John Horn Jr.
John Horn Jr. was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1874 for "a long heroic career in which he rescued more than 100 people from drowning in the Detroit River, many of whom had fallen in while getting on and off ferryboats at the city wharf."
"Horn later claimed that the medal was stolen from his house in October 1901, and he was unable to recover it. In previous instances, the Secretary of the Treasury had issued duplicate medals 'at the expense of the applicants,' upon the submission of absolute proof that showed 'the originals had been irrecoverably lost or destroyed.' Since such proof was absent in Horn’s case, the congressional approval was necessary before a duplicate medal could be issued." Congress authorized a duplicate be made in 1904.
