the 3rd was a dentist https://luger.gunboards.com/showthread.php?119195-Colt-1911-with-interesting-holster). While we would all like to own a pistol carried by a combat infantryman who was decorated for high gallantry, my suspicion is that those pistols are going to show a lot more use than these 3. Also what is interesting is how we tend to forget the contribution of the service support troops who enabled the combat troops to win the war. While acting in a supporting role, they were armed and operated in an active theater of war. So while not real "sexy", I really appreciate the fact that they and their stories should not be forgotten.
 
#11 ·
As nice as the pistol itself is your fantastic research.
May I ask you what are your on line sources? I have a named WWII Bronze Star Medal that I wuld like to know more about its original recipient.
Congratulations and thanks for sharing.
 
#12 ·
Thanks and there is really no secret. I use 1) Ancestry.com, 2) Fold3.com (great for military records), 3) general "Google searches", 4) wwiimemorial.com (search the Registry), 5) National Archives - on line search (https://aad.archives.gov/aad/) 6) National Archives - request a service record (https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records) 7) Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/) 8) National WWI Museum (https://theworldwar.pastperfectonline.com/search) and in a couple of cases where there just isn't anything showing up, I have had to use paid research (here is one that I have used https://www.goldenarrowresearch.com/).That will generally cost about $25-$35 for a basic search all the way to $200+ for an extended search. Obviously the more info you have to begin with, the greater chances for success you will have. Try all of the resources I have mentioned and hopefully you will get some "hits". Take that data and plug it into the other resources to see if you can find additional/corroborating data. It typically takes several hours of hit/misses to find something that makes sense. You just have to keep digging and looking for clues that begin to tie together. Once you come up with something that makes sense and ties together, it is hard to stop digging. Really a lot of fun. Hope this helps and if anyone else has additional sources, please share as I would love to broaden the tools that I have to use.
 
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