SCOUTING HISTORY 1920 ~ 1929

1920:
Boy Scouts are ready to respond to any "imperative call" in Winston-Salem during an outbreak of influenza - the flu. Such calls include serving as aides in ambulances and as clerical workers in city offices.

1920:
One Winston-Salem Scout demonstrates his Scout craft skills by tying 22 different knots while his eyes are covered by a blindfold. Most troops acquire "trek carts" in which supplies can be carried on camping trips.

1920:
William Howard Taft, former President of the United States, visits Winston-Salem on March 19 for a speech at Salem College. Boy Scouts from Troop 9 serve as escorts for President Taft during his one-day stay in the city.

1920:
On April 8 Boy Scouts bring their "guard ropes" to assist in keeping order at Piedmont Park in Winston-Salem during an exhibition baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Scouts see the great "Babe" Ruth, Ernie Shore, Carl Mays, Truck Hannah and other players. Troop 7 assists at the gate, and Troop 10 has its bugle corps on duty.

February 12, 1920: "...It is announced that the annual encampment of the...[Boy Scouts in Winston-Salem] will be held in the late summer on the Forest Hill farm two miles from Clemmons on the road to Lewisville. The camp is a quarter of a mile from the Yadkin River, where the summer pleasures are most enjoyable...There will be boating, fishing, aquatic sports and hiking. Each Scout will be expected to pass his first class tests while at camp...Much of the knowledge which made the forests so fascinating to the pioneers will be gleaned from the Scouts at camp this summer. They will become acquainted with many new animal friends; they will learn to know and appreciate the trees and plants and flowers. Not even the birds and fishes and reptiles will be able to hide their haunts and habits from the Scouts, for it will be their privilege to see the thousand things which only an eye trained in the forest can see. Each Scout will learn the qualifications of a good camper. He will learn to choose a good campsite, to pitch a tent, to build a fire properly, to cook dinner in the open, to make a good camp bed and many other things, and he will know the magic medicine of a camp fire, whose glowing logs mean so much to Scouts in camp or in council."

Winston-Salem Journal, p.2

1923:
Through the Winston-Salem Foundation, Mr. Robert E. Lasater donates 46 acres near Walkertown in Forsyth County to the Boy Scouts for use as a permanent camp. Camp Lasater becomes the site of troop camping trips, camporees, summer camp, and leadership training events.

1924:
Mr. William Edward Vaughan-Lloyd (a.k.a. "Ned" or "Skipper") becomes Scout Executive and works in that job until 1953; he serves as a volunteer Scouter until his death in 1970.

1925:
Scout Executive W. E. "Skipper" Vaughan-Lloyd and Scouts on the lawn of the Forsyth County courthouse in Winston-Salem, circa 1925. [Photo from office files of the Old Hickory Council]

[Click photo for an enlargement]

1926:
Stanley A. Harris, a native of the North Carolina mountains, is named by the Boy Scouts of America as Director of Inter-Racial Scouting. He continues work on the national dream of providing Scouting to boys of all races, in spite of substantial opposition in the segregated South.

1927:
John Kerr "Jack" Pepper of Winston-Salem becomes the Old Hickory Council's first Eagle Scout in a ceremony at the First Baptist Church on Fourth Street.

1929:
John M Brown is elected Council President and is re-elected each year through 1951.