One Hundred Years
of Boy Scouting in America
~ Ninety Years
of Boy Scouting at Wesley Memorial
This month, the Boy Scouts of America celebrates 100 years of teaching character, citizenship, leadership and fitness to the youth of America. For 90 of those years, Wesley Memorial has proudly and actively supported the Scouting movement.
Only two years after the Boy Scout movement was founded in America, Wesley Memorial sponsored the very first Boy Scout troop in High Point. That troop was headed by Scoutmaster Allen Austin, a member of our church.
On December 4, 1920, the local high school principal called a meeting to organize Boy Scout troops in High Point. The fourth troop organized that night was assigned to Wesley Memorial. Walter Hargett and William Hall agreed to serve as Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster. Troop 4 was off and running.
In 1927, Troop 4 awarded its first Eagle Scout badge to Peyton Moffitt. By 1930, ten Troop 4 scouts had earned the Eagle Scout badge, more than any other troop in the southeast at the time. We now have 180 Eagle Scouts from Troop 4, including seven young men who will be receiving Scouting’s highest honor on Boy Scout Sunday, February 14.
The fun of Boy Scouting is in the adventure of the great outdoors. Nearly every month over the last 90 years, the Scouts of Troop 4 have headed to the outdoors for camping, hiking, rafting, backpacking, mountain biking, canoeing and many other activities. Troop 4 Scouts have camped near and far, from our own backyards in High Point to World Jamborees in Holland and Greece. Scouts have backpacked along the Appalachian Trail in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and the Sangra de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico. Scouts have fished in the Atlantic Ocean and have canoed most of the rivers in North Carolina.
To sponsor a Boy Scout troop for 90 years is quite an accomplishment. Over these many years, a lot of troops in High Point did not survive poor economic times, periods of war, cultural changes and transitions in scoutmasters. Wesley Memorial’s longstanding support of Boy Scouting is something for which we can all be proud.
~ Steve Bouldin