department, the funds coming from a Sportsmans Banquet the Legion hosted at the end of March.
Chief Louis Eslinger of Boyd and Cadott was on hand at the Boyd Legion Hall on Clark Street to accept the donation from Commander Gerry Gully on June 17.
Sharing that the same company made both Taser and the Axon bodycam could link the two together (so that when a Taser is drawn the bodycam activates in synch), Chief Eslinger said the bodycam funds donation means that there will be one camera and Taser for each officer in Stanley, Boyd, and Cadott, something
not every department currently has. The Legion, meanwhile, is happy to help.
“We can help out more organizations,” Commander Gully said. “We’re happy to do it.”
Named for a soldier buried at Edson Union Cemetery who died from pneumonia during the pandemic of 1918, Walter Nelson Post 326 in Boyd on Clark Street has a long history, including the present building, which replaced a former cheese factory on the site and dates to 1980, the year the roof went on, Gully said. It’s what’s under that roof that we turn to focus on now.
Included with the stage and bar upstairs as well as kitchen facilities (including deep fryers) in the basement, is the memorabilia, which spans from before World War I to a flag from
Charley Eslinger, the police chief’s brother, it was made known.
Also included is a sword and scabbard belonging to "Boyd's first veteran" Private
Joshua Shilts, who fought for the Union in the War of the Rebellion (as the Civil War was then known) and is buried in nearby Edson Union Cemetery. Alongside Shilts at the Hall is a remembrance for Larry Dean Milling, who entered military service at Boyd and gave his life in April 6, 1969 in South Vietnam.
Downstairs, meanwhile, are the charter membership roll of the local Legion, along with one for the sons of the American Legion. The name “William Cirkel” appears on the Charter membership roll, while Charlie Gully (Commander Gully’s son) and Joe Karlen both appear on the Sons of the American Legion roll, as chairman and chaplain respectively. So what does the Legion stand for more broadly? That question is answered by the Preamble to its Constitution, also displayed downstairs.
“For God and Country, we associate ourselves together for the following purposes… To make right the master of might; To promote peace and goodwill on earth; To safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy,” and, “To consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness,” the founding document
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of the veteran’s organization founded in the wake of World War I relates in part. Also important to note is the Legion’s commitment to Americanism. But as the Greatest Generation continues to age while the one that came after serving in places like Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq follows, another question comes to mind: what about funerals? For these, the Legion has members certified to assist bereaved family
members with a 21-gun salute that uses World
War I-era repeating action rifles.
“I can get brand new ones,” Gully says of the military hardware, “but I feel that (repeating action) adds to it,” he said of the 21-gun salute. Not to be forgotten along with funeral services for veterans is comradery, for which more is better.
“We’re roughly 70 members,” Commander Gully says of the Legion at Boyd. “We’re always looking for more.”
