Interesting Articlae; First Boy Scout

[skeptic]

America's First Boy Scout

by Daniel N. Jabe

 

Who was America's first Boy Scout? That depends on how you look at it. Would the first Boy Scout be the first one to join the Boy Scouts of America after it was established in February of 1910? Would the first Boy Scout be a Scout who was already using Baden-Powell's "Scouting for Boys," maybe as early as 1908 or even 1907? Would the first Boy Scout be the first boy to join an organization that ultimately merged with the Boy Scouts of America, like the Woodcraft Indians or the Sons of Daniel Boone? Any of these individuals would have a strong claim to this distinction. What follows is the story of one of the candidates for the honor of being America's first Boy Scout. It may be partially legend, but in part, every story is.

 

According to recently discovered notes written by William D. Durling, the Scout Executive in Trenton, New Jersey, from 1917 to 1921 who passed away in 1946, Daniel Carter Beard once said that the first Boy Scout was a Trenton boy named Maurice F. Brandt. Maurice's father, Robert Brandt, owned a print shop in Trenton at the corner of Broad and Front Streets. In 1905, Dan Beard came into Brandt's shop to order prints of one of his drawings. The drawing was a charter for a boy's organization he was trying to get off the ground the Sons of Daniel Boone. Maurice, then 12 years old, met Dan Beard, and, according to Durling, they took a liking to each other. Maurice eagerly listened to Beard's teachings, and he "started out at once to make good." In recognition of his efforts and enthusiasm, Dan Beard granted him Charter No. 1 in the Sons of Daniel Boone. According to Durling's notes, as a member of Beard's new group, Maurice conducted hikes, "short and long, camps overnight and a week's duration, nature study, map drawing, care of health, character building and getting acquainted with the country and all roads and trails." Maurice even arranged for Dan Beard to speak to some of the boys, and kept up his interest in the Sons of Daniel Boone until the very end, when it merged with the Boy Scouts of America in 1910.

 

According to Durling, Maurice thought that Dan Beard was "the most wonderful man living." Judging by his success in working with and inspiring young boys, many others probably would have agreed. Was Maurice Brandt America's first Boy Scout? No one will ever be able to say for certain, but his story provides us with an insight into one of the men whose character and personality would make boys clamor to call themselves the first member of one of his organizations Dan Beard. He was the author of one of the most successful children's books of his day, "The American Boys Handybook," and a famed illustrator (he provided illustrations for Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," among other works), but above all else, he was a Scout, and a leader of boys. He was the type of man who would make an effort to win the affection and interest of his printer's boy, just in the course of business. That is because, for a man like Beard, teaching boys like Maurice was the course of business. Printing books and charters or giving out awards that was merely incidental. As you browse through the memorabilia in the galleries, and read the histories assembled here, remember to keep this lesson of Beard's in mind: all of this is incidental to the real meaning of Boy Scouting the boy.

 

The details about Maurice Brandt came from an article by Emil Slaboda appearing on the website of the Central New Jersey Council.

 

[Miki101]

It seems to me that, by definition, one would not be a Boy Scout if one has not taken the Scout Oath. However, like Dan Jabe rightly suggests, it's wide open for discussion.

 

 

[eghiglie]

 

One thing to point out is that wouldn't it really be the 1st group of boy scouts?

 

Wouldn't the unit of submitted a charter request for more than one boy? and with a minimum number of boys required for a charter wouldn't the first group all be considered first?

 

I'm not trying to rewrite history.

 

Our Troop was founded on 8/1/2007 two boys were in the room, we were charted a month later when we had all 5 apps turned in.

[ntrog8r]

skeptic,

 

Thanks for sharing this piece of Scouting history. Sometimes we all need a SM Minute to stay inspired and on track.

[Eagle92]

I would say we would have to look to OK for the first Boy Scout. If memory serves, an Anglican missionary in 1908 or 1909 received a charter through the the Scout Association in the UK to start a troop at his mission in Indian Country. I am told that the unit still exists today, and there is a memorial to that unit in existance on the reservation.

[Miki101]

To the disdain of Pawhuska, OK, they are predated by Myra Greeno Bass, who formed a "patrol" of boys using Scouting for Boys that she brought back from England in Spring 1908. This was informal.

 

Pawhuska bases their claim to a document that they supposedly to have regarding an official charter that they receive from BP's Scout Association in England in 1909. This was supposedly formal. I say supposedly because some years ago when researching my other book, The Scouting Party, I requested a copy of that document but it apparently could not be found at the time. Perhaps they have found it now. If not, they have a nice story that they can keep flogging into the BSA's anniversary year.

[skeptic]

Miki;

 

Correct me if I am off base, but isn't most of the first year or so of BSA pretty fuzzy in reality? February 8th, 1910 was the official date of chartering, or beginning, but the organization was still in a pretty loose group of well meaning educators, boys' work experts, clergy, YMCA and so on. West had yet to come on board, and there were who knows how many "Scout clubs", for lack of a better description, that had been formed under the British design, either brought from the early Canadian examples, or formed from descriptions in the media of the time.

 

Certainly, I would suspect that very few specific written records survive today, especially from the first year. Here where I live, we have a record, from the paper, of a scout group forming in September of 1910. Was it under BSA, a take off from B.P., or one of the other early scout groups? We cannot determine, as there are no other records as yet discovered, other than a note from the Congregational Church archives in 1914 that the "Scout group" is being officially disbanded, due to lack of interest over the past year. Meanwhile, in between those dates, we have all sorts of news articles and reports on various BSA troops, starting in 1911. But records are pretty much non-existent, though a couple have been documented in the mid teens through National archives. Our council began in June, 1921; but indications are we had 300-500 scouts in the area prior to that, in at least a dozen troops. Eight of those troops were charter troops when the council began, and we can document one to December 1917.

 

We are fortunate to have at least some of our early records, salvaged by one of our old scouters when they moved the office in the 60's, and were going to throw out all these "old useless out of date records". But, he only rescued some of them; many already had been destroyed.

 

So, whatever we can glean is interesting, but it often is more fuzzy memory than validated records.

 

 

[Miki101]

Dear Skeptic,

 

Actually, Feb 8, 1910 is the "birthday" or the original date of incorporation of the BSA in Washington DC. There was no organization at the time, therefore, there were no charters yet. The first charters went out on or around June 1, 1910, which is when Managing Secretary John L. Alexander and his staff of one went to work in answering the inquiry letters. In that vein, the troop that you mention having a charter of September 1910 is extremely early. I will say this as well, the records of the first official troop are not as sketchy as one may think, however,there is a bit of interpolation that has to take place.

 

I submit that if one was to determine the first official BSA Scouting unit, that would be on the Charter #1. I have been in the BSA National Archives and searched that folder of documents and it simply does not exist anymore. It's actually the 1910 letterbook. However, there is a certificate of the first chartered council, and I have a record of the first certified Scoutmaster, and that would be of the downtown YMCA of Cleveland, OH. Therefore, surely since he is the first Scoutmaster, then it can be extended that he is in charge of the first OFFICIAL troop.

 

I lay out the timeline of when things happen in my upcoming book (expected by May 2010)and it goes into who and why things happened since it is a story of the personalities as well as the story behind the BSA's founding through the first decade. Although the BSA's Official Centenary book is well done, I tell the rest of the story and well as the discussions in the background as culled from dozens of archives and libraries worldwide, including the BSA's own National Archive.

 

In my first book, "We Are Americans, We Are Scouts," I talk about the influence that Theodore Roosevelt had on Scouting and use his words and stories as examples of the importance of the ideals of Scouting, like the Oath, Law, motto, slogan, and Outdoor Code.

 

I hope that "The Scouting Party" will be as useful in settling some creational and transitional issue discussion points.

 

David C. Scott

[Narraticong]

I kind of like the idea that we are not able to pinpoint the first Scout. Scouting is meant to be for all boys in America. It is good that no troop, city, or state can clearly claim to be "the first". Just as the boy who helped Mr. Boyce that foggy night shall remain nameless, I think it is appropriate that the first American Scout is the same.

Ken

[skeptic]

Speaking of Boyce; I was a bit surprised about a couple of things in his biography, LONE SCOUT, by Petterchak. If you have not read it, you might like to.

 

While not a founder, I am waiting expectantly for a bio of Hillcourt to finally surface. Have heard it is in the works for quite a while now. I have bio's of West, Seton, Beard, Boyce, and several of B.P. One gets a better perspective on BSA and scouting as a whole reading these. Also have the book SCOUTING ON TWO CONTINENTS, but realize I have yet to actually read it. Guess I should get around to it one of these days.

 

When you read some of the other actual Scouting related stories, such as FLIVER TO CAMBODIA, MY HIKE, or THREE SCOUTS IN AFRICA, you really begin to see the huge difference in scouting today. But, we still have youth doing some of these kind of things, just fewer seem to write about them. Of course, most youth in the program who stay long enough have mini-examples of these things in their personal scouting lives. a Philmont trek, a jamboree, a fifty-miler on a wild river, and so on. We just do not seem to have them being written about anymore. Maybe that is an opportunity waiting to be developed.

 

Just some thoughts.

[Eagle92]

is MY HIKE the one about the Scout who walks all the way from the southern part of South America to NYC?

[skeptic]

Yep; fascinating story. Three started in Buenos Aires; only one finished. One of the others died, and the other was rescued and hauled out somewhere in the northern tip of South America. Have to go back and re-read to remember where. The book shows up occasionally still.

[skeptic]

Yep; fascinating story. By Augusto Flores. Three started in Buenos Aires; only one finished. One of the others died, and the other was rescued and hauled out somewhere in the northern tip of South America. Have to go back and re-read to remember where. The book shows up occasionally still.

[skeptic]

Yep; fascinating story. By Augusto Flores. Three started in Buenos Aires; only one finished. One of the others died, and the other was rescued and hauled out somewhere in the northern tip of South America. Have to go back and re-read to remember where. The book shows up occasionally still.

[Eagle92]

So that's the title of the book. I read that book when I was a lowly Webelos over 20 years ago. had it at the public library.

 

Hmmm Maybe I should interlibrary loan that book to read again