From The Indianapolis Star, Wednesday, September 10, 1919: The American Legion starts its national membership campaign Monday and during the week hopes to enroll 1,000,000 new members. Remster Bingham, Marion County membership chair, said efforts will be made to enroll at least 25,000 of the 30,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, and nurses from the county who served in the war. Bingham said,” Every known service man will be solicited personally and provided an explanation of

From The Indianapolis Star, Tuesday, August 19, 1919: Consumers began to form-up an hour before army surplus commodities went on sale at the Federal building yesterday morning, and when clerks started taking orders at 8 o’clock the waiting crowd of 150 persons extended from the tables set-up to take orders through the long corridor. As more people arrived, additional clerks were called upon to handle the increasing number of citizens. All classes were in the line - men fro

From The Indianapolis News, Tuesday, August 5, 1919: Indianapolis welcomed 150 black soldiers of the 809th Pioneer Infantry back home Monday evening. The soldiers marched from the War Camp Community Club for colored soldiers, Senate Av and North St, along downtown streets, around Monument Place, and through the Victory Arch before attending a celebration at Tomlinson Hall with friends and relatives. Dr. Sumner Furniss, city councilor and chair of the colored citizen’s exec

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, June 29, 1919: No clamor of sirens, horns or whistles, no swaying of delirious crowds in the streets, no singing, just a matter of course, “Well, I see they signed the peace treaty!” was the frequent response heard today from Indianapolis citizens to the news that the treaty ending the Great War had finally been concluded at Versailles. Emotions probably were exhausted last November in “peace celebrations” at the news of the Armistice si

From The Indianapolis Star, Friday, June 27, 1919: The Liberty Kitchen, 106 N. Delaware, will close Monday concluding another chapter in Indiana’s war history. The Marion County Council of Defense established the Liberty Kitchen almost a year ago to provide free information on canning, poultry, child nutrition, garden topics, and other problems of home economics and demonstrations on the best methods for preparing foods. Miss Florence Boston, who has charge of the office,

From The Indianapolis Star, Monday, June 16, 1919: The United States Army Indianapolis Recruiting District operates more stations than any state. Twenty-one stations outside Indianapolis draw recruits from an area with a population of 3,000,000. The Indianapolis District is second only to New York, which has a population of 7,000,000 from which to draw, in supplying the largest number of recruits. For the first time in the Army’s history, young men will be permitted to ch

From The Indianapolis News, Wednesday, June 11, 1919: Seventy-four junior reserve training corps cadets of the Indianapolis high schools were named in orders issued by Maj. Arthur Perry, professor of military science and tactics in the Indianapolis high schools, to attend five weeks of summer training at Camp Custer, MI. The boys were selected upon recommendations of the officers in charge of the units at the three high schools - Shortridge, Manual, and Arsenal Technical.

From The Indianapolis News, Thursday, June 5, 1919: The Indiana Society of Selective Board Members was formed today by over 100 former local and district draft board members at a meeting in the Claypool Hotel. The organization’s purpose “is to keep alive the associations formed by men on whom rested the primary responsibility for the selection of soldiers so that the valuable knowledge of military preparation acquired by these men may not be lost, to preserve historical dat

From The Indianapolis Star, Thursday, May 15, 1919: Last evening at Tomlinson Hall, former President William Howard Taft made an earnest plea for creation of a league of nations. For over two hours he carefully analyzed the covenant adopted by the Paris peace conference and answered various objections to America’s approving it. Taft insisted that issues involved transcend political consideration and the treaty with the league covenant should be ratified by the United State

From The Indianapolis News, Wednesday, May 7, 1919: Glorious Welcome Home Day! A chorus of factory whistles greeted the troop trains bringing soldiers of the 150th Field Artillery and members of Base Hospital No. 32 into Union Station for the long-awaited day celebrating our returning Hoosier heroes. A parade of 20,000 men and women - soldiers, marines, sailors, hospital corps, Red Cross nurses - from every county, led by the caisson in memory of those who died for their c