- This event has passed.
A Century of Service
May 14, 2019 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Brown Bag Program
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the American Legion Fox River-Geneva Post 75, chartered in August 1919. The Legion’s history can be found all around Geneva including the West Side Cemetery.
The large slabs at West Side Cemetery’s driveway circle were installed and dedicated by the Legion on May 30, 1928. These two stones, weighing approximately five tons, were quarried in Batavia in the 1850s and brought to Geneva’s fair grounds at the corner of West State and Kaneville Road. They were often used to test the strength of farm horses and used as a speakers platform. In 1861, Company H, 15th Calvary and 52nd Infantry Illinois Volunteers used the stones as an enlistment location.
As the fair ground property was being developed, the Legion rescued the stones and adopted them as memorial monuments due to their civil war history. The Legion purchased a cemetery plot near where Memorial Day services are usually held and placed the stones there along with a commemorative bronze plaque.
To learn more about the Legion’s history, join us at noon on Tuesday, May 14 at the American Legion Post 75, 22 South Second Street for the Geneva History Museum’s Brown Bag Program “A Century of Service.”
Registration is $5/person, $3/Museum Members and FREE for Settler Donors+