ONE OF THE FINEST – The 47th anniversary of the American Legion is being celebrated nationwide today…Although not active today, Frank J. Goldencamp Post 59 was among the first 60 in the nation and during the roarin’ 20s was one of the most respected in the state for its 30-member drum and bugles corps…
When the depression was at its worst, it was the Legion food kitchens set up on the school grounds that fed hungry children, and during two floods in the 30s, the Legion rescue squads and cooks at the relief centers won praise for their great volunteer work…A member most active in the state organization was the late Dr. George Hunter.
Eight of the charter members of Old 59 are living …They are Julius Brumberg, Peter A. Burke, George Brothers, James Collier, Clifford Crance, Charles Collett, and Jack Winkle…Others who have answered taps were Dr. Cosper Burton, H. M Edwards, E. L. Riley, Franklin Thomas, Leo Brumberg, Earl Grimes, Otha Edwards, Orville Lantham, Dr. F. R. Stewart, Jack Yates, S. B. Steece, William T. Lucas, Dr. A. P. Cole, O. R. Brothers, Adna R. Johnson, Ralph W. Scott, Linn Gilfillan, Tewks Ridenour, James W. Dudley, and George Kingery.
PROHIBITION Forerunner – March 16, 1877, this town was all a-flutter, according to the weekly Journal…The famous Broadway actor Robert McWade played in “Ten Nights in a Bar Room” at Union Hall on Second and Lawrence streets…It was the first time an admission price of 75 cents had ever been charged in Ironton to see a traveling road show…
There was standing room only in the hall…The sob melodrama was about the ten-year-old little girl who went to the corner saloon and tried to coax her drunken father to come home to her sick mother, and according to the newspaper, there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience…
The headline was “Wonderful Acting”…A short time thereafter, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized in Ironton…The first officers were prominent ladies, most of the names remember today by senior citizens…They were Mrs. N. K. Moxley, Mrs. C. Ellison, Mrs. R. D. Norton, Mrs. W. D. Williams, Mrs. Dave Nixon, Mrs. James Britt, Mrs. Mary G. Winters, Mrs. Thomas John, Miss Jennie Raine, and Mrs. James Nixon…
The WCTU was active for many years and was successful in voting the city dry in 1909 for a period of three years…The ladies raised funds for drinking water fountains on the courthouse corner at Fourth and Center, in Mather Park at Second and Railroad streets, and in Riverview Park…Some of the ladies who helped organize the Union lived to see National Prohibition from 1920 to 1933.
Written by Charles Collettt
Huntington Newspaper – March 16, 1960
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