Scouting

The College Archives recently acquired this charter for Boy Scout Troop 2, Davidson, NC.  There is a lot of town and college history on this one page.

The first scout troops in the town were organized by Davidson students around 1912.  The first report comes in the 2nd ever published issue of the Davidsonian, 8 April 1914 which describes the very first troop and their plans for hiking and a special competition for an essay on “How to Rid Davidson of Flies and Mosquitoes.”

It should also be noted that Girl Scouts were not far behind the boys – with a troop organized and presenting plays and learning business skills selling candy at the town’s Saturday night movies in1923– but the YMCA left this branch of scouting to faculty wives and townswomen.

Scouting stayed under the auspices of the college’s YMCA for many decades with students organizing additional troops and serving  as scout masters.  Their work shows up in the Davidsonian regularly noting their successes in competitions and also service projects.  One project, in particular, links back to the certificate which is carries the signature of the honorary president of the Boy Scouts, US president Franklin Roosevelt.  In 1934, he appealed to  Boy Scouts to help with relief drives and the Davidson boys stepped in to help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One article in 1936 announced :

In 1936, a headline announced a move off campus. The troop described was made up of scouts from college families and the move from using  space in Davidson College Presbyterian Church to a new building on the public school grounds.   The scouts in Troop #2 came from the town’s mill community and as the certificate shows, by 1937, that the troop was very much a part of Unity Church. Unity started out as chapel for mill workers and eventually become Calvary Presbyterian Church.  The head of the Troop Committee from the church was Oscar Gant.

Gant worked in the mills and then from 1938 to 1973.  He was recognized for his contributions to the town in at commencement in May 1950 when he was awarded the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Community Award.

Along with the mill troop, the YMCA organized troops within the African-American communities in Davidson and Cornelius. In 1941, the Davidson Colored High School Troop (#75) was rechartered. The Shaw Smith mentioned in the article now has a room named for him in the Alvarez Student Union. A member of the class of 1939, he was employed the Y Secretary in 1941. Mr L. E. Poe, also mentioned in the article, was high school principle at what has become the Ada Jenkins Center.

A local barber, Ken Norton , played an important role in the life of Troop 75.

 

The 1945-46 YMCA report notes most of the area troops went inactive during World War II and the the Y students had worked hard to revive scouting.  By the 1960s and 70s, the YMCA and scouting shifted from campus but have remained part of the town’s activities.