The United Veterans Council of Greater Woonsocket was created back sometime around 1919. Originally called the War Council it was made up of organizations like the Grand Army of the Republic that were made up of Civil War Veterans. They also had the Spanish American War Veterans which was one of the first foreign wars that our Nation fought in. As we are still looking to find more history of the early beginnings, we have adapted over the years.
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, and grew to include thousands of "posts" (local community units) across the North and West. It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson.
According to Stuart McConnell:
The Grand Army of the Republic, the largest of all Union Army veterans' organizations, was the most powerful single-issue political lobby of the late nineteenth century, securing massive pensions for veterans and helping to elect five postwar presidents from its own membership. To its members, it was also a secret fraternal order, a source of local charity, a provider of entertainment in small municipalities, and a patriotic organization.[1]
Linking men through their experience of the war, the GAR became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying Congress to establish regular veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at 410,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies.
The United Spanish War Veterans was an American veterans' organization which consisted of veterans of the Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War and China Relief Expedition.
Soon after the Spanish–American War ended, in early 1899, discharged veterans formed fraternal societies to keep in touch with their former comrades. These included the Spanish War Veterans, the Spanish–American War Veterans, the Servicemen of the Spanish War, American Veterans of Foreign Service, the Army of the Philippines, the Veteran Army of the Philippines, the Legion of Spanish War Veterans and other smaller organizations.
At the start of the 20th century, these groups began to merge. In 1904, the three largest groups—the Spanish War Veterans, the Spanish–American War Veterans and the Servicemen of the Spanish War—joined to form the United Spanish War Veterans. They became the largest and most influential of the Spanish–American War societies.
In 1906, the Legion of Spanish War Veterans merged with the United Spanish War Veterans. The Legion existed in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The President of the Legion's Rhode Island chapter was Mrs Ellen V. Meehan during the 1930s; her husband was Cpl. James Arthur Meehan, who served in the Spanish war with the Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry.
In 1908, the Veteran Army of the Philippines, composed of soldiers, sailors and Marines who had served in the Philippine Islands, also merged with the United Spanish War Veterans.
In 1930s the War Council changed its name to the Allied Veterans Council to take in the account that many of the Civil War and Spanish American Veterans were ding off the Veteran of that time wanted to commemorate the end of the Great War and the Allied Nations.
Of Course, we know that the 1st World War was not up to its slogan "the war to end all wars..." So, the Council around this time began to formalize to who we are today. With organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars which came from the Spanish American War they were the oldest still surviving organization. After WWII the American Legion came about, with the AMVETS soon right after. We also began to expand by adding the Franco-American War Veterans. This organization had strong ties to Woonsocket especially being from the French Canadiian descent.
FRANCO-AMERICAN WAR VETERANS
'In March 1932 seven French veterans of World War I met for the purpose of formulating plans to organize a Veteran’s organization for veterans of French descent. These men were joined by other French veterans and met until September 1932. When they declared themselves associated together as "La Légion Franco-Americaine des Etats-Unis d’Amérique”. From September 1932 this group of Franco-American War Veterans continued to gather names of individuals who would ultimately sign the charter and become incorporators of the organization. In early 1933, one hundred forty-four incorporators, who we call our chartered members, requested the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to grant them corporate status. On the 16th day of May 1933 corporate status was granted to the organization retroactive to March 22, 1933. The corporation’s legal name was "La légion Franco-Américaine des Etats-Unis d’Amérique”.
In 1949 the Organization changed its name to the present "Franco American War Veterans, Inc.” With English being the official language of all government agencies within the United States of America, it also supplanted French as the official language of this organization. However, any member has the privilege, at all times, to express himself in French.'
To Be Continued....
