Cubbing on the North Shore1 By John L. Ropiequet Highland Park Pack 31 and Highland Park Troop 324 (Successor to Troops 32 and 34) December 2016 (rev. March 2017) Cub Scouting, known as Cubbing in early years,2 became a formal program of the Boy Scouts of America (“BSA”) in early 1930,3 but it had a long history in the communities that were part of the North Shore Area Council (“NSAC”) well before that year, under several names. This paralleled the development of the program in Britain, where the Boy Scouts Association set up Junior Scout and Wolf Cub schemes starting in 1914.4 Lord Baden-Powell formalized the Wolf Cub program in 1916 as something that would be separate and distinct from the Boy Scout program, with different uniforms and a Wolf Cub’s Handbook that he drafted based on Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book universe. The Wolf Cub program was designed for pre-Boy Scout age boys, who could not officially become Boy Scouts until age 12. Early Cubbing Activities Early mentions of Cubbing activities prior to establishment of the formal Cub Scout program in 1930 are fragmentary and have been gleaned, for the most part, from an intensive review of church bulletins published in the Wilmette newspaper that listed meeting times for church-sponsored groups, including Cubbing groups as well as Boy Scout, Girl Scout, and Camp Fire Girl troops. The announcements also occasionally added some narrative descriptions of activities, which gives some evidence of what the Cubbing groups did. Announcements that mentioned Cubbing groups generally appeared during the school-year periods of mid-September through mid-December and January through mid-June. There were few standalone news articles about the Cubbing groups except for the Kenilworth group discussed below. Based on this information, it is clear that some organized Cubbing activities were going on in Wilmette as early as 1922, in Kenilworth starting in 1924, and in Highland Park in 1925 that continued until the official start of the BSA’s Cubbing program in 1930-31. Before 1922, there are two items indicating that what would now be considered Cubbing was occurring elsewhere in the North Shore communities. One 1913 news item in the Wilmette paper detailed recent outings for Evanston Troops 1, 2, 3, and 7 that included a 13-mile hike from Evanston to Chicago City Hall under Scoutmasters H.A. Clauson and Benjamin Pope of Troop 2.5 Among the seven Scouts on the hike was “Tenderfoot Scout Henry Clauson, who is only 9 years old and the youngest scout in the Chicago district. The only trouble the scoutmaster had with him was to get him past windows where anything to eat was displayed; he had to be blindfolded."6 An item in the Libertyville paper in 1915 mentioned that the Junior Boy Scouts of the Libertyville Presbyterian Church performed a drill after Sunday School in which they “built a peace ladder placing the flag of the church and the flag of the United States upon the top, giving the symbols of each round as they builded [sic] it.”7 This was followed by “a short talk of the work of the Boy Scouts” and of the local bird club.8 This was two years after the first mention of Libertyville Boy Scout Troop 1, which was well enough established to set up a summer camp at Long Lake near Fox Lake, Illinois in August 1913 with Scoutmaster Rev. Edward S. White, Assistant Scoutmaster Mark Ellsworth, and five Scouts.9 St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church (Wilmette) The bulletins of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church listed a Pioneer group, sometimes called Pioneer Cadets, as early as February 1922.10 One announcement that month stated that the group, the church’s boys club, “instead of having the usual indoor meeting, enjoyed an afternoon country hike,” suggesting some prior history for the group earlier in the 1921-22 school year.11 The Pioneers were later described as “St. Augustine’s Club for younger boys.”12 In January 1923, the Pioneer Cadets and the Boy Scouts (Troop 4) of the church made a five-mile hike under Scoutmaster Pearson L. Herrington to a property that the church had recently been given to use as a camping site which “the boys were keenly interested to see” and make plans for future outings.13 Two months later, both groups gave a farewell present of a set of military brushes in a case to Herrington, who “for some time has done splendid work among the boys of the Parish and has endeared himself to them all through his efforts on their behalf.”14 The Pioneer Cadets’ new director was to be the church’s curate, Rev. Leland H. Danforth, assisted by Robert Kenyon, while Clarke Leach, who had experience with the Chicago Scouts, would take over the Scout troop.15 The church’s Boy Scout Executive Committee of five men planned activities for both Scouts and Pioneer Cadets under Scoutmaster Leach.16 Both groups marched in the Wilmette Memorial Day parade, while the Scouts did well that afternoon at an inter-troop rally and contest.17 When the Boy Scouts’ opening meeting of the fall was announced in September 1923 under Scoutmaster Leach, it was noted that the Pioneer Cadets, “the society for boys younger than the Boy Scout age,” would have their first meeting later.18 The Pioneers were next mentioned in January 1924 as resuming their meetings under Scoutmaster Kenyon.19 Only a couple of later mentions of the group have been found in the church bulletins, suggesting that the Pioneers continued to meet as late as October 1925. It should be noted that mentions of Troop 4, which was an active unit that appeared numerous times in Scouting news columns during the 1920s, were very sparse in the St. Augustine’s bulletins throughout the period, unlike the bulletins of the Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist Churches, which regularly listed troop meetings when those churches had Boy Scout troops, so the lack of any listing of Pioneer meetings may or may not indicate that the group ceased to exist. Wilmette Methodist Church The Wilmette Methodist Church planned to start a Boy Scout troop (Troop 3) in January 1922 as soon as it could obtain a scoutmaster.20 Organization appears to have been completed the following month, and “Juniors” were being organized as well.21 The meeting times for both groups were regularly mentioned starting in March, the Boy Scouts under Scoutmaster Stokes and Assistant Scoutmaster Bentley, while the Junior Scouts met under Junior Scoutmaster L.F. Todd.22 114439695.1 2 By the end of March, when the Boy Scout troop had finished its charter application and sent it to New York for approval, 40 Junior Scouts were in attendance at Byron C. Stolp School for an hour of “games, drills, and reports” under Todd and two assistants, Pierre Bontecou and Elmer Williams.23 The Junior Scouts had another meeting at the school in April 1922, when the bulletin announced that the church’s Boy Scout troop had just been notified that the National Council in New York was granting it a charter.24 The church’s annual June field day program at the forest preserve at Dundee Road and the Des Plaines River featured races for “[p]icked teams from the Junior and Senior Boy Scouts” as well as a Scout drill by the 70 Boy Scouts directed by Capt. T.E. Bullivant.25 This was followed by a camp at Diamond Lake, Illinois in July for the Junior Boy Scouts led by Bontecou following a rally “full of enthusiasm, songs, speeches, plans and announcements” that overflowed the chapel.26 The following winter, the church hosted a free father and son rally dinner in March 1923 featuring Mr. Mitchell, Assistant National Director of the BSA, as speaker which was planned to attract 91 men in addition to the 18 on the committee, plus 100 boys.27 Plans were also made in April for summer camp.28 The Methodist Church’s bulletins contained regular meeting announcements for the Junior Boy Scouts for the 1923-24 through 1929-30 school years, although the record is not entirely complete since the January through September 1925 issues of the Wilmette paper are missing and the fall 1927 issues are illegible.29 In October 1925, the meetings of the Junior Scouts, under E.M. Bennit, had a standard agenda: “[a]ssembly, Ted Buck, Bugler; devotions; roll call; inspection of patrols; salute to flag; drill and instruction; games; story; dismissal,” with a note that 59 boys had attended the previous meeting.30 When the church purchased a 24-acre tract for its summer camp, Camp Wilmette, on the Paw Paw River near Watervliet, Michigan in 1926, the schedule included the Junior Scouts for June 28 through July 12, as well as time slots for the church’s four Girl Scout troops and its Boy Scout Troops 3 and 6.31 In a report following the Junior Scouts’ trip, it was noted that the Senior Scouts would be limited to 50 registrants.32 In February 1927, the bulletin stated that the Junior Scouts would be led by Mr. Gearhart, an “experienced boys’ worker from Evanson.”33 In May 1928, the Junior Scouts were to be led by Willard Osburn, while the Senior Scouts would be led by Lester Ball.34 In October 1928, a Junior Boy Scout invited boys to join the troop to prepare for joining Boy Scouts at its weekly meetings through June.35 Osburn took over Troop 3 in September 1929 after being “in charge of the junior boys for the past few years,” and was succeeded by Ted Mayer, who subsequently became cubmaster of Wilmette’s second Cub pack as described below.36 Wilmette Congregational Church The Wilmette Congregational Church, which sponsored Troop 2, sometimes called Troop II or Roosevelt Troop 2, also started a Cubbing group in early 1922.