Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 312, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1920 — IS NAMED LEGION HISTORIAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IS NAMED LEGION HISTORIAN

Eben Putnam Performed Similar Service Before the Office Was Made Permanent. A life of singular variety and advenfwr<‘ has been that of Eben Putnam,

new-chosen national historian of the American Legion. Mr. Putnam was born In Salem, Mass., Oct. 10. 1868. He received Ills education in private schools and the Cambridge high school. While he was a boy he was the companion and assistant of his

fattier, the distinguished anthropologist, Prof. Frederic Ward Putnam.-in archaeological explorations in various parts of the world. Mr. Putnani has been deeply interested in genealogy, eugenics and New England histories, and has compiled and published a number of works on these subjects. lie has conducted extensive investigations over a period of more than twenty-five years into the question of immigration. He is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the American Revo- ■ lution, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, and American Historical Society. Early in the fall of 1915 Mr. Putnam became convinced that this country must euter the war eventually, and joined the training school organized in his state. He attended the Piattsburg camp the following summer aiid the next winter was a member of a provisional battalion of infantry. He was barred from a commission in’the line because of his age, but on April 4, 1917, was commissioned a captain in the quartermaster corps. His son also was in the service. Mr. Putnam served as assistant to the depot quartermaster in Boston and later served overseas in the fuel branch. He was discharged August 22, 1919. Mr. Putnam is a charter member of Wellesley Post No. 72 of the American Legion, and was insurance officer and post historian until he resigned to accept the post of department historian for Massachusetts, where he served also in the capacity of a member of the state executive committee. He had performed the duties of a national historian of the Legion before that office was made permanent.