Chicago Beer Riots Medal

The Chicago Beer Riots Medal of 1855
In 1854 the anti-immigrant American Party commonly called the “Know Nothings” won the Chicago elections putting Dr. Levi Boone in the mayor's office. Boone promptly fired all city employees who were not American born which hit the police hard since a large number of policemen were Irish born. Next he antagonized the Germans by outlawing beer drinking on Sundays and drastically raising the license fees of beer drinking establishments. The Germans felt that their rights were violated and ignored the the laws. The police then arrested some of the violaters and the Germans then decided to liberate the prisoners. Police and National Guard units with artillery were called up while the Germans marched in the streets with military precision. Eventually things settled down after some street skirmishes resulting in one fatality and several serious injuries. The Chicago Tribune called for a public subscription to pay for medals for a number of heroic policemen for their actions during the riot. There is no known list of medal recipients names but the Tribune coverage of the riot mentions the following names;
Marshal Knights (City Marshal?)
Police Capt. Niebels, Lieut. Cutler
Officers: Chubb, Grey, Hunt (lost an arm), Norwood, Noyes, Geo. Paine, Tenbrook (head clubbed), Weston, William White.
Civilians who aided police: Jeremiah Coultright, Allan Pinkerton.
It is not known if any of the above names received medals. I do know that there are medals with names not included on this list.

The medal looks like it was made by a local jeweler from an old pocket watch case with two gold halves joined together creating a hollow medal. The medal is 39.9 mm in diameter, weighs 15.46 grams with a reeded edge. Both obverse and reverse are engraved in beautiful long hand as follows “PRESENTED TO WM. H. KEMP BY THE CITIZENS OF CHICAGO IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION OF HIS GALLANT CONDUCT AS A POLICE OFFICER IN THE RIOT OF THE 21 DAY OF APRIL 1855”.

The medal is suspended on a narrow black neck ribbon 21.5 inches long with a small cameo slide. It is not known if this ribbon originally came with the medal.