Founders of Scouting

Scouting was not founding by any one person, but was a result of the hard work of many men, primarily Robert Baden-Powell.  We hope you enjoy their stories.

Robert S.S. Baden-Powell

As a youth, Robert Baden-Powell (pronounced "poe-ll") greatly enjoyed the outdoors.  He had a highly successful military career (eventually retiring as a Lieutenant General), but was most well known as "The Hero of Mafeking" for his exploits as a regimental commander during the siege of Mafeking, where he used his brains, rather than the blood of his men, to keep a significantly larger Boer army at bay.
After returning as a military hero from service in Africa, Baden-Powell discovered that English boys were reading the manual on stalking and survival in the wilderness he had written for his military regiment.

Gathering ideas from Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and others, he rewrote the manual as a nonmilitary nature skill book and called it Scouting for Boys. To test his ideas, Baden-Powell brought together 22 boys to camp at Brownsea Island, off the coast of England. This historic campout was a success and resulted in the advent of Scouting.

Thus began his second "career"- that of the Chief Scout of the World. 

Seeing the need for more rigorous training and higher standards, B-P (as he became known) took a very active hand in the newly emerging Scouting movement, working closely with others who had similar ideas to his (see below), as well as taking an active role in developing new training for youth leaders as well as adult volunteers.  B-P created the first advanced adult leader training which came to be known as The Wood Badge.

An accomplished artist and prolific writer, Baden-Powell made paintings and drawings almost every day of his active life.   Many were used to illustrate his works, and most have a humorous or informative character.  His drawings continue to amuse and educate even today!   While on active duty, he published books and other texts to both finance his life and to educate his men, and one of the more famous British recruitment posters during the First World War was drawn by him (right).

After having published Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell kept on writing more handbooks and educative materials for Scouts and Scout Leaders as the Scouting movement grew-- in spite of his failing health.   In his later years, he also wrote about the Scout Movement and his ideas for its future.

He spent the last decade of his life in Africa, and many of this later books had African themes.  He died on January 8, 1941, and is buried in the mountains of his beloved Kenya, buried next to his wife Olave.

In his final letter to the Scouts, Baden-Powell had written:

...I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have a happy life too. I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness does not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.   Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. 'Be Prepared' in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout Promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you to do it.

Ernest Thompson Seton

Ernest Thompson Seton (August 14, 1860 - October 23, 1946) was a Scoto-Canadian (and naturalized U.S. citizen) who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and founding pioneer of the Boy Scouts of America.  He was born Ernest Evan Thompson in South Shields, England of Scottish parents and his family emigrated to Canada in 1866. As a youth, he retreated to the woods to draw and study animals, and he won a scholarship in art to the Royal Academy in London.

He became successful as a writer, artist and naturalist, later moving to New York City, and later at Wyndygoul an estate that he built in Cos Cob, a section of Greenwich, Connecticut. After experiencing vandalism by the local youth, Seton invited them to his estate for a weekend where he told stories of the American Indians and of nature.

He formed the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 and invited the local youth to join. The stories became a series of articles written for the Ladies Home Journal and were eventually collected in the The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians in 1906.

He was married twice. The first marriage was to Grace Gallatin in 1896. Their only daughter, Ann, was born in 1904 and died in 1990. Ann, who later changed her first name, became a best-selling author of historical and biographical novels as Anya Seton. Ernest and Grace divorced in 1935, and Ernest soon married Julia M. Buttree. Julia would write works by herself and with Ernest. They did not have any children, but did adopt an infant daughter, Beulah (Dee) Seton (later Dee Seton Barber), in 1938. Dee Seton Barber died in 2006.

Seton met Scouting's founder, Baden-Powell, in 1906, who had read Seton's book, The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians, and was greatly intrigued by it. The pair met and shared ideas.  Seton became vital in the foundation of the Boy Scouts of America and was its first Chief Scout.  His Woodcraft Indians, combined with the early attempts at Scouting from the YMCA and other organizations, and Daniel Carter Beard's Sons of Daniel Boone, to form the Boy Scouts of America. The work of Seton and Beard is in large part the basis of the Traditional Scouting movement.

Note the photo on the left: Seton, Baden-Powell and Daniel Beard.  How cool can it get?

Contrary to popular belief, Seton, not James E. West, was the first Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts of America, from 1910-1915 and his work is in large part responsible for the American Indian influences within the BSA.  However, he had significant personality and philosophical clashes with Beard and James E. West- especially West.

In 1931 he became a United States citizen. He died in Seton Village, New Mexico in 1946, aged 86 and was cremated in Albuquerque.  In 1960, in honor of his 100th birthday and the 350th anniversary of Santa Fe, his daughter Dee and his grandson Seton Cottier (son of Anya) scattered the ashes over Seton Village from a plane.

The Philmont Scout Ranch houses the Seton Memorial Library and Museum. Seton Castle in Santa Fe, built by Seton and his last residence, housed many other items from him. During renovation work on Seton Castle in 2005, it caught fire and burned down.  However, all the artwork, manuscripts, books, etc., had been removed to storage before the work.

Daniel Carter Beard

Beard was born in Cincinnati, Ohio into a family of artists. As a youth, he explored the woods and made sketches of nature.  He lived in Covington, Kentucky near the Licking River, where he learned the stories of Kentucky pioneer life.

He started an early career as an engineer and surveyor, and attended art school in New York City.  He wrote a series of articles for St. Nicholas magazine that later formed the basis for the American Boy's Handy Book. He was a member of the Student Art League, where he met and befriended Ernest Thompson Seton in 1883. He illustrated a number of books for Mark Twain, and for other authors such as Ernest Crosby.

Beard became the editor of Recreation magazine and wrote a monthly column for youth. He founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, basing it on American frontier traditions. He later moved his column to Women's Home Companion.  After conflicts with a new editor, he moved to the Pictorial Review. Since Women's Home Companion retained the rights to the name, he simply renamed the organization to Boy Pioneers of America.

He merged his organization into the Boy Scouts of America when it was founded in 1910 and became one of the first National Scout Commissioners of the Boy Scouts and served it for 30 years.  The work of both Beard and Ernest Thompson Seton are in large part the basis of the Traditional Scouting movement.

Prior to the establishment of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, Dan Beard was recipient of the first and only "gold Eagle badge" awarded at the Second National Training Conference of Scout Executives held in 1922 in Blue Ridge, North Carolina.

Beard died on June 11, 1941, at his home (named Brooklands) in Suffern, New York.  He was buried near his home at the Brick Church Cemetery in Spring Valley, New York.

The Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, which carries I-471 across the Ohio River, was named for him.  A life-size bronze statue of Daniel Carter Beard and Boy Scout, created by world-renowned sculptor Kenneth Bradford, stands in Covington, Kentucky near his boyhood home, now a National Historic Landmark.

At the Philmont Scout Ranch in the Northern Region, there is a staffed campsite named after him.  At that campsite scouts work on low impact camping and participate in team building activities.

William D. Boyce

Boyce was born June 16, 1858 in Plum Township, Pennsylvania. In the back-country days of his childhood, Boyce acquired a love for the outdoors and a tremendous work ethic.  He attended the Wooster Academy in Ohio in 1878, then went to Chicago to become a salesman, where he was quite successful.

As Boyce's enterprises grew, he insisted on the welfare of delivery boys, and had as many as 30,000 in his employment. Working with them may have helped him gain an understanding of America's youth.

By the early 20th century, Boyce was a multi-millionaire. He had traveled the world and lived his dream, but, at 51, Boyce grew weary of financial success and turned his attention to philanthropy. He turned to his childhood as a resource, but could not find the answer until a fateful stop to England while en route to what became a failed photographic expedition to Africa.

The Legend:  According to Scouting legend printed in Scouting literature, he was lost on a foggy street in London in 1909 when an unknown Scout came to his aid, guiding him back to his destination. The boy then refused Boyce's tip, explaining that he was merely doing his duty as a Boy Scout.  Soon thereafter, Boyce sought out and met with General Baden-Powell, who was the head of the Boy Scout Association.   Unfortunately, it's a bit of an exaggeration, even though it's been printed in official Scout literature for a number of years, including most editions of the official Handbook.

The Real Story:  Boyce stopped in London en route to a safari in British East Africa.  It is true that an unknown Scout helped him and refused a tip. But this Scout only helped him cross a street to a hotel, did not take him to the Scout headquarters, and Boyce never met Baden-Powell. Upon Boyce's request, the unknown Scout did give him the address of the Scout headquarters, where Boyce went on his own and picked up a copy of Scouting For Boys.

After personally incorporating the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910, Boyce began donating $1,000 a month out of his own pocket to keep the organization running (about $23,000 per month in equivalent 2008 dollars).  He wisely turned over the construction of the organization to Edgar M. Robinson, who proceeded to recruit the men who formed the permanent executive board and leadership.  So again, contrary to popular belief, Boyce did far more than simply introduce the program in the USA- he also bankrolled it to a substantial level, and recruited the needed talent.

In later years, after clashing with the beliefs of James West, Chief Scout Executive, regarding a program for boys who lived too far from town to join a troop, Boyce started a new Scouting-related venture: the Lone Scouts of America, which allowed geographically isolated boys to experience Scouting.  (Unfortunately, James West seemed to clash with all of Scouting's earliest leaders: Seton, Carter and Hillcourt as well as Boyce.  Many that knew West reported him as a "difficult" man to work with.  But that's a different story.)

Boyce was recognized with the Silver Buffalo Award for his efforts in starting the Boy Scouts of America, and died on June 11, 1929, shortly after his only son tragically died of an embolism. Boyce is buried in his sometime hometown of Ottawa, Illinois, in the Ottawa Avenue Cemetery.  A statue commemorating his contribution to the Boy Scouts of America stands near his grave.

In 2005, BSA introduced a new award, the William D. Boyce New Unit Organization Award, awarded to the leader of any new Cub Scout pack, Boy Scout Troop, Varsity Scout team, Venturing crew or Sea Scout ship that is formed after March 1, 2005.

Bill Hillcourt

William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt is considered by many Scouters to be the   Baden-Powell of American Scouting. He has had significant influence on the program of the BSA and the training Scouters receive through Wood Badge in this country.  His introduction Boy Scouting came in January 1911, at the age of 11, after his parents gave him B-P's newly translated Scouting For Boys as a Christmas gift. Bill went on to become the Danish equivalent of an Eagle Scout.

His Troop sent him to the first World Jamboree in London, in 1920, and a habit started that would move him into the international Scouting spotlight for the rest of his life.

Bill was the first Wood Badge Scoutmaster in the United States as well as the author of vast amounts of our earliest program helps.  The “Green Bars” you see today on Troop youth leadership insignia were invented by “Green Bar Bill”.  Like others, Hillcourt clashed occasionally with West, who forbade Hillcourt to follow many other Scouting precepts (the Patrol Method and Wood Badge are two good examples), but Hillcourt had, in addition to a strong love of the program, untapped reserves of patience and perseverance.

The love this man had for the program and the concern he felt for youth will be felt for generations to come.  Truly Bill Hillcourt left a legacy for others to follow.