By Curt Hendel
Veteran Writer
The following information was taken from the 1976 Centennial book that was produced to celebrate the city of Adrian’s first century. It has been reworked and is now on the home page of our website at adrianamericanlegion.com.
“On June 6, 1919 a meeting of returning soldiers, sailors and Marines living in Western Nobles County was held at the Opera House in Adrian. The Adrian American Legion was formed. The Legion was given the name of Argonne, as practically all the boys of western Nobles County had been in service in Argonne woods in Northeastern France. In World War I the United States Army fought and won a great battle there called the Battle of the Meuse Argonne. More than 1 million Americans fought in the Argonne Forest, and 117,000 American soldiers were killed or wounded. This was the last great battle of the war.
The Adrian group applied for their charter on June 13, 1919 and received their charter on June 24, 1919. The Legion held their first meetings on the 2nd floor of the Bratsburg and Entwisle store, what is now the Sports Page. In 1927 they bought the People’s church and held their meetings there until 1963 when Frank Leguil sold them the building on Maine for $1.00 and other considerations.”
As of last month’s meeting, Argonne Post 32 will be working for the next year on a history project of our post. There is a lot of work to do, as we don’t have archives of information from each era. We want to ask anybody that has anything of historical significance to our history to either allow us to see it or make a copy of it if possible. Newspaper clips, photos, or even artifacts could be helpful in this project.
Post 32 will be marking our own centennial next summer (2019) during the Dawg Days of Summer, which will be held on the weekend of the town celebration. We have had a great number of veterans come through the membership of our Post over the years. Every one of these members held a piece of the freedoms that we enjoy today.
We are going to highlight the anniversary of the Great War, or War to End All Wars, during the next thirteen months. We will also bring you the photos and historical information we do have to be seen by all. I hope you all enjoy these pieces of our history as we wind down to the Centennial of Argonne Post 32.
