For Joys We'll Ne'er Forget: Curtis S. Read the Camp, the Reservation, the Complete History 1920-2009

By John R. Farley

Every Boy Scout camp has its unique history. This is the story of
one of them: the Curtis S. Read Scout Reservation, located since 1948
in upstate New Yorks beautiful and historic Adirondack Mountains.
The story is a mixture of fact, nostalgia, and youthful dreams. It is intended
to provide a lasting record of what went on in this extraordinary camp from
the day it opened in 1920 on Long Pond near Mahopac, NY to the present.
Written by scouters who, as staff members, lived parts of that history, it evokes
experiences that often affect entire lifetimes of those who lived them. It also
offers something of value to those of you who perhaps never went to camp.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 16, 2009
• ISBN: 9781477175484

Book preview

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For Joys

We’ll Ne’er Forget

published by

The Camp Read Association

Symbols

The title page combines three elements that elicit fond memories and warm feelings about years gone by. The sketch of Lester Lodge, used as the frontispiece for all of the chapters of Section I, is the work of Shirley Boland, the talented wife of Art Boland, the first camp ranger. Shirley is a graduate of Cooper Union in New York City and an artist in her own right. She created many sketches of camp scenes in her earlier years as well as brought a spirit of history and continuity to the camp. Lester Lodge symbolizes the early years of Camp Read at Brant Lake that the Old Guard and Old Timers remember. It was the home of the Collins family—the original owners of the full tract of land that the Fenimore Cooper Council bought in 1948—and served as the camp office, nature lodge, trading post, staff rec room, and staff housing for the first two decades of camp life. Torn down when it became too costly to maintain, the building represents the transition from the old Camp Read to the new Read Reservation that has become one of the most successful scout camps in the country.

The second symbol is the book’s title, taken from one of the camp’s most revered songs. It was often the closing song for camp-wide ceremonies, campfires, and celebrations. The words follow:

Camp Curtis Read we honor thee

For joys we’ll ne’er forget,

We love the rocks, we love the trees

Where memories linger yet.

On campus green, we’ll take our stand,

Where ere the trail may lead;

We’ll all unite and sing again

In praise of old Camp Read

The third symbol is reference to the Camp Read Association, sponsor of this book, source of energy and support for Camp Read, and the institution responsible for preserving the memories of the old and creating a vision for the new Camp Read of the twenty first century.

For Joys

We’ll Ne’er Forget

Curtis S. Read—The Camp, the Reservation, the Complete History

1920-2009

John R. Farley, Senior Writer/Designer

Richard Ford, Editor

Christopher Fearon, Robert Johnson, Ed D’Apice,

Ron Green, Tom Hunter, Leo Landrey, Denis Pisanello, and Matt Terribile, Writers

The Cover and Photographs

We wish to thank Dave Griffin, Director of Camp Waubeeka of the Curtis S. Read Scout Reservation, for his dramatic cover picture of the Camp Read setting. Taken from the top of Number Eight Mountain with Brant Lake in the background, the photo incorporates the ambience of the Adirondacks, six young scouts on an adventure outing, the vastness of the landscape, and the energy that the environment creates for the entire Read Reservation family. The 1000 acres of the camp lie immediately to the left of the picture and between the top of the mountain and the edge of the lake (not in sight). In addition to Dave’s picture we also wish to thank many others who provided photographs and pictures for this book including: Ann and Steve Hammonds, Tim Haag, Jim Smith, Ron Green, Bill Daley, Ed D’Apice, Denis Pisanello, John Farley, Chris Fearon Leo Landrey, Steve Sudak, and Shirley Boland.

Copyright © 2009 by John R. Farley, Senior Writer/Designer, Richard Ford, Editor.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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Table of Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Part One: The History

1. The Early Years: Camp Read at Long Pond and How It Came to Be—Christopher Pomeroy Fearon

2. The Camp That Moved—John R. Farley and Robert T. Johnson

3. Camp Read in the Fifties—Christopher Pomeroy Fearon

4. Read In the Sixties—Tom Hunter

5. Camp Waubeeka—Matt Terribile

6. Camp Read in the Seventies—Ed D’Apice

7. The Read Reservation in the Eighties—John R. Farley

8. The Nineties at the Read Reservation—Leo Landrey and John R. Farley

9. Into the Twenty-First Century—Leo Landrey

10. Then and Now: From Camp Read to the Curtis S. Read Reservation—John R. Farley

Part Two: Special Features

11. Two Legendary Camp Rangers: Art Boland and Bob Newton—John R. Farley and Ron Green

12. Impact of Camp Curtis Read on Professional Scouting—John R. Farley

13. Profiles of Read’s Pioneers—14. The History of Our Place in the Adirondacks

Denis Pisanello

15. The Order of the Arrow at Camp Read—John R. Farley

16. The Camp Read Association—Thomas A. Dietz

17. Visions for the Future

Appendices

A. Charter for the Camp Read Association

B. Glossary of Camp Read Terms and Terminology

C. An Abbreviated Chronology

D. Recipients of Reservation Awards and Honors

E. Singing at Camp

F. Two Maps

G. For Additional Information

Dedication

This book is dedicated to:

Fred…

Joe…

Art…

Ken…

Tiny…

While this book could rightly be dedicated to everyone who has been on staff at the original Camp Read on Long Pond or at Camp Curtis S. Read at Brant Lake or at the Curtis S. Read Scout Reservation, it seems appropriate that it be dedicated to a few of the outstanding professional and volunteer leaders who had so much to do with launching Camp Read at Brant Lake in the Adirondacks: Fred Smith, Joe Cooke, Art Boland, Ken Taft, and Tiny Sperling. We thank these leaders for their foresight, their dedication, their loyalty, and perhaps most of all, because it was a joy to work with them as colleagues in the common cause of shaping new generations of youth in the service of their families, their communities, and their nation.

Foreword

Why This Book?

Every Boy Scout camp has its unique history. This is the story of one of them: the Curtis S. Read Scout Reservation, located since 1948 in upstate New York’s beautiful and historic Adirondack Mountains.

The story is a mixture of fact, nostalgia, and youthful dreams. It is intended to provide a lasting record of what went on in this extraordinary camp from the day it opened in 1920 on Long Pond near Mahopac, NY to the present. Written by scouters who, as staff members, lived parts of that history, it evokes experiences that often affect entire lifetimes of those who lived them. It also offers something of value to those of you who perhaps never went to camp.

The book was commissioned by the Camp Read Association (CRA), a dedicated group of former camp staff members and other interested people who want to preserve the history of this very special place. It is the result of thoughts, ideas, information, and suggestions by many scouts, former staff members, and other interested people. Many were volunteers, some were professional scouters, a few started as volunteers and went on to enter professional scouting as a career.

Working closely with me throughout the project were Dick Ford, Chris Fearon, and Bob Johnson. Our editor-in-chief was Dick Ford who used his awesome talent to transform our manuscripts into a polished, professional, finished product. Chris Fearon deserves special mention. Not only did he research and write two major chapters, but his input is reflected in many of the elements in the book. In addition, he worked closely with Dick in locating and selecting the photos.

Ed D’Apice, Ron Green, Tom Hunter, Leo Landry, Denis Pisanello, and Matt Terribile wrote major chapters to make our story of Read as complete as we could. Tom Hunter went all out to help promote the undertaking and solicit information in the CRA Newsletter. Tom also made the Camp Read Association Newsletter files available to us and they have proven to be an absolutely priceless source of information. From the outset, Peter Oberdorf and Jim Smith gave us valuable material, put us in touch with possible sources of information, and continually gave us the support and encouragement we needed to keep going. Special thanks are due Shirley Boland whose artwork continues to enhance publications and images of Camp Read.

We are indebted to many other wonderful people for the active support they gave to us during the writing of this history. Those making substantial contributions included: Joe Augusto, Ken D’Apice, Tim Haag, Ken Hadermann, Ed Lacey, Matthew Mann, Bob Newton, Bill Reitz, Bob Rice, Dan Rile, Carolee Smith Powers, Ken Smith, Steve Sudak, Tom Teel, John Tripodi, Lanie and Russ Turner, sons Chris and Ken Farley, writers Randy Garrison and Dan Waldron, publisher Al Berlinski, and my beloved wife Mary Anne for her five years of patience while we wrote the book.

We would be remiss if we failed to acknowledge the enthusiastic assistance our researchers received while tracing the life and family history of the camp’s namesake, Curtis Seaman Read. Special thanks are due to the following: The Harrison Public Library, with especial gratitude for the help of Marian Varian, local history specialist; Barbara J. Specht, Harrison Town Historian; the staff at Hill Crest (now a country club); staff at the Purchase Community House; the Westchester County Historical Society; the Yale University Manuscripts and Reference staff; and the current ranger at Camp Read, Tom Barnes, who took us around the camp off season, locating pictures and documents related to Curtis Read.

A number of individuals read entire chapters and added corrections, suggestions, and additions that enhanced its interest and accuracy: Tom deLackner, Peter Elting, Dr. Brendon Boylan, Merry Sandra Kennedy, James H. Tibbitts, and Tom and Mary Margaret Whipple.

While this book focuses on the history of Camp Read, in Westchester-Putnam Council, for most of my years in scouting I have been a volunteer in Clinton Valley Council in Michigan. During a wide variety of assignments in Clinton Valley it has been my pleasure to know and work with another wonderful group of scouts and scouters, many of whom have been very encouraging about this book and our camp. Two have been especially supportive, Steve Montgomery, council executive, and Rick Bassett, assistant council executive. Rick, as subject matter expert, answered many questions regarding National BSA terminology, policies, and practices through the years.

There is an often repeated statement heard at closing campfires in scout camps across the country that reminds those who participated that probably never again will the same group be assembled in the same place at the same time. While literally that may be true, it is equally true that at Camp Read we have shared in the exhilarating experience of building an outstanding resource for youth down through many generations. Ron Green, a former staff member at Camp Read who went on to a distinguished career in professional scouting, may have put it exactly right in an article he wrote in one of the Camp Read Newsletters:

Together we have built a great legacy. As active campers, leaders, and staff members we created a tradition of camping excellence that touched the lives of thousands of scouts since our camp first opened in 1920. And for many of us, there was a time when Camp Read was the single most important part of our lives. We have a proud past anchored by lifelong friendships and vivid memories.

Picture yourself sitting once again among some of the best friends you have ever known around a blazing campfire overlooking Rogers Lake at the end of another satisfying day at Camp Read. Look into the fire, let the memories come alive, and let us relive the story of the Curtis S. Read Scout Reservation.

John R. Farley

June 2009

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Chapter 1

The Early Years:

Camp Read at Long Pond

and How It Came to Be

Christopher Pomeroy Fearon

You can’t grow strong trees under a glass roof. No more can you grow boys into strong men by any indoor culture. They need the freedom of the fields and streams. They must breathe of the strength of the wind. They must receive through the pores of their skin the ministry of the sun.

Adirondack Murray, quoted in an early Camp Read brochure

The Beginning

On June 28, 1920, a Boy Scout Camp opened on Long Pond, about 40 miles from White Plains and 4½ miles east of Lake Mahopac, in Putnam County, New York. A woman from Purchase, New York had lost her son in World War I. To preserve his memory, she donated land as well as equipment and all necessary structures to create a camp. Why did she made such a generous donation and why was this history of the camp published nearly 100 years later?

First, to understand Caroline Seaman Read’s decision to finance a scout camp named to honor her son, we need to understand British Colonel Robert Baden-Powell’s May 17, 1900 success during the South African War (1899-1902). Then we will explain the family culture in which Curtis S. Read was raised, one that led to his mother’s donation. We do not know whether the Englishman and soldier, Colonel Baden—Powell, ever met the American banker, William A. Read, Sr., (Curtis’s father); but we do know that the prominent American banker spent much time in London and probably knew Powell and Winston Churchill when he was looking after his business interests there. It is all part of the story of the scout camp on Long Pond. We will trace the ideas of scouting and the money that funded it and enabled a small scout council with only 300 scouts to open Camp Curtis S. Read, a well funded, state-of-the-art boys’ camp.

It all began in the South African War. Baden-Powell led the defense of surrounded Mafeking for 217 days, until relief arrived. This exploit made him famous. Baden-Powell spoke and wrote about the young African boys who had, under fire from the excellent marksmanship of the Boer soldiers, scouted courageously and carried Powell’s orders by bicycle to his soldiers. However, Powell was worried about the British soldiers themselves. Raised mostly in cities, they were brave, but too often out of shape; and some of them were clueless in open country. He shared a widely felt belief that the industrial revolution and city life in England had a bad effect on young men. So once back in England, he designed a program to get English youth, many from industrial cities like Birmingham, off the streets and into open country. His first experiment was the historic camping trip on Brownsea Island. Baden-Powell said that there the boys could begin to become physically stronger and to learn the teamwork, skills, self-reliance, and confidence African boys gained growing up naturally in the bush. Baden-Powell wrote articles and then a book to explain his program. He was influenced by the American Daniel Carter Beard’s troops of boys, the Sons of Daniel Boone.¹

Powell’s Scouting for Boys sold well and was translated into many foreign languages. By 1990, 35,360,000 copies had been sold. The only book to outsell it was the Bible. Boy Scout troops were formed world wide. Eventually over 72 nations had scouting. By today, scouting has involved over 350 million people. Nearly all countries, barring only five or six, have scout troops. Many people thought their worries about the boy problem in increasingly urban environments could be solved by the scouting program.

The Read Family

In 1894 in New York City, William A. Read and Miss Caroline G. Seaman, of Brooklyn, were wed. The next year, on August 21, twin brothers William Augustus and Curtis Seaman Read were born. In the early 1900s, in New York City, William A. Read, Sr., became well known and respected as the head of the banking firm William A. Read and Company. His business was international banking and he frequently traveled to London. He also had priority for very local needs. He showed concern for the children of New York City and became a regular donor to the East Side Settlement House. He was a leading advocate for youth, personally paying for many young people’s education. Mr. Read said he wanted to free the boys of New York from the unattractive influences of its streets. His work became well known to New Yorkers interested in the education and development of young people, like William D. Boyce.

In 1909, Boyce was visiting London and became lost in a heavy fog. A young boy assisted him to find his way who then turned down a tip because he was a Boy Scout. He explained he was on his honor to help people without accepting rewards. Impressed, Boyce sought out Baden-Powell, learned more about scouting from him, and concluded the movement would be good for American boys.

Two important youth movements already existed in America. Beard’s Sons of Daniel Boone taught the young men the ways of pioneers. Ernest Thomson Seton’s Woodcraft Indians introduced them to nature study and Native American culture.² In 1909 these and other Americans interested in discussing the eternal boy problem, met with Boyce in New York City. Seton presided at the meeting. William A. Read probably joined them. Certainly all those present were aware of Read’s support of the East Side Settlement House and his aid to other young people in the city. They had his financial support when they resolved to combine Beard’s and Seton’s existing organizations with Powell’s Boy Scout movement. They planned adaptations to fit it to work with American family, school, church, and other successful youth programs such as Read’s East Side Settlement House.

Troop and patrol organization, uniforms, the oath and law, the motto, and the educational method of teaching boys through games, skits, songs, and stories were right out of Powell’s Scouting for Boys. Using the examples of Indians and pioneers as inspiration were Seton’s and Beard’s ideas. Scout camps today still have nature and campcraft areas, teaching both men’s favorite subjects. The Order of the Arrow (started in 1915) carries on serious studies of Indian dress, customs, dances, and songs as well as service to others. These were the basics. The Reads and others who followed provided the money.

On February 8, 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was founded. That year, the Reads’ 14 year old son, Curtis Seaman, joined the boy scout troop nearest his home in Purchase, New York, an area served by the adjacent White Plains Boy Scout Council.

Mr. James West first published Boys Life in 1912. By 1990, over 2,000,000 American boys were to subscribe to it. To understand Camp Read’s beginnings one must understand public attitudes during the first decade of scouting.

For instance, in 1913, a children’s novel Boy Scouts on a Long Hike or To the Rescue in the Black Water Swamps, by Archibald Lee Fletcher, was published in Chicago. In Fletcher’s book, the Beaver Patrol and their scoutmaster-patrol leader take a hike filled with adventures. Each gives the scouts opportunities to help people. In Chapter 3 of To the Rescue, during a hike, Seth praises Noodles, a fat boy in his patrol:

You would never have believed Noodles here could have covered the ground he has. Scouting has been the making of him, as it will any feller.

Thousands of adults gave such books to boys. Published stories on the wonders of scouting followed. Scouting was portrayed as a boy’s trail to manhood and a life of service. (By the 1930s new series novels were to replace Fletcher’s Scouts. Then came Tom Swift, Jerry Todd, and later, Jacky Thorn, all young heroes. Also older boys and men leading younger ones became a common theme. Witness Jim and Huck Finn, Captains Courageous, Batman and Robin, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Wabi (Ben) Kanobi and Luke Sky Walker, Dumbledorf and Harry Potter, and Shane.

On February 28, 1916, the Harrison Observer reported that work was to begin soon on a Community Center in Purchase, New York.

Read [Curtis Seaman’s father], a wealthy resident, is having plans for a . . . . three-story structure . . . . on a Purchase Street lot Mr. Read bought recently. Work is to begin in March. The work will be done wholly at Mr. Read’s expense, but will be conducted by the Property Owners’ Association of Purchase. The building is to include a police station, a station for the district nurse, a room for the area’s teachers (the school adjoins the property), a large, fully-equipped gymnasium for youth and a high class library to provide the young people better educational facilities. Room for entertainment and pleasure for youth will be young people’s alternative to traveling to White Plains and Port Chester for diversion. The operations will be conducted along strictly democratic lines and will be open to all. One of Mr. Read’s primary aims is to serve the youth of the area.

However, on April 8, 1916, a family tragedy struck the Reads. The Harrison Observer covered the sudden death of William A. Read,

. . . one of New York’s best-known bankers, and owner of a beautiful country estate, Hill Crest, in Purchase. Read died at his town house, No. 4 East Sixty-second Street, Manhattan. His death was attributed to heart disease. His widow announced that the community house would be built according to her late husband’s intentions.

It became the meeting place for Purchase Boy Scout Troop 1, served by the White Plains Boy Scout Council. His children lived on, loyal to his memory and his ideals of public service.

Scouting Comes of Age

In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson established a nation-wide Scout Week. Churches, schools, and other youth agencies set aside this week annually to recognize scouts. The children’s encyclopedia, Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, c1922, included an article on the Boy Scouts, giving the subject seven pages with many pictures including a two page of montage in which Compton’s wrote,

That the scout movement is worth promoting goes without saying… [Wilson’s] proclamation . . . spread the truth about scouting and the reasons for supporting it from ocean to ocean.

Indeed it did.

The Story of Curtis S. Read

The ideas of scouting had taken hold. In the new Purchase troop, Curtis S. Read was one of the first American boy scouts. During his short life, he worked his way up from the rank of Tenderfoot, to Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, and Eagle. He served in leadership positions in his troop up to assistant scoutmaster. He attended Yale and participated in what was later called ROTC. In his junior year at Yale he was the football team’s manager. That summer he learned to fly, training for the Naval Air Service at Palm Beach, Huntington, Long Island, and Newport News, Virginia. In the fall he notified Yale that he was not returning. Three of his brothers also left school and enlisted as volunteers to help the English fight the Germans. After all, they were William Read’s sons!

The last eight years of Curtis Read’s growth through adolescence had been an emersion in scouting. How much Curtis’ mother felt that scouting had done for him was to become clear after his early death.

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Ensign Curtis S. Read in his naval

uniform and the plaque in Rye, New

York commemorating his death in

France during WWI.

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Curtis Read’s father, William A. Read, a prosperous banker in New York City; and the house he bought for his family in Purchase, NY—it is now a clubhouse for a golf club

Seven years after the start of American scouting, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. The poet W. H. Auden later wrote of an American citizen, When there was peace, he was for peace. When there was war, he went. Ensign Curtis S. Read and his brothers became naval aviators in the US Naval Reserve Service attached to the British Naval Air Service. Curtis left his scout troop, his college, and the ROTC. He responded to President Wilson’s call to make the world safe for democracy. William Read’s sons were among the very first Americans to serve in Europe in World War I.³

About that time, Winston Churchill (Minister of Munitions, 1917-1918 and in World War II, the Prime Minister of Great Britain) visiting the Western Front almost daily, began developing the tank and the improved seaplane. Churchill said he invented the name for seaplanes, perhaps when he had first started flying lessons in 1913, as well as the term flight for a trip by air. The expanding Royal Naval Air Service included some Americans who had already arrived in France and been attached to it. One day Churchill, never very good at driving his car or flying air planes, had three of the pilots fly him back to England, about a half-hour flight, in a new, experimental sea plane with wheels. The pilot gave him a lesson during the flight. They landed safely in a field near Churchill’s country home, Lullenden Farm, near East Grinstead, West Kent, in time for Churchill’s dinner.

Churchill’s wife Clementine, their close friend Violet Bonham Carter, and the Prime Minister were always upset that Winston had again and again risked his life flying in one of those dangerous contraptions and told him so, usually at dinner. One can wonder what they had to say about his experimental seaplane flight. He was always polite but unrepentant. None of them thought any plane was safe.

On the return flight without Churchill, a few hours later, the experimental plane crashed off Dunkirk with the death of all three officers. One of them was Curtis Seaman Read. The day was February 27, 1918. (Nettleton has it the day before.) Read was probably the first American officer to die in France in World War I. ⁴

Read was buried at Dunkirk with full military honors. Someone (possibly in a letter to Mrs. Read either from his commanding officer or his brother Russel Bartow, serving in the same unit, or from his twin brother, William A. Read, Jr., who was also a naval airman stationed in Europe, but in a style suggesting Winston Churchill may have written it), reported that an armed escort of American seamen led the procession, followed by the color guard, in addition to a British Chaplain and six fellow officers acting as honorary pallbearers. The remains were carried on a field gun carriage. One hundred British and French Army officers, mourners, foreign officials, officers from the British and French Navies and the British and French Air Services, marched past with French people lining the streets at attention in homage. The City of Dunkirk’s memorial wreath bore an inscription "To the First American Officer to Die for France at Dunkerque." [Author’’s emphasis.]

Four years before, according to Admiralty records for September 5, 1914, Churchill had said the following:

There is no doubt that a large number of American citizens of quality and character are anxious to fight on our side. The value and advantage of such aid cannot be overrated… . It ought to be possible to organize in Canada an American volunteer force… . Nothing will bring American sympathy along with us so much as American blood shed in the field.⁵

Four sons of the late William A. Read had volunteered. The first American had shed his blood. If properly publicized, the death could still help to stir American public opinion in support of the war. It might be surmised that Churchill had something to do with the elaborate funeral arrangements and the publicity in America that followed it.

Curtis’ mother made the letter, signed, from a fellow officer, (Churchill?) available to the New York Times. The Times story stated she had first received the news of Read’s death from the Navy Department.

That June, Yale gave Curtis S. Read, Class of 1918, post obitum, honoris cause (Posthumously). The Aero Club of America awarded him its Distinguished Service Medal. A memorial was held at the Yale Hope Mission in March and another at the Church of the Incarnation, New York City. The European struggle had become an American one too.

Two years later his twin brother William and his wife named their first child Curtis Seaman Read in honor of William’s late twin brother. Each generation since has seen more Read babies named Curtis Seaman Read. The internet lists many of them, all named in honor of the scout who died off Dunkirk. One of them visited Camp Read more than 78 years later. Trying to tell them apart is an historian’s nightmare.

Back home, the national service of all Boy Scouts in World War I was impressive. Scouts sold $301,000,000 worth of liberty and an additional $50,000,000 in savings stamps. According to an early edition of Compton’s, they also operated thousands of war gardens and helped on farms and in canning factories. They collected 100 carloads of gas-mask material! These and other projects gave scouting at home publicity and respect.

Camp Curtis S. Read is Born

It is not surprising then that in 1919, Mrs. William A. Read, Curtis Read’s mother, following her late husband’s example and in honor of her son Curtis Seaman, donated money to the small White Plains Council, BSA, to buy the land, buildings, and equipment for the camp at Long Pond. Her four surviving sons, her daughters and her friends had reason to think it an appropriate, living memorial. The donation was consistent with the late William A. Read, Sr.’s support for organizations that served youth. Just nine years had passed since the start of scouting in America. Curtis Read had not lived to celebrate his twenty-third birthday. However, it is safe to conclude that from his twelfth birthday on, his time in scouting had been inspiring years in a widely respected program. In 1920, the camp opened. Mrs. Read must have had faith that it would provide other boys the same chance to learn to serve others in life and to be remembered with honor after they died. Since then thousands have learned at Camp Read what it meant to say, On my honor…

This book will show that the camp was a good investment. If Mr. and Mrs. William A. Read came back today, they would see that we are still using the gift appropriately. We have kept the faith.

We have explained the theories underlying scouting. Now we will relate the experiences of the men and boys in one scout camp, and the things they learned as shown later in their adult lives. There were steps and mis-steps. There were successes and failures. Some were really funny. Some were deeply moving. The writers of this book believe that from their own happy summers in camp something of great value is worth preserving. Let the facts speak for themselves.

The original Camp Curtis S. Read was established on 30 acres on the north shore of Long Pond. It served a council of only 300 scouts, but it was so well equipped that it was used by growing numbers of scouts with few changes for 26 years without any significant expansion. Eighty scouts enrolled in the camp program in its first year. Dr. Sidney P. Hines, scout executive, was the first camp director, a job held until the 1922 season. Doc Sowerby probably took over in 1923.

Norm Scott, White Plains Troop 20, was a camper in 1930 and continued as camper and staff member at Read through 1936. In 1931 in Cabin 4 he made a new friend, Andy Maxwell. In 2008, Norm helped improve this book with his reminiscences and warm memories of his six summers. Members of the Read family visited camp frequently. In 2002, Read’s grand nephew, yet another Curtis S. Read, when visiting the Brant Lake Camp, said that the first Curtis’ sister, then ninety-nine years old, still talked about the Long Pond Camp Read.

Norm wrote that camp was:

run in a very military fashion. Our lives were timed by suitable bugle calls—reveille, mess call, assembly—on through the afternoon parade, and then taps to finish the day. We lined up at 5 pm for inspection of our cabins, and then marched in formation past the flagpole and the reviewing officials (Doc. Sowerby and a few others). . . . We ate in the mess hall… . At each meal, we stood with our arms folded and sang our grace before sitting to eat… there were three different graces… . meals were prepared by Wilson, an African American who had an assistant. The two of them lived in their own separate little hut near the mess hall.

The Camp Program

One of the first steps was to send out a brochure advertising the new camp and explaining how parents could sign up their scouts.

A day’s program for 1920 included:

A.M.

7:10 Reveille.

Setting up exercises. Morning Dip

7:15 Dress, wash and put out bedding to air

7:50 Form in line, flag salute, march to breakfast.

8:30 Make up cots and clean around tents.

9:00 Tent inspection

9:15 Squad duties.

11:30 Swim.

12:30 Dinner.

PM

1:00-2:00 Rest hour.

2:00 Recreation-Baseball, athletics, hikes, etc.

5.00 Swim.

6:00 Supper.

7:00 Entertainment, Council Fire, etc.

9:10 Retiring Bugle

9:30 Taps All lights out. Quiet

From the beginning, scouts in the same troops were urged to come together, or as many of a troop’s scouts as possible to come at the same time with their own scoutmasters and assistant scoutmasters. Scouts were told what to bring, including blankets and a uniform, although the uniform was not compulsory. Scouts were warned that at camp they would share in all the work and be assigned specific squads and tasks. They were advised that lazy boys and shirkers would not be at home at Read. A minimum stay of two weeks was strongly recommended.

The first season was successful, and the 1921 and 1922 seasons followed with just a few changes in the program and a dramatic increase in camper attendance. The brochures included the statement that the only rules at camp were the scout law, and an elaborate reprinting of the law included an explicit paragraph or two on how each law applied to camp. Under A scout is clean were detailed instructions on personal hygiene, tent and bunk care, and keeping the latrine clean as it was the only place for all human excreta and not around the camp grounds. Scouts were to play clean, think clean, have clean habits, talk clean. Go back home a cleaner scout in every way than when you came. More details in the second and third year programs reflected the refinement of scout training and advancement. The evening programs were expanded and hikes and overnights out of camp introduced.

In addition to the return of Dr. Sidney B. Hines as director, M.C. Williams, scoutmaster of Troop 1, Hartsdale, and principal of the Hartsdale school, served as assistant camp director in 1921.

The second season brochure stated:

Purpose: The camp aims at the building of character as well as body building and giving the boys an enjoyable outing. Surrounding the campers with good influences and high ideals and talks at the camp fires means much to the boys away from home influences.

The staff were primarily the home troop volunteer leaders. It would appear that few if any staff were hired for the early years. Probably campers who returned for a second or third year grew into staff responsibilities, possibly getting room and board first, and later, some pay. When World War II started, home troop adult leaders were absorbed in war duties, and an era dominated by teenage staff and provisional troop scoutmasters began.

Photographs of the first three seasons show that there were white tents on platforms. They were square, rising on all four sides to a single center vent at the top, and large enough for eight cots each. Cabins, a few at a time, gradually replaced the tents in later years.

By the second season a picture shows scouts with long poles ending in boxing gloves standing opposite each other on barrels on the parade ground, probably a preparation for canoe tilting on the waterfront. Other pictures show semaphore practice, elaborate Indian head dresses of feathers being made in the handicraft lodge, fire building, first aid classes, bird watching, wild animal studies, and handicrafts. Other more formal scenes show uniformed scouts at inspections, troops passing in review, and saluting at flag ceremonies. Catholic scouts were driven to Mahopac for Mass on Sundays, and non-denominational services were held at camp for others. The list of items each scout should bring to camp always included a Bible and/or a prayer book. Scouts were asked to remember to thank God at the end of very day.

An interesting note about the grace at meals: it was the same sung everywhere in scout camps today, except that in the last verse the line, "Thou has watched us well this day is now sung, Thou has kept us well this day." All the photographs are in the Camp Read Association archives, many on CDs. Steve Sudak, association historian, maintains the archives and is of great help to anyone researching camp history.

One of the very first structures at Long Pond was a lean-to on a ridge overlooking the pond. It was constructed of very large logs. There was a stone fireplace in front, good for cooking and campfires on countless camp visits in the 1920s and 1930s. Just beyond the fireplace was a tall totem pole with Indian carvings. Perhaps the earliest camp photograph we have shows the camp as seen from the east, with eight large tents and no cabins, the waterfront in the background. Cabin # 7 was later built just up the ridge from the lean-to.

Camp Read was laid out much like a World War I army camp. At the center was a field for assemblies and marching ceremonies. Facing each other from the east and west sides of the field were, first, the tents, pitched in straight lines, and later, cabins with four double bunks on either side, for patrols of eight. Armies had been made up of squads of ten on the theory that one man, a squad leader, could at most effectively supervise no more than nine other men. It is a very old observation.

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Cover of original Camp Read recruiting booklet, from 1920

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The legendaary Doc

Sowerby who directed the

camp during its early

years

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Overview of original

camp, with Lake

Mahopac to the right

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Visiting dignitaries come to inspect the innovative scout camp

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End of the day retreat and flag lowering ceremony. Note camp buildings in background

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Scouts await the noise, excitement, and even the food of another elegant dinner. Sitting in foreground (white tee shirt) is Mickey Boylan, later waterfront director at Brant Lake; across from Mickey is Lou Marchianti, mess hall steward in 1944.

In Biblical times, King David organized his army into captains of tens, and captains over the captains. The Prussian army used the system prior to the unification of Germany. In America, Leonard Wood used it in reorganizing the United States Army after the Spanish American War.

The thinking for troop organization of eight-boy patrols was important to the scouting program. A patrol leader had to learn to explain objectives, delegate authority to his assistant, and check on things to keep them moving. He had to learn that helping his scouts was the way to earn loyalty, respect, and cooperation. On his help and evaluations of success, scouts’ advancement in troop leadership would depend. A senior patrol leader, having very probably reached an age that involved serious homework and more chores at home, should be asked to supervise just four patrol leaders. He had to set an example to them in planning program, delegation of housekeeping duties and follow-up, and helping them with advancement in rank when needed. Senior patrol leaders would train boys to replace themselves when they left for military service, work, or college. Scoutmasters and assistants would provide guidance and advice, keeping their troops on track. Boys would run the show. This patrol method differed from other programs for boys in teaching the boys themselves how to grow into leadership positions. Adults had to step back.

In the years to come, each generation of camp staff had to be taught this concept from scratch, and each scout earnestly believed his year was the first year it was being tried. They usually thought they were being asked to implement something new and revolutionary! Perhaps they had to believe this to reach the level of excitement and enthusiasm it took to implement the patrol method again every year camp opened. A test of the director’s effectiveness may be measured by the degree to which he persuaded staff members not to be bosses, but to be teachers and advisers, which is far more difficult. The whole design of Camp Read was intended to suggest and facilitate the patrol method.

For instance, at Camp Read four cabins with theoretically thirty-two boys with four of them patrol leaders, one senior patrol leader, an eighteen-year old assistant scoutmaster and an adult scoutmaster, housed in a tent behind the cabins of his troop, were to make up a troop when the camp got big enough. The basic pattern for troop organization remains the standard to this day.

The realities of camper attendance and camp budgets meant constant variations in troop size and composition. Read soon had fourteen screened and shuttered wooden cabins lined up on both sides of a fairly level open field. There were four provisional troops, two composed of four cabins and two of three cabins. A tent behind cabin 14 (at #10 Larry Lane) often housed overflow campers. Tent C, beside Cabin 8, was primarily for senior scouts. The camp director’s and some other staff tents were at the head of the parade ground. At first the flag pole was in front of the staff tents. Later the pole was moved to the other end of the parade ground closer to the mess hall scouts would enter after passing in review at evening parades. The mess hall was furnished with tables large enough to seat each patrol together. The scout grace was posted on the wall and the appropriate verse continued to be sung standing, arms folded, before every meal.

According to Compton’s, the movement was founded on broad foundations, for every kind of boy. It recommended that troops be sponsored by churches when possible. As originally planned, it was to reinforce other youth organizations and services, not to replace them.

However, again reading Compton’s (Vol. 1, pp. 478-486):

Thousands of ex-scouts served splendidly in our American Expeditionary Force, and it is the verdict both of the British and Canadian as well as our own forces that scout-trained boys almost invariably made the best soldiers. Not that they trained to be soldiers. Quite to the contrary, for the movement is distinctly non-military. But they are trained to be men.

When soldiers came back at the end of World War I, some became volunteer scoutmasters and camp staff members. Specific information on the hundreds of scouts and leaders who attended Camp Read between 1920 and the late thirties is very difficult to find. Many council records, staff lists and camp brochures, were lost after being stored in the basement of a former scout headquarters located on North Street, about half a mile east of the White Plains High School. The basement was very damp, and the records disintegrated. Fortunately, we have hundreds of camp photographs given to us by former Camp Read scouts.

Pictures and Early Campers Tell Their Story

A photograph dated 1921 shows (Doc) Sowerby, seated with six adults. An adult woman is standing in the background. A camp building can be seen, background, right. A postcard shows an aerial view of the entire camp, confirming our memories of the layout. Another shows Doc. Sowerby leading a retreat in front of twelve older staff lined up between him and the flag pole. Three uniformed boys attend the flag. It is all very formal, perhaps reflecting some staff’s army training, except that one boy dressed only in bathing trunks, bare feet, no hat, can be seen dashing back of the staff toward the north-east cabin (# 7?). One wonders if he made it to the cabin to dress without being caught and why he was late. A photograph on a postcard shows the Buddy Board at the waterfront from which that tardy boy may have come. It is a very impressive stone structure, roofed over, with the Buddy Board and tags protected from the weather. The substantial structure suggests that water safety was taken seriously; apparently, promptness was too.

Doc Sowerby, a retired missionary, had been in China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901). In 2008 Norm Scott recalled that Doc would occasionally talk about those days at campfires.

Another photograph from the early thirties shows a man splendidly uniformed in scouter style, with leggings from the knees down and the standard broad-brimmed hat, showing a group of over fifty scouts how to pull a bow. One wonders if he was Daniel Carter Beard, then National Commissioner, or Ernest Thompson Seton, then Chief Scout, both headquartered in New York City. Near the back is a tent and a large archery target. Three boys standing hold unstrung bows in their hands. Most of the boys’ eyes are fixed on the leader, but one very young scout, seated in front, is staring at the photographer.

A cannon was used at reveille and retreats. It fired 10 gauge shotgun blanks. An old photograph catches its smoke as it is fired at a ceremony. On the back: #63 6/37. Camporal 1937 Sunset Gun. The photograph is taken from behind the flag pole and the gun. A boy to lower the flag, another who appears to be in charge, and the one at the smoking gun have their backs to the camera. Facing the flag and camera, about two hundred scouts in splendid uniforms stand, their feet together and their hands clasped in front of them, possibly an early form of responding to the command, Parade, rest! Close inspection with a magnifying glass shows that in the long lines of boys shoulder to shoulder, in front of every seven, one stands alone. [Note: None of the above photos could be used in the book as they were too washed out to be reproduced!]

In 2008, Norm Scott still had snapshots of the senior staff in 1936. He could identify Doc Sowerby, Cecil Crickenberger, (a teacher or principal in Elmsford and possibly assistant camp director in 1936), Oley Olsen, and one Ollie Quickmire Stackpole. In his other snapshots are John Hindle, Bob Hermann, and the inimitable Eddie Jenkins-drummer and tap dancer and more—about fifteen of us. Also, he recalled Emory Merseau who was active in the Church in the Highlands.