AMERICAN LEGION, MARCY-UPTON POST NO. 109
Marcy-Upton Post 109 of the American Legion was chartered in 1919 or 1920. It was named after two men who lived in the area and lost their lives in World War I. These men were Vernon Upton and Warren Marcy.
Vernon A. Upton was born in south Hooker County, Nebraska on March 30, 1891 . He grew to manhood in the area. He married Mrs. Ida Nicholson on September 1, 1917 and left his bride of a month to join the colors.
“His death was due to an attack of pneumonia while training with the first contingent from this county for military duty and he died on November 20, 1917. He was 26 years, 7 months and 21 days. He was given full military honors on November 30, 1917 and laid to rest in Cedarview Cemetery.''
“Warren Marcy was born in Hooker County in 1889. He grew to manhood in this community and took part in all its activities. He was schooled here and lived for a time north of Mullen on the river. Before going to war he was married.
World War I came on and this man joined the Army. At the time of his death he was in the Signal Corps. He died on the field of battle October 18, 1918 at St. Naziare, France at the age of 29 years, 11 months 26 days. His body was later returned to Cedarview Ceme-tery in Mullen.''
The Legion held their meetings mostly in the meeting room in the basement of the courthouse. In about 1947 they began talking about getting a place of their own and then started doing some serious planning. The following is taken from the Sandhills Tribune of May 1948. “The Sexton crew was busily engaged the fore part of the week in the excavating for the new basement of the Mullen Veterans' Club. Club officials are now anticipating the commencement of work pertinent to the construction of the substruc-ture, and in a very short time the project will be taking shape. A full basement is in the plans and the top portion of the building will be moved onto it in due time. The boys are striving to have the club in readiness for opening long before the 4th of July.'' The club was `open for business' that year and is still functioning altho there have been some changes over the years. One of their newer improvements is a well lit flag that flies continually.
The Legion has always provided a color guard and firing squad for military funerals, a color guard for Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, and many other patriotic events as well as helping to sponsor these programs.
Another annual project has been to sponsor the Sandhill Roundup Rodeo on the 4th of July for over 30 years. This rodeo has seen many changes as have the grounds where it was held. In the early years the rodeo was mostly local boys but it gradually got to be more and more professional.
Two programs for the youth of the commu-nity are County Government Day and Boys State. County government is jointly sponso-red with the Auxiliary and provides the eleventh grade juniors of the Mullen High School a great opportunity to learn first hand about their county government. Nebraska Boys State is 50 years old and Post 109 has participated in it since its beginning. The first boy to attend from Mullen was Frank Harding and this year he will be honored along with others at Lincoln.
The Legion helps any veteran in need of assistance to obtain the help needed. How-ever, they have always been a community minded organization and have joined with other groups on countless occasions to work for the good of our community.