By Virginia Bradshaw
Contributing Writer
Boy Scouts of America is 100 years old this month.
The first Scout troop in America was chartered in Pawhuska, in 1910, the year Boy Scouts of America was organized and incorporated by William Boyce, a Chicago man impressed by the good turn he received in London from a young British Scout.
The first troop in Shawnee, Troop 7, later renamed Troop 407, was started by the Rev. W.A. Merrill at First Christian Church soon after he became pastor there in 1924.
Local scouting authorities have compiled a list of 20 longtime volunteers in scouting in Shawnee. The list spans the 86 years from 1924 to the present. Some worked with Shawnee youth many years ago and are no longer living. Some are still active in their careers and community activities. Some are second generation Scouters.
Listed were:
Jerry Casey, John Merrill, Lindsey Peters, C.L. Craig, Leslie Ford, Dick Briscoe, Oscar Bierly, Paul Silvey, Jack Perdue, Bill Ford, David Mayne, Glenn McLaughlin, Bill Casey, Bert Humphries, Dean Weigant, Lloyd Moody, Bob Peck, Don Adkins, Jim Smith and Larry Gill.
The scouting movement began in England in 1907 by Robert Baden-Powell, a young British Army general and Boer War hero who took 20 boys to Brownsea Island in southern England for what may have been the first ever Boy Scout camping trip.
Soon after, he wrote a book for boys that evolved into the Boy Scout handbook. He later retired from the Army and devoted his full time to developing the Boy Scout organization.
It spread to the U.S. and more than 100 countries throughout the world.
The Pawhuska troop was led by a missionary who came to this country from Great Britain.
Organizer of the first troop in what is now the Last Frontier Council was the Rev. J.G. Pershing, brother of Gen. John Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American armies in World War I.
The Oklahoma City Council was chartered in 1914 with 10 troops and 300 boys. Henry Overholser, an Oklahoma City founder, and Allen Street, an Oklahoma City mayor, were early council presidents. It later became the Central Oklahoma Council, and as more counties were added in World War II, was renamed Last Frontier Council.
The first council-wide camp was at Turner Falls in 1918.
The Cub Scout program for boys ages 9 through 11 was started in 1931. The first National Jamboree was in Washington in 1937 and in the late 1930s, Tulsa oilman Waite Phillips donated his 127,000 acre ranch in northeastern New Mexico to Boy Scouts of America.
It became Philmont Scout Ranch, termed by scouting literature “the most popular high adventure scouting area in the nation.”
By the mid-1950s, Last Frontier Council was operating Camp Kickapoo, Camp Sasakwa, Camp Newell, in Arkansas; and Turner Ford, an Illinois River float trip base. Slippery Falls Camp was added in the 1960s.
Patriotic, community service and conservation projects mark the entire history of scouting.
One of the biggest was the planting of 1,776 redbud trees on the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds by 1,776 Boy Scouts to observe the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.
Girls entered the career-oriented Explorer program in the 1960s and Cub Scout entry age dropped to 7 with creation of Tiger Cubs in the 1980s. Last Frontier Council’s Explorer Learning for Life program was in full swing last decade.
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By Virginia Bradshaw
Contributing Writer
Boy Scouts of America is 100 years old this month.
The first Scout troop in America was chartered in Pawhuska, in 1910, the year Boy Scouts of America was organized and incorporated by William Boyce, a Chicago man impressed by the good turn he received in London from a young British Scout.
The first troop in Shawnee, Troop 7, later renamed Troop 407, was started by the Rev. W.A. Merrill at First Christian Church soon after he became pastor there in 1924.
Local scouting authorities have compiled a list of 20 longtime volunteers in scouting in Shawnee. The list spans the 86 years from 1924 to the present. Some worked with Shawnee youth many years ago and are no longer living. Some are still active in their careers and community activities. Some are second generation Scouters.
Listed were:
Jerry Casey, John Merrill, Lindsey Peters, C.L. Craig, Leslie Ford, Dick Briscoe, Oscar Bierly, Paul Silvey, Jack Perdue, Bill Ford, David Mayne, Glenn McLaughlin, Bill Casey, Bert Humphries, Dean Weigant, Lloyd Moody, Bob Peck, Don Adkins, Jim Smith and Larry Gill.
The scouting movement began in England in 1907 by Robert Baden-Powell, a young British Army general and Boer War hero who took 20 boys to Brownsea Island in southern England for what may have been the first ever Boy Scout camping trip.
Soon after, he wrote a book for boys that evolved into the Boy Scout handbook. He later retired from the Army and devoted his full time to developing the Boy Scout organization.
It spread to the U.S. and more than 100 countries throughout the world.
The Pawhuska troop was led by a missionary who came to this country from Great Britain.
Organizer of the first troop in what is now the Last Frontier Council was the Rev. J.G. Pershing, brother of Gen. John Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American armies in World War I.
The Oklahoma City Council was chartered in 1914 with 10 troops and 300 boys. Henry Overholser, an Oklahoma City founder, and Allen Street, an Oklahoma City mayor, were early council presidents. It later became the Central Oklahoma Council, and as more counties were added in World War II, was renamed Last Frontier Council.
The first council-wide camp was at Turner Falls in 1918.
The Cub Scout program for boys ages 9 through 11 was started in 1931. The first National Jamboree was in Washington in 1937 and in the late 1930s, Tulsa oilman Waite Phillips donated his 127,000 acre ranch in northeastern New Mexico to Boy Scouts of America.
It became Philmont Scout Ranch, termed by scouting literature “the most popular high adventure scouting area in the nation.”
By the mid-1950s, Last Frontier Council was operating Camp Kickapoo, Camp Sasakwa, Camp Newell, in Arkansas; and Turner Ford, an Illinois River float trip base. Slippery Falls Camp was added in the 1960s.
Patriotic, community service and conservation projects mark the entire history of scouting.
One of the biggest was the planting of 1,776 redbud trees on the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds by 1,776 Boy Scouts to observe the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.
Girls entered the career-oriented Explorer program in the 1960s and Cub Scout entry age dropped to 7 with creation of Tiger Cubs in the 1980s. Last Frontier Council’s Explorer Learning for Life program was in full swing last decade.
