PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

TRAER – Traer hosted a meeting of The American Legion’s “40 & 8” Society from the Iowa 5th Congressional District on July 13, 1921. The antics of the candidates paraded through the business district made it fun for spectators. Seventy members were initiated in a ceremony in the Presbyterian horse barn. Festivities ended with a banquet served by the Legion Auxiliary at the Congregational Church. “The Society of Forty Men and Eight Horses,” also known as the Boxcar Society, is an independent, invitation-only honor society founded in 1920 by American veterans returning from France. Originally an arm of The American Legion, the Forty & Eight became an independent and separately incorporated veteran’s organization in 1960. Today, membership is by invitation of honorably discharged veterans and honorably serving members of the United States Armed Forces.