Alfred Erickson Post/Facebook The Hancock American Legion Post 186 building named for Alfred Erickson is shown on a bright spring morning during a sunrise.

HANCOCK — The American Legion celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, beginning just three months after the end of World War I. It began with just a handful of veterans, according the legion’s website.

A group of 20 officers who served in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France during World War I is credited with founding the Legion. AEF Headquarters asked the officers to suggest ideas on how to improve troop morale. One officer, Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt Jr., proposed an organization of veterans. In February, 1919, the group formed a temporary committee and selected several hundred officers who had the confidence and respect of the whole army.

About 1,000 officers and enlisted men attended the Paris Caucus in March, 1919. They adopted a temporary Constitution and the name The American Legion. The group also elected an executive committee to complete the organization’s work. It considered each soldier of the AEF a member of the Legion. The executive committee named a subcommittee to organize veterans at home in the United States, states the website.

In May, 1919, the Legion held a second organizing caucus in St. Louis. It completed the constitution and made plans for a permanent organization, setting up a temporary headquarters in New York City and beginning its relief, employment and Americanism programs.

Congress granted the Legion a national charter in September, 1919. The first national convention convened in Minneapolis on Nov. 10-12, 1919, adopting a permanent constitution and electing officers to head the organization. Delegates also voted to locate the Legion’s national headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Post 186 of the American Legion, Hancock, joins the national organization in celebrating the centennial. Numbered according to their organization, the Hancock post was the 186th to organize, and was among the first, forming in 1919.

The Legion Hall they occupy today, on West Quincy Street, started out as part of a New Deal project in the late 1930s, according the July 18, 1958, Daily Mining Gazette. The log structure was built for the Houghton County Road Commission, and in June, 1958, the Alfred Erickson Post 186, acquired the garage from the Hancock Body of the Houghton County Board of Supervisors.

The building was moved 20 feet further back from the road, set upon a new concrete basement, and several thousand dollars was invested in renovating the structure, including closing off the truck bays, replacing the garage doors with glass block windows.