MARION — A game of donkey ball was had in Marion on a Thursday night in July 1959. 

Donkey baseball is similar to regular baseball, except that the fielders and baserunners played mounted on the eponymous animal.

Charles R. Washburn Memorial Field hosted the ballgame. It was organized by and partly raised funds for Marion’s Veterans of Foreign Wars post — Benjamin D. Cushing Post 2425.

The donkeys were supplied by the “Buckeye Donkey Ball Company of Columbus, Ohio,” according to a June 27, 1959 clipping in the Standard-Times.

“However, some of the donkeys don’t like first base and head for the outfield,” the clipping said. “Others don’t like the riders and promptly dump them.”

That story and many others regarding the VFW’s activities were put on display Monday, May 27 at a Sippican Historical Society pop-up exhibit in the Marion Music Hall. 

The post was active from 1932 to 2017, according to the Sippican Historical Society. The town’s Cushing Community Center was formerly the VFW’s building.

The post’s namesake — Benjamin D. Cushing — was the first Marion resident killed during World War I, according to archivist Leslie Thayer Piper. 

The Memorial Day exhibit featured a photograph of Cushing in uniform. He was killed in action in Juvigny, France in August 1918, according to the Sippican Historical Society.

Piper said she learned about the VFW’s history of charitable activities as she put together the exhibit. 

The post was instrumental in purchasing the town’s first ambulance in 1953 and additional ambulances, Piper said. 

They also organized “silly, fun, community-friendly activities,” like donkey baseball and outboard races, according to Piper. 

Those activities served as fundraisers not only to help veterans directly but to raise money for things like the Jimmy Fund or cancer and multiple sclerosis research.

“I was amazed at how much they did that was not just about the soldiers themselves, it was about the outreach into the community,” Piper said.