THE AMERICAN LEGION
MARCHES ON
After one hundred years, Padgett-Webb Post 17 of the American Legion of Georgia, is still marching for the United States, its veterans and all of its citizens. You see them in parades, waving flags and saluting other veterans. Some of you see them and their auxiliary ladies at each and every commemorative and celebratory event at the VA Hospital. You notice them by their distinct blue caps ornamented by respected and well earned pins. Many of you never notice the projects they do in the community, seen and unseen. It is this ever dwindling group of undisputable patriots who 0ur community must continue to appreciate and support.
Following the end of World War I, the veterans of Laurens County organized Post No. 17 of the American Legion. Roy A. Flynt, a local attorney, was elected Commander of the Post. Stephen Parker New, a former naval officer and attorney, was chosen as Vice- Commander. A third attorney, J.A. Merritt was elected as Secretary. Other officers were E.L. Maddox, Treasurer; Manning Z. Claxton, Chaplain; and William Brunson, Historian. Other original members were F.W. Shepard, Marion Kendrick, Milo Smith, Prentis Adams, Joel Felton Pierce, Alex Burch, Sidney Walker, F.R. Powell, J.R. Mills, Ovid E. Cheek, Guy Alford, T.E. Burts, James Bennett, Marion Peacock, C.C. Youmans, C.C. Crockett, and Kendrick Moffett. The post, which was organized in September of 1919, was dedicated to aiding the veteran in job training, free medical care, support to his family, and charitable projects in the community.
Since that time, among the commanders of the Post 17 were A.A. Burch, T.J. Trammell, J.W. Barton, M.C. Holcomb, G.W. Barbre, C.A. Hodges, Peter S. Twitty, Jr., M.Z. Claxton, E.F. Moxley, Wendell Ziegler, Harold E. Ward, Floyd K. Horton, Roy Sabine, Wendell Ziegler, W.P. Denny, Gene Tomlinson, H. Dale Thompson, Emory Melton, Ed Hodges, Dawson Kea (the first World War II veteran to serve,) Excel Prescott, M.A. Chapman, Sam Pierce, Horace Hobbs, M.G. Combs, Joseph Kowtko, Charles Tenant, L. D. Woods, James C. Ashley, George Hogan, and John Taylor, the only surviving past commander, and James K. Drury, the current commander. (Additional names will be added to the Facebook page of the Courier Herald as they become available.)
Cong. J. Roy Rowland, Jr., M.D. and current Post Commander James K. Drury.
Beyond the commanders, vice-commanders, and other officers there have been hundreds of people who have served in leadership capacities and did their duty when called upon. Their names are too numerous to list here. Hopefully, the community will remember some of these loyal supporters of the United States of America.
The Dublin legion post had formed an auxiliary unit in February 1927, under the leadership of Mrs. George Ingram, Mrs. Kendrick Moffett Mrs. A.W. Chaplain, Mrs. Trammell Keen, Mrs. Theron Woodard and Miss Piccola Prescott. But, no female members had ever joined the veteran's organization. Despite that fact, the auxiliary members have always gone the extra mile for the Post and frequently serve their community in support of the missions of the members of Post 17.
Ruth Gordon had been around the army for decades before she came to Dublin to serve in the position of Laurens County health nurse. A native of Fort Gaines, Georgia and a graduate of Vanderbilt University, Mrs. Gordon served as a nurse during World War I as did her first husband, a member of the American Expeditionary Force and a native of Oklahoma. When she arrived in Dublin, Mrs. Gordon applied for membership in the theretofore all-male American Legion Post No. 17. The members, under the command of L.D. Woods, accepted her into the legion and installed her as a member on February 5, 1942. Today, women are welcomed as members of the post.
With the opening of the U.S. Naval Hospital in Dublin in 1945 and its conversion to a Veterans Administration Hospital in 1948, the post was charged with a new and expanded mission. There is hardly a day which goes by that there is no a former member of the legion or a volunteer from the local post supporting those who can support themselves any longer.
For nearly a quarter of a century, the post had its headquarters in rented or donated buildings in the downtown area. In the early 1950s, boosted by a large influx of new members in the years after the end of World War II, the renewed and reinvigorated post embarked on many public projects not related to veterans. Dale Thompson and Dub Douglas coached baseball teams in the newly formed American Legion League throughout the country.
The post established its headquarters in the 800 block of North Jefferson Street in Dublin. The post acquired an old barracks building from the school board, which was most likely one of the remaining barracks buildings from the closed German-Italian POW camp on Telfair Street.
The original building burned in 1957, but was quickly rebuilt and enlarged. Chief among the improvements was an auditorium, which served for about 15 years as public auditorium for legion events, parties, educational purposes and for the baby boomers, a good place to listen to the local garage bands of the 1960s.
One of the landmarks of this building as a World War I German artillery piece which had been given as a memorial to the county’s veterans of World War I. Initially placed on the courthouse square, the big gun was moved to the post on North Jefferson Street and to the new post of Moore Station Road in the early 1970s.
A long and enduring project of the post in the latter part of the 1900s was the sponsorship of young adults to attend the annual congregation of Boys State, where leadership and working skills were taught to the delegates.
The compilation of a complete history of newly named Padgett-Webb Post 17 is down right impossible, especially in 1200 worlds. Sufficed to say, that the history of the post is a history of its members. Today the post, renamed in memory of local World War II veterans, Bill Padgett and Jake Webb, remains as a living monument to the lives of its members and their service to others.
To all of the thousands of former and current members of the post, we as a community and a country say a hardy and grateful thank you for your service in the military and especially for your continuous, steadfast, and patriotic service to all of us well beyond the terms of your enlistments.
Here’s to another 100 years, hoping that there will be no more combat veterans eligible to join. But if there are, we will rest assured that there will be a faithful corps of men and women who will carry the flag of the American Legion forward in the the grand tradition of Post 17 for yet another century.
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