History of the Boy Scouts
The Boy Scout movement was founded by British Lord Robert Baden-Powell.
Scouting's first manual was both written and illustrated by Baden-Powell in 1908. Baden-Powell was a war hero because of his conduct at Mafeking, a strategic holding action during the South African war with the Dutch Boers in 1899.
The early American troops took their cues from Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys because there was no semblance of a national movement in the United States. The YMCA men who started most of the early troops saw Boy Scouting merely as a promising adjunct to their programs for boys.
Millionaire Chicago publisher William Dickson Boyce became involved in Scouting in 1909. He was visiting London in August of that year. One afternoon, the city was enshrouded in pea-soup fog. Boyce lost his bearings in the murk and was approached by a boy of about 12 carrying a lantern who offered to guide him to the address he was seeking. When Boyce produced a shilling, the boy replied, "No, sir, I am a scout. Scouts do not accept tips for Good Turns."
The Unknown Scout took Boyce to British Scout headquarters. From that moment forward, Boyce's interest in Scouting grew. Boyce came home determined to start Boy Scouting in America. He apparently knew nothing of the troops already operating or of the YMCA's promotion of Scouting.
On February 8, 1910, Boyce filed incorporation papers for the Boy Scouts of America in the District of Columbia The purpose, he said, "Shall be to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in Scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods which are in common use by Boy Scouts."
The Story Of A Good Turn
One day in 1909 in London, England, An American Visitor, William D. Boyce, lost his way in a dense fog. He stopped under a street lamp and tried to figure out where he was.
A boy approached him and asked if he could be of help.
"You certainly can," said Boyce. He told the boy that he wanted to find a certain business office in the center of the city.
"I'll take you there," said the boy.
When they got to the destination, Mr. Boyce reached into his pocket for a tip.
But, the boy stopped him. "No thank you, sir. I am a Scout. I won't take anything for helping."
"A Scout? And what might that be?" asked Boyce.
The boy told the American about himself and about his brother scouts. Boyce became very interested.
After finishing his errand, he had the boy take him to the British Scouting office.
At the office, Boyce met Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the famous British general who had founded the Scouting movement in Great Britain.
Boyce was so impressed with what he learned that he decided to bring Scouting home with him.
On February 8, 1910, Boyce and a group of outstanding leaders founded the Boy Scouts of America.From that day forth, Scouts have celebrated February 8 as the birthday of Scouting in the United States.
What happened to the boy who helped Mr. Boyce find his way in the fog? No one knows. He had neither asked for money nor given his name, but he will never be forgotten. His Good Turn helped bring the scouting movement to our country. In the British Scout Training Center at Gilwell Park, England, Scouts from the United States erected a statue of an American Buffalo in honor of this unknown scout.
One Good Turn to one man became a Good Turn to millions of American Boys. Such is the power of a Good Turn. Hence The Scout Slogan:
DO A GOOD TURN DAILY!
Sir Robert Baden Powell
As a youth, Robert Baden-Powell greatly enjoyed the outdoors, learning about nature and how to live in the wilderness. After returning as a military hero from service in Africa, Baden-Powell discovered that English boys were reading the manual on stalking and survival in the wilderness he had written for his military regiment. Gathering ideas from Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and others, he rewrote the manual as a nonmilitary nature skill book and called it Scouting for Boys. To test his ideas, Baden-Powell brought together 22 boys to camp at Brownsea Island, off the coast of England. This historic campout was a success and resulted in the advent of Scouting.
Thus, the imagination and inspiration of Baden-Powell, later proclaimed Chief Scout of the World, brought Scouting to youth the world over.
Lord Robert Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Founder of Scouting and World Chief Scout died in Kenya on January 8, 1941 at the age of 83. Soldiers and Scouts, black and white escorted the coffin to a simple grave at Nyeri, within sight of Mount Kenya.
This message to all Scouts was found among his papers after he died.
Dear Scouts,
If you have even seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.
Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.
I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.
I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.
Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.
But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. "Be Prepared" in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you to do it.
Your Friend,
Baden Powell
Daniel Carter Beard
Woodsman, illustrator, and naturalist, Daniel Carter Beard was a pioneering spirit of the Boy Scouts of America. Already 60 years old when the Boy Scouts of America was formed, he became a founder and merged it with his own boys' organization, the Sons of Daniel Boone. As the first national Scout commissioner, Beard helped design the original Scout uniform and introduced the elements of the First Class Scout badge. "Uncle Dan", as he was known to boys and leaders, will be remembered as a colorful figure dressed in buckskin who helped form Scouting in the United States.
William D. Boyce
In 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce lost his way in a dense London fog. A boy came to his aid and, after guiding the man, refused a tip, explaining that as a Scout he would not take a tip for doing a Good Turn. This gesture by an unknown Scout inspired a meeting with Robert Baden-Powell, the British founder of the Boy Scouts. As a result, William Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910. He also created the Lone Scouts, which merged with the Boy Scouts of America in 1924.
William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt
William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt is considered by many Scouters to be the Baden-Powell of American Scouting. He has had significant influence on the program of the BSA and the training Scouters recieve through Wood Badge in this country.
Who was "Green Bar Bill"?
IN THE BEGINNING...
William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was born Vilhelm Bjerregaard Jenson in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1900. His introduction Boy Scouting came in January 1911, at the age of 11, after his parents gave him Baden-Powell's newly translated Scouting For Boys as a Christmas gift. Bill went on to become the Danish equivalent of an Eagle Scout.
His Troop sent him to the first World Jamboree in London, in 1920, and a habit started that would move him into the international Scouting spotlight for the rest of his life.
COMING TO AMERICA...
It was 1926 and Bill Hillcourt was a "Cub Reporter" for his Copenhagen newspaper. Bill talked his Editor into sending him to the U.S. for its first National Jamboree -- after all, Bill was a Journalist who was also one of Lord Baden-Powell's Scouts. The paper ought not be "scooped" by someone else by being absent from such an austere event where England's great Lord Baden-Powell would speak to the very first gathering of American Boy Scouts! The convinced Editor sent his Journalist to the U.S. to cover BSA's first Jamboree for the paper!
Bill didn't return to Denmark. He broke his leg at the Jamboree and while awaiting passage home, visited Scout Executive Dr. James E. West at the BSA office on Times Square in New York City. Awaiting the building's elevator with his leg in a walking cast, the doors opened; Dr. West stepped out and Bill fell forward trying to step in -- right into Dr. West's arms! Two handicapped Scouters met abruptly.
What they had in common caused Dr. West to invite Bill Hillcourt to his office. Once there, Dr. West learned all about Bill Hillcourt, why he was in the U.S. for a BSA Jamboree, and visiting BSA & West.
THE START OF A NEW CAREER...
Bill's enthusiasm about Scouting and being a journalist led West to offer Bill his first job in the Supply Service of the new, expanding BSA Program. Later, Bill challenged West's implementation of the scouting program -- that BSA didn't follow Baden-Powell's Patrol Method correctly. West challenged Bill to write a replacement for BSA's 1910 Official Handbook, that had been published as an Americanized version of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys.
Bill had already written his first book three years earlier at 23: a tale of Scout camping, based upon his own Patrol's experiences. But this book had to be written in English; boys not only had to read it, but enjoy it, and follow Baden-Powell's Methods. Bill always enjoyed telling his story of how a Dane with poor English came to learn our language well enough to write a best-selling book for American boys.
To improve his English, particularly when it was already corrupted with "Americanisms", Bill used to go to Times Square to watch movies. He spent two months on BSA's payroll attending American movies He'd watch a morning matinee; then a different early-afternoon matinee; then yet another late-afternoon matinee. This is the way Bill learned the collogial American language of English. His first Boy Scout Handbook was a smashing, run-away, best-seller success; it was written as Boys talked. Boys understood it; they liked it; and they followed it. Bill's new BSA career was off to a running start.
Bill Hillcourt went on to write a Patrol Leader Handbook, a Scoutmaster's Handbook, and the Field Book; then updated them from 1929 until he retired. In 1932, while writing the various handbooks, Bill started to enliven the pages of Boys' Life with his famed Scoutcraft features, leading generations of boys into the outdoors. For four decades until he retired, Bill wrote his feature columnunder his pseudonym of "Green Bar Bill", with a logo of "Bill" hand-written on top of the two green bars of a PL.
Bill became involved in Wood Badge in 1936 when John Skinner Wilson, Camp Chief of Gilwell, came to introduce Wood Badge to the United States. After adapting the training to the BSA program, Bill served as Scoutmaster of the first two courses (and many others thereafter). You'll want to hear more about this.
In 1964, Bill wrote Baden-Powell - The Two Lives Of A Hero, yet another distinguished writing effort. As he wrote in his acknowledgements, "....I have had the unstinted help of the three leading characters in the life of Baden-Powell -- himself (Baden-Powell), his mother (Henrietta Grace Powell), and his wife (Lady Olave Baden-Powell), and .... numerous other people." (One of whom was Baden-Powell's daughter, Betty St. Clair.)
RECOGNITION AS A WORLD SCOUTING PROGRAM LEADER...
For his work with and for the youth of the United States, Bill received:
- The Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
- The St. George Award
- The Silver Buffalo, BSA's top Scouting award.
As a World Scouter, Bill's work for InterAmerican Scouting was recognized with its highest award,
- The Youth Of The American
For his work with youth around the world, he was honored with
- The Bronze Wolf, World Scouting's highest award.
EPILOG...
William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was a personal friend of Baden-Powell. When Bill died at 92 on November 9, 1992, in Stockholm, Sweden, he still had several of Baden-Powell's original, signed sketches hanging unadorned on his apartment walls in Manlius, NY. Two copies of Baden-Powell's original serialized newspaper articles that became Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys sat idly yellowing on a bookcase shelf beside several autographed first-edition copies of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys.
In his life-time, William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt became Scoutmaster to the world; revered by BSA Scouters everywhere as the "Baden-Powell" of American Scouting -- equally as important as William Dickson Boyce, Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and Dr. James E. West as BSA founders!
Ernset Thompson Seton
Born in Scotland, Ernest Thompson Seton immigrated to America as a youth in the 1880s. His fascination with the wilderness led him to become a naturalist, an artist, and an author, and through his works he influenced both youth and adults. Seton established a youth organization called the Woodcraft Indians, and his background of outdoor skills and interest in youth made him a logical choice for the position of first Chief Scout of the BSA in 1910. His many volumes of Scoutcraft became an integral part of Scouting, and his intelligence and enthusiasm helped turn an idea into reality.
James West
James E. West was appointed the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America in 1911. Although orphaned and physically handicapped, he had the perseverance to graduate from law school and become a successful attorney. This same determination provided the impetus to help build Scouting into the largest and most effective youth organization in the world. When he retired in 1943, Dr. West was recognized throughout the country as the true architect of the Boy Scouts of America.
Scouts in America
The Boy Scouts in the 1910s were an idea, not an organization. There were Boy Scouts in America even before the Boy Scouts of America were founded, and there were many other Boy Scout groups that functioned totally independent of the Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts of America, however, were dominant from the beginning, and by the end of the decade had essentially eliminated all competitors.
THE AMERICAN BOY SCOUTS:
Most famous among these groups were the American Boy Scouts. Founded in 1910, the American Boy Scouts were a thorn in the side of the Boy Scouts of America. The American Boy Scouts were a military group that drilled with rifles, and in this respect they were organized along the lines of a military school. It was the American Boy Scouts that inspired so many of the military Boy Scout toys. Although military schools were quite popular in the 1910s, there were many who disapproved of such military activity for children. Unfortunately for the Boy Scouts of America, many people thought the two groups were actually only one group and that all Boy Scouts were militaristic. In response to complaints from the Boy Scouts of America about the bad and erroneous publicity, the American Boy Scouts changed their name to the United States Boy Scouts around 1916 to help dispel the confusion. Unsatisfied, the Boy Scouts of America sued the group in 1917 and won. In its opinion, the court recognized the Boy Scout's of America's rights to the words "Boy Scout" and sealed the fate of the United States Boy Scouts and the many companies who had been producing "Boy Scout" products.
Important Scouters
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Famous Eagle Scouts
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| Bill Alexander |
US Rep from Arkansas |
| Gary L. Anderson |
US Rep from NY |
| Neil Armstrong |
astronaut, first man on moon, from Wapakoneta, OH |
| Charles E. Bennett |
US Rep from Florida |
| William Bennett |
Former Secretary of Education |
| Bill Bradley |
Pro basketball star and US Senator from NJ |
| James Brady |
Press sec to Pres. Reagan |
| Milton A. Caniff |
Comic strip artist "Steve Canyon" |
| John W. Creighton, Jr. |
President & CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company |
| William E. Dannemeyer |
US Rep from Cal. |
| William Devries |
MD, transplanted first artificial heart |
| Michael Dukakis |
Former governor of Massachusetts |
| Arthur Eldred |
America's First Eagle Scout |
| Gerald Ford |
U.S. President (1st Eagle to be pres.) |
| James Lovell |
Navy pilot and astronaut, Flew on Gemini 7, 12 & Apollo 8, 13 |
| Richard Lugar |
Senator from Indiana (presidential candidate 1996) |
| J. Willard Marriott, Jr. |
Pres. Marriott Corp. |
| Sam Nunn |
US Senator from Georgia |
| Ellison Onizuka |
Astronaut for Hawaii aboard the space shuttle Challenger |
| H. Ross Perot |
Self-made billionaire and presidential candidate |
| J. J. Pickle |
US Rep from Texas, proudly displays his Eagle plaque inside his office |
| Samuel R. Pierce |
Former Sec. Housing & Urban Development |
| Harrison Salisbury |
Pulitzer Prize winning author |
| William Sessions |
Former FBI director BSA Troop 780 Home Page |
| Steven Spielberg |
Movie producer |
| Wallace Stegner |
Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for "Angle of Repose" |
| Percy Sutton |
Attorney, Chairman of the Board of City Broadcasting Corp. |
| John Tesh |
TV celebrity and pianist |
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Famous Scouts, but not Eagles
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| Henry Aaron |
Baseball player, home run king |
| Walter Cronkite |
Journalist, TV commentator |
| Richard Dean Anderson |
Taught Reptile Study, actor |
| Charles F. Barber |
CEO of American Smelting & refining |
| Bill Clinton |
Cub Scout, President of US |
| Harrison Ford |
Life, taught Reptile Study, actor "Indiana Jones" |
| Bill Gates |
Life, founder of Microsoft Corp. |
| David Hartman |
TV personality |
| Bruce Jenner |
Olympic Gold Medal Decathlon |
| John F Kennedy |
First US President who was a Scout |
| Branford Marsalis |
Life Scout, Jazz musician |
| Merlin Olson |
Pro football player and sportscaster |
| Eddie Rabbitt |
Country & Western singer |
| John Ritter |
Actor, son of singer Tex Ritter |
| Richard Roundtree |
Actor |
| Nolan Ryan |
Pro baseball pitcher |
| Alberto Salazar |
Life, 3 time winner NY marathon |
| Mark Spitz |
Cub Scout, Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer |
| James Stewart |
Actor, USAF B. General, B-17 pilot in WWII |
| Joe Theisman |
Life, former QB, Washington Redskins |
| Peter Ueberroth |
Cub Scout, Former Commissioner of Baseball |
Scout Statistics
One Hundred Scouts
Of any one hundred boys who become Scouts, it must be confessed that thirty will drop out in their first year. Perhaps this may be regarded as a failure, but in later life all of these will remember that they had been Scouts and will speak well of the program.
Of the one hundred, only rarely will one ever appear before a juvenile court judge. Twelve of the one hundred will be from families that belong to no church. Through Scouting, these twelve and many of their families will be brought into contact with a church and will continue to be active all their lives. Six of the one hundred will become pastors.
Each of the one hundred will learn something from Scouting. Almost all will develop hobbies that will add interest throughout the rest of their lives. Approximately one-half will serve in the military, and in varying degrees, profit from their Scout training. At least one will use it to save another person's life and many will credit it with saving their own.
Four of the one hundred will reach Eagle rank, and at least one will later say that he valued his Eagle above his college degree. Many will find their future vocation through merit badge work and Scouting contacts. Seventeen of the one hundred boys will later become Scout leaders and will give leadership to thousands of additional boys.
Only one in four boys in America will become a Scout, but it is interesting to know that of the leaders in this nation in business, religion and politics, three out of four were Scouts.
This story will never end. Like the "Golden Pebble" of service dropped into the human sea it will continue to radiate in ever-widening circles, influencing the characters of men down through unending time.
More Statistics
Scouting's alumni record is equally impressive. A recent nation-wide survey of high schools revealed the following information:
- 85% of student council presidents were Scouts
- 89% of senior class presidents were Scouts
- 80% of junior class presidents were Scouts
- 75% of school publication editors were Scouts
- 71% of football captains were Scouts
Scouts also account for:
- 64% of Air Force Academy graduates
- 68% of West Point graduates
- 70% of Annapolis graduates
- 72% of Rhodes Scholars
- 85% of FBI agents
- 26 of the first 29 astronauts
Other interesting Statistics
- 104 million The number of members since 1910.
- 1,209,077 The number of adults providing the Scouting program to America's youth.
- 124,660 The number of Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops, and Venturing crews.
- 40,029 The number of Eagle Scout badges earned.
- 240 The number of individuals who earned a heroism award.
- 1,363,795 The number of subscribers who learned to read or improved their reading skills with Boys' Life magazine.
- 136 The number of chartered organizations the BSA worked with during the year.
- 75,000+ The number of religious emblems earned.