Gold High School Graduating Class of 1919 Ring

Pennsylvania Treasures

Pennsylvania Treasures

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So yesterday I went to a site where I had previously hit before but only for about 20mins. That day only found a merc, a old horse tack buckle, and a old fork. Today I went back for a couple hours since I had somewhere to be in a little bit and boy am I glad I went! The house was built somewhere from 1770-1780 and the land was bought by William Penn's cousins! Pretty neat! I'm planning on going back to hit the field in front of the house that I got permission to with a buddy to search it since it's been being farmed for the past 200 years. Finds of yesterday consisted of a unfortunately corroded 1876 Indian (would've been beautiful but I'll take it!), a overall button, an orphanage pin, a bale seal and my best find of the day being a Gold ring from the High School Graduating class of 1919! Rang up a solid 53 on the ATPro. Still working on researching it so I will definitely follow up on it on this thread! It has the owners initials in it too so I can't wait to find out who wore it 96 years ago! I am assuming it's a women's ring since it barley fits on my fingers. It's also unmarked but I am assuming it's 10K. Now for the pictures!
 

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Congrats on those great finds! That ring is awesome! You may be able to research it at classmates.com or a number of other web sites once you figure out the school it's from. The Indian doesn't look too bad and I think it may be able to be restored pretty well but will be time consuming if you want to do it. :congrats:
 
very cool old class ring :smitten:PT , keep hitting that house your sure to find some awesome stuff there .
 
Digger_O'Dell said:
Congrats on those great finds! That ring is awesome! You may be able to research it at classmates.com or a number of other web sites once you figure out the school it's from. The Indian doesn't look too bad and I think it may be able to be restored pretty well but will be time consuming if you want to do it. :congrats:
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How so? I've tried soaking it in Hydrogen Peroxide but the corrosion won't come off.
 
Excellent nab on the gold ring! Doing some research on it's original owner will be another "interesting hunt". Perhaps you can find a relative living nearby. Agree on the IH, some come out of the ground quite toasted (copper doesn't hold up too well after 150 yrs in the ground) but you'd be surprised that after some proper cleaning how much better many will look.

John
 
Doing a bit of research for you on this ring, I now believe it was from Milton Hershey High School (Or Milton Hershey Homestead as it was also known then). It was opened in 1909 as a private school for orphans and needy children. Class records don't seem to exist online that far back, so can't get a name. The school is still in operation today but the name was shortened at one time to Milton Hershey School. There seems to be no photos of older class rings to compare the logo to, but the modern version has a striking resemblance to the one found.
img-6-11-14-graduation-rings.jpg


From what I read of the school history, having a class ring from that era would be an extreme rarity as the children who attended were mostly very poor, but who knows-perhaps it was bought later once the graduate started working, or maybe the student was working before graduation and managed to afford it. Whatever the story is, I'm sure it's quite remarkable. If you decide to dig further, I would suggest contacting the alumni organization. They post on their site that they encourage information be brought to them, and maybe they can find records and/or verify that it is one of their rings. Keep us posted!

Home • MHS-PA.ORG • Site Map • Telephone: (717) 520-2030 or Toll-Free: (888) MHS-ALUM • Fax: (717) 520-2040 • Email: [email protected]
Dearden Alumni Campus, 109 McCorkel Rd., Hershey, PA 17033
 
Digger_O'Dell said:
Doing a bit of research for you on this ring, I now believe it was from Milton Hershey High School (Or Milton Hershey Homestead as it was also known then). It was opened in 1909 as a private school for orphans and needy children. Class records don't seem to exist online that far back, so can't get a name. The school is still in operation today but the name was shortened at one time to Milton Hershey School. There seems to be no photos of older class rings to compare the logo to, but the modern version has a striking resemblance to the one found.
img-6-11-14-graduation-rings.jpg


From what I read of the school history, having a class ring from that era would be an extreme rarity as the children who attended were mostly very poor, but who knows-perhaps it was bought later once the graduate started working, or maybe the student was working before graduation and managed to afford it. Whatever the story is, I'm sure it's quite remarkable. If you decide to dig further, I would suggest contacting the alumni organization. They post on their site that they encourage information be brought to them, and maybe they can find records and/or verify that it is one of their rings. Keep us posted!

Home • MHS-PA.ORG • Site Map • Telephone: (717) 520-2030 or Toll-Free: (888) MHS-ALUM • Fax: (717) 520-2040 • Email: [email protected]
Dearden Alumni Campus, 109 McCorkel Rd., Hershey, PA 17033
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Wow! I don't know what to say besides thank you so much! I was having a lot of trouble trying to find out where it came fro. I don't know if it means anything by I also found Lutheran Orpanage pin about 5 feet from the ring and since the ring might've came from a school for orphans that's seems a little interesting that they were both found at the same site. I wil for sure keep digging now that you opened up the hole! Thanks so much! I will keep you updated!
 
Glad I could help-Hope that it can be identified positively! It would be awesome to find the original owner and maybe even family.
 
Digger_O'Dell said:
Glad I could help-Hope that it can be identified positively! It would be awesome to find the original owner and maybe even family.
Click to expand...

Okay so I did some digging and came up with only confusion unfortunately. The Milton Hershey school fits every slot for my ring to be from there except they didn't allow girls to attend the school until 1976....and assuming the ring is a girls because it's so small it's not matching up unless a boy had very small fingers but he would've been graduating and older so I think that theory might be out of the question. Looks like we're back to square one...? Now I know Wiki might not be a reputable source but that's the only place I could find information about when it became a school for both boys and girls.
 

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What I would suggest is email a couple pics and an inquiry to the alumni association and see if they have any info.

What I am thinking is that it may also be a staff ring. Reading the obits from their alumni association page there are a lot of female "house parents". But as I said, make contact with them-likely your best bet.
 
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