First officers of Post 50: Carl F. Bechtel, William H. Kehr, Albert C. Kehr, L.T. Krebs, Clyde H. Roeder, John E. Woodard

By 1920, when Lansing Post 50 applied for a permanent charter in the American Legion, the post had 45 members. These men were the post's first officers.

Commander—Carl F. Bechtel

Carl worked in a confectionary in Lansing when he first returned from WWI. In 1928 he became Lansing postmaster, with the full recommendation of the Post 50 members. By 1942 Bechtel had moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where he worked for a home loan company. 

Adjutant—William H. Kehr

Bill Kehr earned a Purple Heart medal during battle in France. He was a “runner” in the army, delivering messages on foot and was wounded in the foot just before Armistice Day. Shortly after he returned to Lansing, at the time he was helping to get Post 50 up and running, Bill and his brother Albert were starting a retail business on Lansing’s Main Street, Kehr Bros. Hardware. They ran the store for some 50 years and there is still a hardware store on the same spot. Bill married Mabel Lindberg and they raised two daughters on Lansing’s Front Street. Daughter Joanne Kehr has the handwritten letters that Bill sent from France during the war. He describes going “over the top” as “some experience … The big guns were sure behind us, just one continual roar all the time.” Bill died in 1971 and is buried in Lansing’s Oak Hill Cemetery.

Treasurer—Albert C. Kehr

In their teens, the Kehr brothers, Albert and William, lived on Front Street, their father working as a sorter in a button factory. Before the war, Albert clerked in a grocery story. During the war, he was stationed at Camp Dodge in Des Moines, where he was a sergeant in the Army Camp Quartermaster Corps. He met Des Moines native Mildred Mugge in church and courted her during his military service. He brought Mildred back to Lansing after they married and set about building Kehr Bros. Hardware with William. Like his brother William, Albert also fathered two daughters. In September 1975, Albert was given life membership in Post 50 along with several other surviving WWI veterans. In addition to the Legion, religion was a big part of Albert’s life. He taught Sunday school at Lansing’s Federated church for 35 years—many years as superintendent—and served in various other church offices. He died in 1981 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Chaplain—L.T. Krebs

Rev. Krebs served at Lansing’s Presbyterian church in the early 1920s. He performed services in various northeast Iowa cities afterward but eventually moved to Liberal, Kansas. Each summer he returned to Lansing to give one sermon and vacation for a week.

Historian—Clyde H. Roeder

By the time he enlisted in WWI, Clyde was married to Charlotte Englehorn and working as a button cutter in Lansing. When he was stationed in Huachita, New Mexico in 1917, Charlotte visited him there for a month. He returned to button cutting in Lansing after the war, but by 1930 had started a poolroom in Lansing. He died in 1968 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Sergeant at Arms—John E. Woodard

Lansing's  one-of-a-kind, 50-some-acre Mt. Hosmer Veteran's Memorial Park was created through Post 50 of the Iowa department of the American Legion in 1922. The park is now a major draw for visitors to Lansing with its beautiful overlook of the Mississippi River and the historic Black Hawk Bridge.