At the end of World War II, the
City of Newark had 27 veterans organizations. The first and oldest was
Cushing Post No. 14 of the VFW, or Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose founders had
fought in the Spanish American War in Cuba.
Cushing Post occupied its own post
home at 96 Wright Street, a building it purchased and occupied in 1922.
I joined the Veterans of Foreign
Wars while still serving overseas in World War II. I was made a
"MAL" member, or member at large. Subsequently, my VFW
membership was assigned to Cushing Post No. 14, which was the closest VFW post
to my home at 29 Montgomery Street in Newark's old Third Ward.
When I returned from the War, I
became very active in Cushing Post and in the course of my post activity became
the post historian and compiled and wrote the official post history.
It was a thrill to dig into the
post's colorful history because, although it was then late 1945, among its
active members was on of its founding members, Bowen Nowell, and he, in turn,
put me in touch with the post's organizer and first commander, Joseph Finberg,
then retired and living in Hollywood, California.
From interviews with Nowell and
Finberg, and other longtime post members, and search of old post records and
correspondence, we published and circulated the "First Official History of
Charles Cushing Post No. 14, Incorporated, Veterans of Foreign Wars."
Following are some highlights from
that Cushing Post No. 14 history:
 | The first meeting of what would become Cushing Post took place in 1907 in
a meeting room over a Market Street tavern near Newark's Four Corners. |
| The post organizer was a Newark grocer named Joseph Finberg, who did
business at 71 James Street. |
| The founding members were all veterans of the Spanish American War who had
fought in Cuba. |
| The formal charter of the organization, then called the VFW, of Veterans
of Foreign Service, was dated March 9, 1908 |
| The Post was named Cushing Post after a soldier named Charles Cushing, in
Finberg's Regiment, the 71st Regiment, who had been killed in Cuba and was
later reburied in a cemetery in New York City. |
| Cushing Post remained the 'mother post' of all of New Jersey's VFS
units. When a statewide meeting was held in 1910 to form a State
Department of VFS in the Newark City Hall Chambers, the first State
Department Commander was Robert Woodside, a charter member of Cushing Post. |
| In 1913, at a national meeting of the then 60-post VFS in Ohio, the VFS,
after much dissention, voted to amalgamate with two other veterans groups to
become the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. |
| Bowen Nowell of Cushing Post had been elected National Commander of VFS
just prior to the name change to VFW, and when the VFS was blended into the
VFW, all titles held by VFS officers were ruled as titles held in the
VFW. Thus, one of the earliest national VFW commanders was a Newarker
from Cushing Post. |
| Cushing Post No. 14 was a leading member of the new national VFW
organization, and the growth of the VFW in New Jersey was largely done by
organizers who were members of Cushing Post. |
| With the end of World War 2, Newark's Cushing Post No. 14 was one of more
than 5,000 posts nationally. In mid-2002, the highest numbered VFW
post was 11,576. Cushing Post No. 14 remains the 13th active VFW post
in existance (Post No. 8 is defunct).
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