American Legion Post 200 Has Served Wallis Since December 1933

In December 1933, veterans in Wallis met and organized American Legion Post 200. The Post still meets at 330 Legion Rd, and it has been part of this town for more than ninety years.

What that span covers

The Post was founded between the wars, in a town of roughly eight hundred people that had recently been renamed and was still served by two railroads. It was here through the Second World War, through the town's peak of about nine hundred residents and thirty-nine businesses in 1943, through the sharp fall that followed, and through every decade since.

The town's own history puts that in context.

The record has gaps, and we are not hiding them

Ninety-odd years is long enough that a great deal has gone unwritten. We are assembling the Post's history properly — the founding, the charter members, the building of the Legion home, the people who kept it going through the lean years — and we would rather have it right than have it quickly.

Where we cannot verify something, we will say we cannot verify it. A history that overstates what it knows is not much use to whoever comes after, and a Post that has kept faith with this town since 1933 should not start inventing things about itself now.

What we are looking for

• Photographs, especially with names written on the back
• Programs, charters, minutes and correspondence
• Newspaper clippings from the Wallis weekly or the county papers
• Recollections — who ran what, and when, and what it was like

If you have any of it, get in touch. We can copy originals and give them straight back; nothing needs to leave your family.

What happens now

Officers meet on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. Bingo runs every Thursday at 4:30 PM and is open to anyone. The hall is available to rent, and four organizations between them give most families with a veteran a way to belong.

The Post's history · Add to the record