by Ray Ezell, Virginia Headwaters Council Historian and Asst. Southern Region-Area 7 Commissioner
Within a few years after the incorporation of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1910, the Scouting movement rapidly took hold in Waynesboro and the adjacent Basic City (formerly Waynesboro Junction) in eastern Augusta County. Basic City would, in 1923, be formerly incorporated into the jurisdiction of the City of Waynesboro; but it would still retain some measure of its unique identity and continue to be known as a distinctive suburb somewhat apart from greater Waynesboro for the next few decades. By 1912, there appears to have been two Boy Scout troops organized in Waynesboro and one troop formed in Basic City. Over the next several years, more units would also be established in greater Waynesboro, but this essay focuses on the earliest of these troops for which several brief records and photographs have been discovered and examined to create this essay.
The first mention of Boy Scouting in Waynesboro is contained in an article from the July 10, 1912, issue of the Staunton Daily Leader, in which Rev. Clarence J. Clark is mentioned as the organizer of a Boy Scout troop in this small city at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Clark was the superintendent of Methodist Sunday Schools in the Roanoke district and within a few years would also serve as the minister of the Methodist churches at New Hope and Crimora. Incidentally, his obituary appearing in the July 8, 1946 edition of The News Leader, described that he was greatly interested in the Boy Scout movement. Rev. Clark organized troops at several of the churches he served in Augusta and surrounding counties.
An August 30, 1912, article in Staunton’s The News Leader mentioned a Boy Scout troop that had recently been formed in nearby Basic City. The article mentioned that the troop had acquired Boy Scout uniforms for its members and that they would be hiking to Grottoes, Virginia for an overnight camping trip. Grottoes was nineteen miles distant from Basic City–no short walk.
By 1913, Waynesboro had two active troops of Boy Scouts. Beginning in February 1913, the scoutmaster of Troop No. 1 was William Watkins White. Scoutmaster White, according to his December 27, 1976, obituary, was a graduate of Fishburne Military School, a local department store manager, and member of the First Baptist Church and masonic lodge. A small collection of photographs of Waynesboro Boy Scouts dating to 1913-1914 are housed at the Library of Virginia online digital collections and were examined for this essay. This series of photographs shows two separate Boy Scout outings, one during the winter months (indicated by lack of foliage on trees) with only a few scouts (probably representing a single patrol) wearing piecemeal uniforms, and another during the summer in which many more scouts were fully uniformed. One of the photographs shows a group of 21 boys, all with their right hands in the scout sign, dressed in jackets and ties (see figure below). A February 1913 edition of Boys’ Life magazine is pictured with them which helps to date the photo. The group members are dressed in similar fashion, and could be members of a church sunday school department, school, or academy. The photograph likely represents the initial organizational meeting of Waynesboro Troop No. 1 given that none of the boys are in uniform.
A second Boy Scout troop was organized in Waynesboro in early May 1913, and an article in The News Leader from May 16th mentions its formation, but it alternately lists the youth leadership of Troop No. 1 instead. Scouts belonging to Troop No. 1 were reported in that article as; Clifford Peale (patrol leader), Frank Sellars (patrol leader), Alva Arnald (secretary), and Alexander Brown Rife (treasurer). The article went on to describe the Boy Scouts as, “trained in useful vocations, are a help to any community particularly in the event of fires or calamity of any kind…”
One of the early accounts of the activity of Boy Scouts in Waynesboro is found in The News Leader of Staunton on May 10, 1913, which reports a baseball game between Troop Nos. 1 and 2 played at the Fishburne Military School. Troop No. 1 won the game by a score of 18-14.
The May 18, 1913, edition of The News Leader reported that several movies were shown to members of the Methodist church Berean and Asbury sunday school classes, and proceeds collected were used for Troop No. 2. Troop No. 2 may have been closely affiliated with or sponsored by the Waynesboro Methodist church.
Although the specific troop number was not reported, the June 20, 1913 Staunton Daily Leader and the June 22, 1913, edition of The News Leader reported that the Waynesboro Boy Scouts held a festival on the grounds of the old Waynesboro Presbyterian Church on Main Street. The band from the Basic city fire department provided the music and money was collected to help fund the cost of the troop attending their summer encampment the following month.
The June 22, 1913, issue of The News Leader also reported that the Basic City boy scout troop had established an encampment at the mill dam (of Kyle’s Mill) on Mossy Creek. This was the same area where Waynesboro Troop Nos. 1 and 2 would establish their camps the following July. A 1913 photograph of the mill shows that the structure appeared dilapidated and the mill works inoperable. The exterior was deteriorated and the roof partially collapsed.
On Sunday, June 29, 1913, a special church service presenting the advantages of Scouting was organized for the Basic Methodist Episcopal church which was located at Winchester and 5th Streets. Boy Scouts from Waynesboro and Basic were present, and the program included; Scoutmaster William W. White (Troop No. 1 Waynesboro) speaking on the ideals of the Scouting program, a review of the service provided to victims of a devastating spring flood by Boy Scouts by W. A. Rife, a local Scouting booster, and an address by Rev. R. Carl Maxwell (Scoutmaster of Troop No. 1 Basic City) on youth development.
Beginning on July 7, 1913, Waynesboro Troop No. 1, under the direction of Scoutmaster White, held their summer encampment on Mossy Creek in the vicinity to the Mossy Creek mill near Mt. Solon in northern Augusta County. According to the July 14, 1913, edition of the Staunton Daily Leader, eleven scouts attended the encampment including: William Day, Clifford Peale, Ernest Lynwood White, Paul Davis, Glenn Brag, Paul Glenn, Charlie Rubush, George Miller, Grayson and Willard Via, and Forest Patterson. Troop No. 1 returned to Waynesboro on July 12th, and Waynesboro Troop No. 2 then held their encampment at the same location after Troop No. 1 returned.
A series of photographs have been included below that shows Troop No. 1 during their week long encampment on Mossy Creek in July 1913. They also spent some of their time at the massive Natural Chimneys geologic formation just north of Mossy Creek. The large wheat elevator of the Mossy Creek flouring mill is visible in the background of at least one of these pictures which helps to pinpoint the location of the encampment.
Natural Chimneys, formerly known as the Cyclopean Towers in the 19th century, is a natural rock structure located outside of Mt. Solon. The formation includes seven rock “chimneys” that range in height from 65 to 120 feet. The chimneys are formed from limestone that began to accumulate and harden about 500 million years ago. Over time the enormous upward pressures of magma, along with widespread geologic upheaval, which created the Appalachian Mountains, combined with the erosive forces of water and thereby destroyed weaker layers of stone of the formations.
During the winter of 1914, several members of Waynesboro Troop No. 1 conducted an outing to Miller Knob southeast of Waynesboro. A series of photographs of the trip below show a patrol of scouts and the defoliated winter landscape.
The next summer, Waynesboro Troop No. 2 was reported in the July 11, 1914, edition of the Staunton Daily Leader to have established a two-week long encampment on Back Creek. Back Creek is a major tributary to South River which divided Waynesboro from Basic City, but unfortunately it is not possible to determine exactly where this camp was held. Troop No. 2 scouts at the camp were; Willie Bragg, Doyle and Ceylon Quisenberry, George Brady, Charles and Ernest Leftwich, Henry Ferguson, John East, Herbert Gibson, Gardner Stauffer, John Reed and Miles Austin.
The Staunton Daily Leader reported on August 11, 1915, that the Boy Scout troop from Basic City had established an encampment at a location near Luray, Virginia. No other details of the encampment were available. Subsequent accounts of Waynesboro scouts were apparently not reported in the Staunton press, but this does not mean that Scouting had dissolved in the city.
In 1917, Dr. Garnett organized fly killing campaign among Waynesboro Boy Scouts. An elaborate fly eradication campaign had previously been instituted in nearby Staunton during the summer of 1912 with the Boy Scouts in that city taking the lead in exterminating hundreds of thousands of flies to promote public health. The results of such campaigns to eradicate pests were inconclusive in their results at best.
Scouting would continue to remain strong in greater Waynesboro for the remainder of the decade and would flourish and expand during the 1920s. Several troops would eventually come to be organized in Waynesboro and Basic City. Many of these units existed for many years and introduced hundreds of boys to the principles of Scouting.
