Scouting America, Scouts BSA, Troop 63 History

Photo from the Williamston Depot Museum's public ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the Troop's 100+ years of service to the Williamston area on Monday March 30, 2026. (L to R) museum board member and former Troop 63 Eagle Scout Rick Shuck, museum president Mitch Lutzke, former Troop 63 Eagle Scout Andrew Belanger, current Troop Senior Patrol Leader Joel Batora, and current Troop 63 Scout Master Corey Krystyniak.

 

Early Scouting in the U.S.

The Boy Scouts of America were incorporated in February 1910 by William D. Boyce
in the District of Columbia and copied from a similar program in Great Britain. Later that
summer, a YMCA office in New York City became the temporary national headquarters of
this new organization. President William Howard Taft, in 1910, accepted the role of
honorary Boy Scout president. With their headquarters in New York, former President
Theodore Roosevelt, a New York native and a world famous outdoorsmen, was gifted the
groups’ title of honorary Boy Scout Vice President and Chief Scout-Citizen. The Boy Scouts
organizers elected as their managing president Colin Livingstone.

 

Williamston Boy Scouts - 1918
The local organization has only scant details remaining about its founding one
hundred years ago. A news article in the Lansing State Journal of May 13, 1918, states,
“Some Boy Scouts of Mt. Morris gave an exhibition here Friday night (May 10) under the
management of Reverend O. M. Thrasher, formerly of this place. It is understood that the
Williamston boys will organize a company of scouts.” Olin M. Thrasher had served terms at
both the Williamston and Webberville Baptist Churches as their pastor over the previous 15
years, so he was well known in the area. However, there was no follow-up newspaper
coverage as to the direct outcome of this meeting in Williamston.

 

The following month, in June of 1918, Judge Howard Wiest, the occupant of the
Shagbark Estate on Rowley Road, east of town held a “flag service.” Approximately four to
five thousand residents from mid-Michigan were to attend the ceremony, hosted by the
Elks service organization. Wiest was a long-time booster and supporter of the Boy Scouts
(among other patriotic groups) and there was no mention of local Boy Scouts participating
in this service. This allows one to infer the previous month’s meeting with Reverend
Thrasher was too soon to coordinate an operational Boy Scout troop in Williamston.

 

Williamston Boy Scouts - 1919
The following year is the first time we have been able to locate mention of the
Williamston Boy Scouts. The Lansing State Journal noted the town’s Memorial Day program
for 1919. The event on Friday, May 30th started at 9:30 a.m. at the Civil War Statue, near city
hall. It specifically noted that “Mrs. Rose L. Dana, president of the W.R. C. (Women’s Relief
Corps-a Civil War veteran’s women’s aid group), presented the Boy Scouts with a flag. They
then proceeded to the cemetery (Summit) where the schoolgirls acted as flower girls and
decorated the soldier’s graves, after which they returned to the bridge and strewed flowers

upon the water for the dead sailors.” The day’s events ended in mid-afternoon with a
program at the Baptist Church with an invocation, speeches, and songs.

 

Williamston Boy Scouts - 1920
For the second year in a row, the Williamston Boy Scout Troop was a prominent
participant in the local Memorial Day observation. In another Lansing State Journal news
article, the plan for Williamston’s Memorial was outlined a few days before the event. The
Sunday, May 30, 1920, event was to form in front of the G.A.R. Hall (Grand Army of the
Republic-a Civil War men’s service organization for the Union; likely on South Putnam
Street) for their march to Summit Cemetery. The article said, “The G.A. R., American
Legion, W.R.C.(Women’s Relief Corps), Boy Scouts, village president and village trustees
will form a line in front of the G.A.R. Hall and will proceed to the cemetery. The Boy Scouts
and Flower Girls will decorate the graves, after which the following program will be carried
out…” which again included the standard patriotic speeches and songs for the solemn
occasion. The final line of the Lansing’s paper’s story noted, “There will also be an
exhibition drill by the Boy Scouts.”

 

Williamston Boy Scouts - 1930s
The Lansing State Journal during this decade often printed long columns about mid-
Michigan Boy and Girl Scout activities. In 1930, Judge Wiest opened his Shagbark estate
grounds in mid-June, to host “a large group of Boy Scout and Girls Scout leaders,” where
they and their spouses were to plan the “summer program.”
The following year in 1931 is the first use of Troop 63 that could be located in the
Lansing State Journal. Local lore is that Troop 63 began in 1926, which is supported by a
news blurb in the “Scouting” Column in the State Journal. “Thursday, February 12, 6:30 p.
m.—high school. Williamston Troop No. 63 will hold its fifth anniversary week birthday
party, beginning with dinner at 6:30 p.m., C.(Clyde) W. Overholt, Scoutmaster, in charge.”
While this news article appears to confirm that Troop 63 was originally charted in 1926-
which would be five years earlier, as mentioned in the celebration-it leaves a historical gap.
What was the local Williamston troop number from when they were likely organized in late
1918 to mid-1919? Were Boy Scout troop numbers adopted at a later date under a
reorganization, or did the original Williamston group disband, only to reform in 1926 with
new scout leaders in town.

 

In December of 1931, the Lansing paper noted a Troop 63 of Williamston hike with
eighteen scouts and leaders “along an old, almost obscured Indian Trail.” John Dexter was
the scoutmaster at this time in town.

 

Williamston Boy scouts - 1940
The same Lansing newspaper “Scouting” column again noted news about Troop 63
in the fall of 1940. In mid-October, “Troop 63 of Williamston has recruited two new leaders-
Fred Cole and Dale Gorsline.” Two weeks later the same column mentioned that Troop 63,
“under the leadership of Fred Cole, is making plans for improving their meeting place.
Seven recruits and 15 Scouts attended last Tuesday’s meeting at ‘Crossman House-’(which
was an older brick mansion on the west side of South Putnam Street and torn down in the
mid-1960s; where Volunteer’s Park is located adjacent to the railroad tracks)

 

Area Scouting Origins
When Williamston’s Boy Scouts formed there were several area communities that
had already formed their own troops. Obviously, Mt. Morris had a strong troop, as the
Reverand in 1918 brought them to town to speak to our perspective organizers about this
boys’ group.

 

It appears that Perry and Laingsburg were ahead of Williamston with Boy Scout
Troops at this time, too. In nearby Webberville, little evidence has been located. However,
in the summer of 1919, the Webberville column in the Lansing State Journal noted there
“the Boy Scouts will go to Patterson Lake this week. Scout Master Smith will accompany
the boys.”

 

Locally, the Boy Scouts became so popular that two additional troops were
organized. One was chartered as Troop 163 and was also based in Williamston during the
1970s and into the 1980s. To the west of town, Troop 110 was organized in the early 1970s
and later became sponsored by St. Katherine’s Episcopal Church to serve boys from that
part of Williamstown and the adjacent Meridian Townships. Unfortunately, both local
troops have long since disbanded.

 

In 2019, the National Boy Scout Association began accepting females as full-time
members, making many troops co-ed. It also changed its official name to “Scouts BSA.”
Williamston has followed this national policy and has both boys and girls as full
participating members in local Troop 63 in March 2026.

 

*Clarifying notes within parentheses were added by the author of this piece.