Selection from Patterson Irrigator Archives:
October 1918 “Patterson has paid its first tribute in blood on the battlefields of France that America might live. A lad who but a few months ago donned the khaki and shouldered his rifle in the great cause of liberty has paid the supreme sacrifice without murmur.” (Elijah B. Hayes)
April 13, 1934
Some 80 members of the local American Legion post, many of them dressed in female attire, are staging a hilarious comedy, “When Men Marry.”
July 13, 1934
The Patterson American Legion Post had a special meeting in response to a call from Sheriff Grat Hogin. Hogin asked the local Legion to join a countywide movement to guard against Communist threats. A committee was formed to cooperate with county officials.
March 8, 1935
A dinner meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, 20-30 Club, firefighters and American Legion will be scheduled soon to discuss plans for baseball activities. It is hoped some big-name baseball stars will attend.
Sept. 20, 1935
Plans are developing for the fourth annual Horsethief Bend Celebration next week. Many new activities have been added, and plans are bin the works to double the space in front of the American Legion Hall.
May 29, 1936
The community will observe Memorial Day on Saturday, with the American Legion post organizing the program. F.S. Harrison will give a brief tribute to the Spanish War dead. The graves of military veterans will be decorated at Del Puerto Cemetery.
July 17, 1936
Harold Frame is the new American Legion commander.
May 7, 1937
A countywide celebration of the opening of the new Las Palmas bridge across the San Joaquin River is being considered. The Patterson and Turlock American Legion posts are promoting the idea.
May 28, 1937
The American Legion will host a Memorial Day ceremony in the high school gym, followed by the decoration of veterans’ graves in Del Puerto Cemetery.
Aug. 20, 1937
This year’s Horsethief Bend celebration under the sponsorship of the American Legion will be tied with the opening of the Las Palmas bridge across the San Joaquin River sometime this fall.
Oct. 1, 1937
Bridge Opening and Horsethief Bend celebration, sponsored by the American Legion. Gambling and dancing followed at the Legion hall; the sponsored cleared $250, which went towards a new roof.
Dec. 17, 1937
The local American Legion post has won the district plaque for showing the highest gain in membership.
Feb. 4, 1938
The new American Legion Hall on East Las Palmas Avenue was dedicated Tuesday evening. C.R. Moore is the post commander.
March 5, 1938
The Patterson American Legion post held an old-timers night to celebrate the national organization’s 20th anniversary of its founding. The local post was chartered Dec. 1, 1919.
June 10, 1938
The local American Legion post this week backed a proposal to construct an additional veterans’ hospital for the valley in Del Puerto Canyon.
January 20, 1939
The local American Legion post has received both state and national citations for breaking membership records this past year.
June 22, 1961
Eighth-graders Joyce Yamamoto and Troy Hale are the recipients of the citizenship awards given annually by the American Legion.
June 29, 1961
W.S. Long is the new commander of the local American Legion post.
April 12, 1962
The American Legion Hall, a Patterson landmark since 1920, when it was built by the Women’s Colony Club, was destroyed by a fire of unknown origin late last Saturday morning.
May 3, 1962
Legionnaires will consider replacing their clubhouse on East Las Palmas Avenue when they meet in June. The old structure was destroyed by fire April 7.
June 6, 1963
The American Legion will hold its annual chicken barbecue this Saturday with John Reis and Homer Brewer doing the cooking.
September 19, 2013. The Elijah B. Hayes American Legion and Auxiliary No.168, along with community members and local firefighters, gathered in the Veterans Park downtown on Wednesday, Sept. 11 to remember the 3,000 people who died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
November 29, 2018 Only weeks before Patterson celebrated the Armistice ending the Great War 100 years ago this month, local residents were saddened by their only loss on the battlefield.
Word was received here by telegram of the death of young Elijah B. Hayes. He was killed in action Oct. 1, just six weeks before the German surrender that ended the fighting.
Young Hayes had two brothers also serving in the U.S. Army, John and Raymond. Elijah, who went by the nickname “Lige,” registered for the draft but was not called until about eight months before his death. All three trained at Camp Lewis, Wash., and it was assumed John and Raymond participated in the same battle that claimed their brother’s life. The three had briefly gotten together in France.
Their parents moved the family to Patterson six years earlier. Father B.W. Hayes was in the real estate business here before selling to O.M. Kirk and moving to Olympia, Wash., to be near his sons.
When the parents were notified of the casualty, they in turn telegraphed an uncle and aunt, C.T. Smith, who resided here.
Before entering the service, Lige was employed here by well-driller William Hurd.
When word was received of his death, Pattersonites quickly took notice. Flags were lowered to half-staff.
The Patterson Irrigator announced his death with this somewhat flowery statement: “Patterson has paid its first tribute in blood on the battlefields of France that America might live. A lad who but a few months ago donned the khaki and shouldered his rifle in the great cause of liberty has paid the supreme sacrifice without murmur.”
The article went on to point out that Lige was an extremely well-liked young man when he lived here. He also was survived by two sisters and another brother.
When Patterson American Legion Post 168 was chartered in 1924, it took Hayes’ name in recognition of his sacrifice.
May 23, 2019 An anniversary of sorts will be observed this coming Monday at the Patterson District Cemetery north of town.
This Memorial Day will mark the 50th anniversary of the Avenue of Flags – a project initiated by the local American Legion post in 1969. But what a difference 50 years has made.
Back 50 years ago, the Elijah B. Hayes post and its auxiliary had been decorating the cemetery’s military graves with small American flags and white crosses with poppies attached. But with more and more families choosing to bury their veterans in the local cemetery, it was decided to erect what was – and still is called — an Avenue of Flags.
These large flags are given to families of veterans at military funerals. Rather that stowing them away in a closet, the Legion asked that flags be donated to be used once a year. The names of the deceased veterans were inscribed on the hems, and about 30 of them flew atop 15-foot poles that first year in 1969.
But the cemetery grew in size, and the Legionnaires grew in age. In the early 1980s, the local Boy Scouts took on the task of putting out the colors on the holiday. Their service project has continued annually for some 35 years.
And the project itself has been greatly expanded. Now some 180 flags will be flying at the cemetery on Memorial Day, where a special public ceremony will be held this Monday at 10 a.m. Flags that were stolen in a break-in last winter have all been replaced, and the Legion, Scout groups and the American Heritage Girls invite the community to come and have a look at what pride has accomplished over the past 50 years.
December 12, 2019
The original American Legion Hall, located on East Las Palmas Avenue, was the location of many civic activities in the early days of the community. The building was first erected by the Colony Club at the site of an outdoor dance floor used about 1920 at early Patterson fairs, then was acquired by the new Legion post. The building was destroyed by fire in the spring of 1962, and then rebuilt before being sold by the Legion.
One of Patterson’s earliest organizations has every right to claim this month as its centennial anniversary.
American Legion Post #168 was organized and applied for its charter in December, 1919. It held two meetings that month, decided to move ahead in applying for its charter, initially signed up 22 prospective members, and selected a name in memory of the Patterson lone World War I battle casualty.
That would be Elijah B. Hayes, who attended school here before entering the military. He was killed in France in the Argonne campaign. By then his parents had moved out-of-state. They had two other sons serving overseas in the infantry at that time.
The charter application for a new post was sent to state Legion headquarters in San Francisco, and it may have been some time before official recognition was received that it had been approved.
At the first meeting in early December of 1919, R.C. Fleharty was selected as chairman of a temporary committee charged with organizing the post. He was the new owner and editor of this newspaper, having taking on that responsibility in July, 1919 after his discharge from the military. William T. Ralston was named adjutant and William Logan treasurer. Executive board members were Fred Ventuleth, Walter Jons, Raymond Smith, Orland Leverton and Andrew Axelson.
Newspaper sources list 22 charter members at that time. Besides those listed above, the others included R.C. Stout, E.B. Lear, P.A. Deardorrf, Milton Smith, O.E. Pendry, Walter Litten, Alfred Knutson, Manuel Knutson, H.C. Hanson, Roy Wilson, Henry Johnson, M.A. Olson, George Knutson and A. Peterson.
It was noted then that others interested in signing up for charter membership could do so at the Litten Brothers pool room.
Fifty years later, in 1969, the post celebrated its 50th birthday with a luncheon at the Legion Hall, with Commander Gene Carter serving as master-of-ceremonies. At that time 50-year certificates were awarded to Howard S. Arnold, Rodney Edwards, William Glotfelty, Charles Jennings, George Knutson, Ore Minniear, Roy Needham, Walter Sorenson, John Torrison, Harold Blythe and Joe Smith Sr.
Mike Anderson is the current commander of Post #168, a position he has held the last couple of years. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” Anderson said this week of his 14 years of being a Legionnaire.
The local post meets once a month in the late morning and often adjourns for lunch in downtown Patterson.
By the way, to my knowledge the Patterson Study Club is the longest continuously functioning organization in the community, although it may have taken breaks during the war years. Also, Patterson’s first Boy Scout troop, later to be assigned numeral 81, was organized in 1917 but did suffer breaks along the way. It was sponsored by the Legion for over 50 years.