History of American Legion Post 136
Mulvane, KS
The American Legion Post in Mulvane KS, the Paul Stewart Irwin Post, was granted a temporary charter as Post 3 on Nov 7, 1919. It later, on Oct 1, 1920, was granted a regular charter as Post 136. It remains Post 136 today. The initial charter members included:
Hargus Guald Shelly
James Leroy Jenins
Frank Elwin Shaw
Colin Clyde Campbell
Roy Bowles Eck
Ralph Chester Lindsey
Edward M. Kimble
Carl William Helmick
Charles Henry Baugh
Andrew Irwin Miller
Branson Gleenwood Miller
Kirby Charles Burrus
Howell Marston Mason
George Albert Harvey
Harry Edward Farney
Harry Elvert Wheeler
The first Commander of Post 136 was Dr Gerald Shelly.
The American Legion Auxiliary was granted charter on Feb 6, 1923. The charter members included:
Laura Albright
Edna Albright
Mrs. J.C. Albright
Mrs. Jane Shaw
Mrs. Tillie J. Weinrich
Mrs. Fern Miller
Edith Campbell
Barbara Campbell
Mrs. Gladys M. Campbell
Mrs. Addie Rennick
The Sons of the American Legion (SAL) was granted its charter on June 7, 1979, with 83 charter members.
The American Legion Riders was organized on Oct 12, 2001. The Patriot Guard was formed in 2008.
History of Name of Post:
The Paul Stewart Irwin Post 136 was named for the first military member from Mulvane to lose his life in World War I. Paul was the son of James Irwin, a Methodist minister, so much of Paul’s childhood was spent moving to various towns in Kansas. He graduated from Larned High School in 1910, and attended Southwest College for two years. When his family moved to Mulvane in 1915, Paul was employed at the Mulvane Record Office, learning the newspaper game, until the day he quit to join the Army. He was one of the first to enlist, and did so because of the call he felt to duty and patriotism. He went to do his bit, and was ready to pay the price.
After the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, and officially entered World War I. Paul was assigned to Company E, 138th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, American First Army. The First Army attacked St. Mihiel on Sept 12, 1918, but found the enemy in retreat – the Germans had decided to abandon the salient. Since 1915, the Argonne Forest had been a rest area for the German Army. Everything had been done to make the forest and valley impregnable. Inside the Argonne Forest itself, ravines, hillocks and meandering little streams added to the obstacles created by the trees and dense underbrush. The Germans had added every imaginable man-made defense, from parallel and flanking trenches, to concrete dugouts and fortified strongpoints, supported everywhere by barbed wire and machine guns.
Colonel George C. Marshall managed to shift more than 400,000 troops from St. Mihiel to the Argonne Valley bounded on the west side by dense forest, and on the east side by the unfordable Meuse River. After an all-night barrage from 3,928 guns, the First Army attacked the enemy at dawn, on Sept 26, 1918. On this first day of the great Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Pvt. Paul Stewart Irwin was killed by enemy fire. His body was interred at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France. His grave is located at Plot D, Row 16, Grave 25. A bronze memorial plaque was placed in the United Methodist Church in Mulvane, in his memory, as his father was still at that time the minister there. In 1945, this plaque was presented to the American Legion Post in Mulvane, to be placed in the American Legion Hall. The plaque, along with a picture of Paul, hang in the entrance to the Legion Post.
