Veterans' institutions · the posts in brief

1867 — present

Foundings only: This entry records the veterans' organizations as standing institutions — names and founding dates. Their civic and charitable work belongs to the Charities record and is not repeated here. Fort Wayne's first Grand Army of the Republic post met as early as May 1867 in the old Odd Fellows hall on Calhoun Street. The state's G.A.R. record lists the city's posts: Post No. 72, known only by its number, in existence before May 1869; Sion S. Bass Post No. 40, organized 1882 and lasting past 1936, named for Colonel Sion S. Bass of the 30th Indiana, who died of his Shiloh wounds; Anthony Wayne Post No. 271, organized 1883, renamed Lawton-Wayne after the Spanish-American War and dissolved in 1925; George Humphrey Post No. 530, from 1888; and General Lawton Post No. 590, from 1900. The Spanish-American War's veterans organized Henry W. Lawton Camp No. 35 of the United Spanish War Veterans, meeting by 1923, with the Union Veteran Legion's Encampment No. 51 beside them, in the Veteran Headquarters at the courthouse — the room from which the armory petition of the armories entry was sent. The First World War produced the modern pair: Fort Wayne Post No. 47 of the American Legion, in being by the 1923 city directory with Ralph F. Markey as commander, and Jim Eby Post No. 857 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars — honored in the Congressional Record of 11 January 2022 on its one-hundredth anniversary, which puts its founding in 1922, with more than 500 members including its Auxiliary at the centennial. Waynedale's American Legion Post 241 opened in 1946. The posts' halls — Post 47's successors on Taylor Street and Lewis Street among them — made the veterans' organizations a permanent part of the city's institutional furniture, and the Coliseum itself, the county's war memorial, is the largest of them in stone; its memorial record is in the Wars and Architecture chapters.

Sources:

1. Indiana Archives and Records Administration, Grand Army of the Republic finding aid, Vols. I–II (1982) — the Fort Wayne post table: Bass Post 40 (1882–1936+), Lawton-Anthony Wayne Post 271 (1883–1925), Humphrey Post 530 (1888–), General Lawton Post 590 (1900–).
2. ACGSI / Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, G.A.R. posts summary — Post 72 before May 1869, the May 1867 Odd Fellows hall meeting, and the Sion S. Bass Post's 1882 organization and namesake.
3. R. L. Polk & Co., Fort Wayne City Directory (1923), Patriotic Organizations — American Legion Post No. 47, Jim Eby VFW Post No. 857, Lawton Camp No. 35 USWV, Union Veteran Legion Encampment No. 51, and the G.A.R. posts, all meeting at Veteran Headquarters, Court House.
4. Congressional Record, Vol. 168, No. 7 (11 January 2022), Rep. Jim Banks, "Honoring 100 Years of VFW Post 857" — the centennial and the 500-plus membership.
5. Waynedale News, 4 April 2007 — American Legion Post 241, Waynedale, opened 1946.