Post 1  History

(Below history is as of May 1, 2017)

American Legion Post 1, located in Laconia, New Hampshire, was originally chartered as Frank W. Wilkins Post 1. SSG Wilkins was the first native son of Laconia to be killed during The Great War.

While repairing telegraph lines SSG Wilkins swerved his motorcycle to avoid striking a young girl who was herding sheep in the road. In doing so he crashed his motorcycle resulting in a severely broken leg. Gasoline from the ruptured tank entered the open wound, resulting in complications that took his life.

The Post operated under this name from the time of official Charter on February 27, 1920 until the Post petitioned to include a World War II person from the community who had been killed in action. The charter was amended to include Cmdr. James Stuart Smith who was killed during a naval battle in the Pacific theater. On March 16, 1946 the post was renamed the Wilkins-Smith Post 1.

The post has had two homes, one on Union Ave. near the high school and in 1953 sold that and built at 849 No. Main St. where it operates to this day.

In its 98 years Post 1 has produced three NH Department Commanders: Cyrus Malone (1966), Charles Tracy (1972) and Earlon Beale (2006) who went on to serve as NEC from 2011-2015.

The post has fielded a Legion Baseball team for 60 years resulting in one state championship.

The Sons program has had 133 members as a recent all time high and the Auxiliary are at around 200.