Attendees at a District meeting in Glenwood Springs of the 40 & 8, circa 1941.
Back row, l to r: Jack Samuelson, Mike Bosco, Jack Huntley, Pete Thome, Nels Benson, Frank Doll, Herman Stein, James Walsh, Joe Allen.
Bottom row: John Adriance, Ray Angel, Ivan Al Reider, Earl Faulkhabe, Joe F. Walsh (seated on floor), Thomas Fitzgerald, Doc Franklin McDonald, William H. Luby, W. W. "Mickey" Walsh, George Gillian and Wilt N. Thelin.
"The Forty and Eight is an organization of veterans of the United States armed forces. Its official name is "La Société des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux," which is French, and literally translates as "The Society of Forty Men and Eight Horses. "The organization (also known as "La Société") can trace its roots back to 1920, when Joseph W. Breen and 15 other members of the American Legion, who were veterans of World War I, came together and founded it as an honor society for certain Legion members. The title "40&8" comes from the box cars that were used to transport troops to the front in France. Each car had the emblem 40/8 stenciled on the sides, which meant that it could carry 40 men or 8 horses. These cars were known as forty-and-eights. They were seen by the troops as a miserable way to travel, and the new organization was thus called the 40&8 in an attempt to make some light of the common misery they had all shared." -- Wikipedia
[Title supplied from catalog prepared by the Eagle County Historical Society.]
