Okla-homey
1/24/2007, 07:19 AM
Jan 24, 1908: Boy Scouts movement begins
99 years ago, on this day in 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Lord Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/10405/2001141163207825707_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001141163207825707)
Lord Baden-Powell. Chief Scout of the World
The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain.
In 1900, Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defense of the city of Mafeking during a horrid siege during the Boer War in South Africa.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/10405/2001111924032588864_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001111924032588864)
Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a nonmilitary field manual for adolescents that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds.
First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire where they set up camp for two weeks.
With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scouts meeting was a great success.
With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/7370/2005991617390670697_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005991617390670697)
In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts. In 1910, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/7010/2001195568206141548_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001195568206141548)
American Scouting will officially celebrate its centennial in 2010
The American version of the Boy Scouts has it origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce was lost in the fog when a Boy Scout came to his aid. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/9601/2001176730949197472_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001176730949197472)
W.D. Boyce
This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America. Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the movement soon spread throughout the country.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/9816/2001159759677124440_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001159759677124440)
Everywhere Americans went in the world, Scouting followed. Here's a Scout and a Cub Scout in the Panama Canal Zone in the 1950's.
Although it was not formed under the incorporated Boy Scouts of America, the first Boy Scout troop in America is claimed to have been organized in Pawhuska, Oklahoma in May 1909 by an English missionary, the Reverend John F. Mitchell. Pawhuska is in the Cherokee Area Council.
Rev. Mitchell, who had been associated in scout work with Lord Baden-Powell in England, organized the troop of Boy Scouts under an English charter and equipped them with English uniforms, manuals, and badges.
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/9044/2004890210662200084_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004890210662200084)
The charter members of the troop were: Douglas Foote, Jack Hutchings, John I. Johnson, Robert MuGuire, Lee Copeland, Cliff Ferguson, Thomas Leahy, Walter B. Johnson, Tom Leahy, Joe McGuire, Clyde Wilson, Dick Millard, "Spider" Hinkle, Clemmer Curtis, Roland Blanc, Alex Tinker, Jack Coffey, Rogers Leahy, and Roland McGuire.
http://www.cherokeebsa.org/
In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of Americain Savannah, Georgia.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/10090/2001184347628312350_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001184347628312350)
Juliette Low
In 1916, Baden-Powell organized the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World. He died in 1941.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/9601/2001122820681086373_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001122820681086373)
American Scout Ranks. (l-r) Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, Eagle.
Like many of you, your correspondent was also a Boy Scout. I made Life, but regrettably did not complete the requirements for Eagle. I had enough merit badges, but failed to complete the mandatory service project because I was 15 and had discovered wimmen. To my regret and shame to this day, a very attractive hussy, with whom I carried on a torrid teen affair, occupied me to the exclusion of my Scouting activities. Dang it.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/10212/2004868921123499382_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004868921123499382)
99 years ago, on this day in 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Lord Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/10405/2001141163207825707_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001141163207825707)
Lord Baden-Powell. Chief Scout of the World
The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain.
In 1900, Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defense of the city of Mafeking during a horrid siege during the Boer War in South Africa.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/10405/2001111924032588864_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001111924032588864)
Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a nonmilitary field manual for adolescents that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds.
First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire where they set up camp for two weeks.
With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scouts meeting was a great success.
With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/7370/2005991617390670697_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2005991617390670697)
In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts. In 1910, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/7010/2001195568206141548_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001195568206141548)
American Scouting will officially celebrate its centennial in 2010
The American version of the Boy Scouts has it origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce was lost in the fog when a Boy Scout came to his aid. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/9601/2001176730949197472_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001176730949197472)
W.D. Boyce
This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America. Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the movement soon spread throughout the country.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/9816/2001159759677124440_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001159759677124440)
Everywhere Americans went in the world, Scouting followed. Here's a Scout and a Cub Scout in the Panama Canal Zone in the 1950's.
Although it was not formed under the incorporated Boy Scouts of America, the first Boy Scout troop in America is claimed to have been organized in Pawhuska, Oklahoma in May 1909 by an English missionary, the Reverend John F. Mitchell. Pawhuska is in the Cherokee Area Council.
Rev. Mitchell, who had been associated in scout work with Lord Baden-Powell in England, organized the troop of Boy Scouts under an English charter and equipped them with English uniforms, manuals, and badges.
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/9044/2004890210662200084_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004890210662200084)
The charter members of the troop were: Douglas Foote, Jack Hutchings, John I. Johnson, Robert MuGuire, Lee Copeland, Cliff Ferguson, Thomas Leahy, Walter B. Johnson, Tom Leahy, Joe McGuire, Clyde Wilson, Dick Millard, "Spider" Hinkle, Clemmer Curtis, Roland Blanc, Alex Tinker, Jack Coffey, Rogers Leahy, and Roland McGuire.
http://www.cherokeebsa.org/
In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of Americain Savannah, Georgia.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/10090/2001184347628312350_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001184347628312350)
Juliette Low
In 1916, Baden-Powell organized the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World. He died in 1941.
http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/9601/2001122820681086373_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001122820681086373)
American Scout Ranks. (l-r) Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, Eagle.
Like many of you, your correspondent was also a Boy Scout. I made Life, but regrettably did not complete the requirements for Eagle. I had enough merit badges, but failed to complete the mandatory service project because I was 15 and had discovered wimmen. To my regret and shame to this day, a very attractive hussy, with whom I carried on a torrid teen affair, occupied me to the exclusion of my Scouting activities. Dang it.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/10212/2004868921123499382_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004868921123499382)