When a friend recently mentioned our days in Scouts together in the 1960s, I realized that some items I have saved might be of interest to others. The troop is still active in Wolfville. During the 1960s the group owned a meeting hall in downtown Wolfville as well as a camp with modern lodge at Sunken Lake. An article on the Sunken Lake redevelopment campaign from the March 17, 1960 edition of the
Wolfville Acadian, gives a lot of detail on the roots of scouting in Wolfville and on the development of the camp at Sunken Lake. Below is the article:
"The Boy Scout Camp at Sunken Lake is to be rebuilt. Announcement
was made by the Wolfville Boy Scout Association this week that a complete
rehabilitation of the three-acre site, which was acquired 40 years ago, will
commence in the spring and is expected to be finished for the Golden Jubilee of
the Wolfville troop of boys in 1961.
A campaign to raise $7,500 needed for this protect is to be
started at once, and R. Owen DeWolfe, chairman of the finance committee, states
that everyone in the community will be asked to help. It isn't likely that anyone
will object to an opportunity to put new life in-to an organization which has
served three generations of boys in the Wolfville district, which has helped
them prepare for the moral obligations, of life and taught them the crafts of
usefulness and good citizenship, Mr. DeWolfe also stated that many former
scouts who had spent their summers at the Sunken Lake camp when they were boys
had offered to assist in the program and contributions are expected from Old
Scouts who have now followed their destinies all over the continent.
The campsite was purchased for the Scouts by Dr. M. C. Smith
in 1919, a pavilion was built in 1921 and other buildings were later added. In
spite of repeated attempts through the years to resist the ravages of the elements,
the camp is now unfit for use. In fact, the old pavilion has been torn down and
the ground levelled for the main building of the new camp. This is to be known
as the E. P. Brown Lodge, in honour of the man who founded the Boy Scouts in
Wolfville and who was Scoutmaster for a quarter-of-a-century.
Included in the project is a fully equipped kitchen, with
cook's quarters, a dining room that may be used as on assembly hall, log cabins
and shelters, a wharf and float, a fence to separate the Scout property from an
adjacent public beach. The camp will be suitable for winter use and will be one
of the finest Scout camps in Canada.
Wolfville has always been a famous Boy Scout centre. E.
Percy Brown, a descendant of Sir Joseph Howe and a mining engineer, founded the
first patrol in 1911; just a year after Sir Robert Baden-Powell left the
British army to organize the world-wide youth movement. One of these eight
original scouts was the first boy in Nova Scotia to reach the rank of King's
Scout.
For almost half-a-century the town's leading citizens have
served on the WoIfville Association, which is responsible for the finances and
administration of the troop.
The executive of the original association included J. D.
Chambers, father of the well-known cartoonist, Robert Chambers. Mr. Chambers,
who was mayor at the time, was honorary president. Dr. G. B. Cutten, president
of Acadia University, was honorary vice-president. President was Dr. W. L.
Archibald, then principal of Horton Academy. Morgan Tamplin, Sr., was
secretary, and he was succeeded in the same year (1912) by Dr. W. H. Rackham,
who recently celebrated his 50th anniversary of ordination in Halifax.
Members of the first association were: Rev. R. F. Dixon, Rev.
E. D. Webber, Rev, J. W. Prestwood, Dr. A. J McKenna, Councillor William Regan,
Mr. MacKinnon, Capt. Tingley, Herbert Stairs, Dr. H. T. DeWolfe, Dr. Spidle, B.
O. Davidson, T. W. Sterns, Joseph Howe,
C. Harvey, Dr. E. F. Moore, Rev. G. W. Miller, W. H. Chase and J. E.
Holes. Successions of prominent citizens have carried on this essential work to
this day.
Finding money to maintain the Scout Hall and to keep the
Camp well equipped has always presented a problem, but citizens and the scouts
themselves have always come through. On one occasion a proposal was made to the
town council that Scout work be budgeted for the rate of $2,000 a year, and
although in 1922 there was a petition circulated against the proposal it
eventually it eventually reached the provincial government before it was lost. On another occasion, the troop was divided
into three units in the various churches.
Wolfville's Boy Scouts have deserved this support. Their
service to the community has taken various forms, and they have always rallied
to work in numerous tag days, jam collections for the hospital, selling poppies
and TB seals, and doing salvage work in two wars. They have brought honour to
themselves on many occasions. Even as early as 1917, Terrence Hogan was
recommended for the Silver Cross for stopping a runaway horse and saving a
woman, who, having been thrown from a sleigh, was being dragged feet first. In
the same year Leo Delaney was recommended for the Bronze Cross for rescuing a
small boy from drowning. And in a series
of wars, Wolfville Boy Scouts have been heroes.
Through their Scout training, Wolfville boys have grown into
wiser and better men than they otherwise might have been, and they have been a
credit to their community and to the nation. Judges of our courts almost invariably
say that it is a rare occurrence indeed for a man who had been a Scout to be
brought before them for a criminal offence.
Camp training has always been an important part of Scout
training, and hundreds of boys will remember the lessons in playing-the-game
that they learned at Black River, where the camp was first held in 1912, and
after 1921 at Sunken Lake. The Association considers the present campaign to
provide accommodations at Sunken Lake for generations of boys yet to come as a
worthwhile investment in the youth of Wolfville, and certainly as a tribute to
all the men and boys who have kept the site in operation up to this point.
Although E. Percy Brown, who was honoured by King George V
in 1935, has continued to show an interest in his old troop after 50 years,
there have been a number of his Scouts succeeding to the active post of Scoutmaster.
Among them were Waldo Davidson, R. T. Steeves, Lloyd R. Shaw, Murray Cameron, O.
Rex Porter, Lem Morine, Keith Forbes, Charles Eaton, Charles Strong, Glen
Hancock, Henry Watson, Gerald Porter and Prof. David Haley, who is now master
of the troop.
Cubmasters have been Ralph Creighton, Jr., Beverly Starr,
Atlee Sproule, Lloyd Gesner, David Waterbury, Ken Harris, John Eaton and the
current masters are George Frank and William Bevan. In all there are 100 boys
taking training in the movement in Wolfville.
Presidents of the association over the years have included
Prof. Alexander Sutherland, Edson Graham, L. E. Shaw, G. A. Boggs, R. M.
Kierstead, H. H. Jackson, Harry VanZoost, J. G. Waterbury, Dr. G. H. Wheelock,
S. C. Gordon, L. C. Trites, R. H. MacNeil, and N. H. Grant. The current president
of the Association is Murdock MacLeod."
The actual text (above) from the original article is included below.