On April 19, 1919, a group of over thirty men met at the city hall in Little Falls, Minnesota, to organize the American Legion Club of Morrison County. A. H. Vernon was chosen as chairman and Ernest J. Carlson was elected secretary. The American Legion had been founded in Paris one month earlier by representatives of various outfits of the American Expeditionary Force of World War I. Chartered by Congress on September 16, 1919, as a patriotic veterans organization dedicated to serving veterans of World War I, the American Legion has since opened its membership to veterans of other military actions. The first American Legion congress convened in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 10, 1919.
The Little Falls Post of the American Legion was renamed the Richard Howard Ferrell Post of Little Falls, Minnesota, in 1920 after Richard Howard Ferrell, the first male from Morrison County to die from wounds received in service. Richard Howard Ferrell was born on November 4, 1894 in Little Falls to Fletcher and Anna Ferrell. Ferrell entered military service on December 5, 1917, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was shipped overseas in March 1918 and was gassed and incapacitated for further service during one of the earlier engagements in which he was involved. He was sent back to Quantico, Virginia, in December of 1918 and died the following spring, on 27 May, 1919, from chronic nephritis.
The Morrison County Chapter of the American Legion Club met at various locations in Little Falls throughout its history, including the Elks Hall, club rooms in the Vasaly block and above the J.C. Penney Co. store in downtown Little Falls.