The first efforts to organize in Logan County came in August 1919, when area servicemen banded together to form a local post. Former Major E.K. Campbell called the meeting to order and gave the men present an idea of what a temporary organization might involve. Fred Hamilton was chosen to act as temporary chairman and Joseph Cooke as temporary secretary.
Those in attendance signed a petition for a charter, which was forwarded to state headquarters, approved and then sent on to national headquarters in New York. The group also decided to name the post after Harold R. Kerr, the first Bellefontaine serviceman killed in World War I. He served with the Marines and died in action in June 1918, near Chateau Thierry, France. The post’s charter, carrying the signatures of 32 individuals, was approved and received in Bellefontaine in October 1919.
