Mesa VFW | Dode Morris Post 1760

Specialties

The Mesa VFW is a non-​profit organization for veterans providing emotional, social, and financial support to members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and their dependents.

Established in 1929, our organization has a great long history here in the city of Mesa, Arizona in both participating in community events and supporting our veterans. As VFW Post 1760 progresses we keep in mind the VFW slogan, «Honor the Dead by Helping the Living». We encourage any veteran, or family member of a veteran to join the VFW organization in carrying that thought and motivation forward.

History

Established in 1929.

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1760 was chartered in Mesa, Arizona on November 19, 1929. Then known as Geronimo Post 1760 (under a different namesake) the newly formed charter elected their first post commander to be, James E. Coberly. The initial years for the post progress was slow and had low interest. A few years later in 1936 another well organized effort was made for the post, this time under the commandership of Merlin Shumway. It was under Commander Shumway’s administration that the namesake for Post 1760 was changed to Dode Morris in honor of Joseph Smith Morris, who was better known as «Dode» in the area (pronounced ‘doh-​dih’). At the time it was believed Dode was the first citizen of Mesa killed in action during World War I. This was in fact false as another Mesa veteran, Marion Rogers was killed in action 17 days before. Regardless of who was killed in action first, both those men and an unknown amount of other Mesa veterans made the supreme sacrifice for our country.

Meet the Business Owner

Dode Morris M.

Business Owner

About Post 1760 namesake: Joseph «Dode» Smith Morris was born on January 3^rd, 1891 in Mesa, Arizona to the parents of Hiram B. Morris Jr. and Eliza S. Morris. He was one of the older of 8 children to his parents and grew up where he was born in Mesa. Joseph Morris was known around the Mesa area as «Dode» (pronounced ‘doh-​dih’). Prior to his enlistment Dode was a known athlete and baseball player having played in the Junior league in Arizona, Texas, California as well as for his home teams. On June 5^th, 1917 Dode registered for the draft. And on September 19^th of the same year Dode was inducted into the United States Army, and left with the Maricopa county contingent for Camp Funston on the same day. Dode selected the field artillery and became a member of Battery C, 340^th field artillery and began training at once. On January 12^th, Dode shipped out from New York for «somewhere in France». And later that year Dode was killed in action October 21, 1918, 3 weeks before Armistice Day.