CAPSULE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN LEGION 

A group of twenty officers who served in the American
Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) in France in World War I is
credited with planning the Legion. A.E.F. Headquarters asked
these 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, this
group formed a temporary committee and selected several hundred
officers who had the confidence and respect of the whole army.
When the first organization meeting took place in Paris in March,
1919, about 1,000 officers and enlisted men attended. 


The meeting, known as the Paris Caucus, adopted a temporary
constitution and the name The American Legion. It also elected an
executive committee to complete the organization's work. 
It considered each soldier of the A.E.F. a member of the Legion. 
The executive committee named a subcommittee to organize
veterans at home in the US The Legion held a second organizing
caucus in St. Louis, Missouri, in May, 1919. It completed the
constitution and made plans for a permanent organization. 
It set up temporary headquarters in New York City, and began
its relief, employment, and Americanism programs.
Congress granted the Legion a national charter in September 1919. 
The first national convention held in Minneapolis, adopted a permanent
constitution and elected officers to head the organization. 

Proceedings of the first annual convention of the Missouri Branch of
the American Legion at Jefferson City, October 6-7, 1919.

The convention was called to order by the state chairman, General
Harvey C. Clark, at ten o' clock a.m., Monday, October 6, 1919, 
in the hall of the House of Representatives in the State Capitol.