American Legion Charles F. Duford Post 47 Holliston, MA

         Charles F. Duford

The Charles F. Duford American Legion Post 47,  began in 1920 when a handful of WW1 veterans meet in the Selectmen’s Office in Town Hall. The Post was named after Charles F. Duford the first Holliston man killed in WW1. Lt. Walter Moynihan would serve as the new Post’s first Commander. Due to an increasing membership in the 1940’s from those returning from WW11 the Post was able to purchase the Grand Army of the Republic Post 6 building located at 13 Exchange Street, from the Sons of Vets. It should be noted that this building was the first in the State of Massachusetts to be built and occupied by members of the G.A.R. or Civil War Veterans. The Post membership during the latter 40’s grew to over 400 members due to enrollment of those veteran’s located at Framingham’s Cushing Hospital and for many years the local Post was known as the “Biggest little Post in the state“. For many year’s the Post relied on dances, suppers, and weekly whist card parties to survive. The Post finances for many years were conducted out of an old cigar box carried to Post meetings by treasurer Bert Gates.  In the early 1970’s the Post obtained a liquor license making the old 25 cent beer machine obsolete. While the Post bar served as a great gathering spot for veterans as well as locals alike, America’s division over the Vietnam War would be reflected in the fewer number of veterans of this era who would join the Post. In 1998 due to a continuing decline in membership, due to the deaths of so many  WW11 veterans, the Post quarters were sold. The Post continues today, 86 years after it’s founding and functions as mainly a service organization, meeting monthly on the first Sunday of each month at 10 a.m. September thru June at the local V.F.W. Hall. Members take part in the commemoration of both Veterans and Memorial Day’s, place flowers and flags in local cemeteries for their deceased comrades on the Thursday prior to Memorial Day, and for the past 3 years have honored those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan with a poster and flag tribute attached to phone poles through out town, twice yearly. In 2005 and 2006 Post members planted over 7000 spring bulbs to commemorate America’s most recent military causalities in the town center.