Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Boy Scouts of America. Old Hickory Council Records #4688, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Kenneth W. Badgett in March 1994 (Acc. 94034), August 1996 (Acc. 96113), December 1996 (Acc. 96194), February 1997 (Acc. 97018), June 2001 (Acc. 98963), and August 2001 (Acc. 99045).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The additions of June 2001 (Acc.98963) and August 2001 (Acc. 99045) have been combined and arranged in the same way as, but have not been incorporated into, the original deposit of materials.

Finding aid updated for digital processing by Biff Hollingsworth and Laura Smith, July 2019.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American boys--Societies and clubs.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Winston-Salem.
• Boy Scouts of America--North Carolina--History.
• Boy Scouts of America. Old Hickory Council.
• Boy Scouts of America. Old Hickory Council. Committee on Integration.
• Boys--Societies and clubs.
• Camp Raven Knob (N.C.).
• Camps--North Carolina.
• Scouting--United States--History.
• Segregation--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Winston-Salem (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• World War, 1914-1918--War work--Boy Scouts.
• World War, 1939-1945--War work--Boy Scouts.

• Kenneth Woltz Badgett, Collector, Papers (#4692)

The Old Hickory Council of the Boy Scouts of America began in 1911 on the initiative of Ralph B. Tucker, who moved to Winston-Salem from Pennsylvania. He became assistant scoutmaster at a troop formed at his church, Fairview Moravian Church. R. R. Kinney was the scoutmaster. Troop 1 was joined by at least 16 other troops by 1918. A second-class council was formed to organize scout troops in 1917. The first-class council was organized in 1919 and a full-time Scout executive, Roy C. Flanagan, was hired. In 1922, the Winston-Salem Community Chest (later the United Way of Forsyth County) was organized and began to handle annual fund campaigns. In 1928, the council expanded its initial base of Winston-Salem and its suburbs by adding Ashe, Watauga, Alleghany, Wilkes, Surry, Yadkin, and Forsyth counties. By 1929, there were 40 troops with 649 scouts. The first black troops were organized at Wilkesboro and Winston-Salem and registered in January 1934. Cub Pack 10 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church became the Council's first cub scout pack on 31 December 1936.

In June 1938 came the chartering of a lodge of the Order of the Arrow, a national brotherhood of honor campers who pledge themselves to the service of others. It adopted the name Wahissa Lodge.

In 1941, it was decided that the Council should contain five fully organized districts and expand the professional and office staffs in order to serve the seven-county area. A new name, "Old Hickory," was suggested in honor of former president Andrew Jackson who once practiced law in the area. Stokes County joined the Council in 1942.

The Council changed its constitution and bylaws to become racially integrated in the mid-1960s. Camp Robert Vaughn was opened in 1963 for black youth agencies by the United Way of Forsyth County, and the Council had 101 camper weeks there as opposed to 1,263 at Raven Knob.

The Council's articles of incorporation and bylaws were revised in the early 1970s to allow women and youth on the executive board. In 1974, Forsyth's two white districts and one black district were consolidated into the Daniel Boone District.

A $2 million capital campaign for improvements and new construction at Camp Raven Knob met its goal in 1989. At the end of 1988, the council had 263 units with 8,222 youth.

In 1994, the Wautauga and New River Districts were consolidated as Wautauga and Ashe counties became the Blue Ridge District. A $3.2 million capital campaign was completed in 1996 and construction began on a Scouting Center as well as projects at Raven Knob.

The collection consists of records, beginning in 1912, of the Old Hickory Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Included are letters, meeting minutes, reports, financial materials, clippings, training materials, membership lists, photographs, newsletters, pamphlets, and other items. Documentation is uneven; for some years, there are many informative letters, reports, and other materials, while other years are represented by only a few relatively minor items. Some items relate to scouting activities during World War I and World War II; many items document the planning and operation of camping sites, especially, beginning in the 1950s, Camp Raven Knob, N.C. Also included are photocopies of two 1964 documents relating to integration of the Council's troops; a videotape version of a 1955 film about Camp Raven Knob; and two audiotaped interviews, 1976 and 1982, with scout leaders; two photographs of African-American scouts associated with Mount Zion Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., 1944-1950s; and a CD of photographs entitled "Wahissa and CRK Images Vol. 1, 1500+ Photos," 1970s-1990s.

Items separated include audiocassettes (C-4688), films (F-4688), oversize papers (OP-4688), photographs (P-4688), a videotape (VT-4688), a compact disc (DCD-4688), and digital foler (DF-0488/1).