Osceola District History
In 1922 the BSA National Council chartered the First Florida Council #61 (precursor of North Florida Council), Knights of Columbus of St. Augustine Florida to begin the BSA program. As it is stated on the Charter, this program was to teach Character Building, Citizenship Training, and Americanization to our area youth. The first Charter was for the year ending February 1923. The National Council signed and sealed this Charter on March 4, 1922.
No Troop number was officially stated, but it is believed that the first Troop was 3 (now Troop 63). The Charter from 1929 indicates Troop 3 was sponsered by the Knights of Columbus of Catholic Cathedral Parish. The Troop has been fortunate to have the same Chartered Representitive throughout the years. The organization has played a major role in support and guidance for their youth.
The first Chartered leaders from 1922; Jerome A. Collins, F.H. Rogers, Purvis M. Masters, C.J. Colee, A.J. Pellicer, Xavier L. Pellicer, and William M. Thompson, Jr., had the foresight and dedication to believe in the beneficial impact scouting can make in our youth and to see that vision forward.
To be continued ............
The rest of the story of St. Augustine Scouting shall be an on going project, as it has only begun this year. Local Scouters are urged to make available any information on their unit. It will be added to this page and their unit will be honored and remembered. The author wishes to personally thank Bob Webb for his maintaining a record of Osceola District history. Rarely does this much material accumulate before something "happens" to it. Bob's wife, Jean, should get an award for co-supporting this effort to preserve the Scouting history in St. Augustine.
Bob's collection of scrapbooks and memoribilia represents an awesome historical representation of local Scouting. He has been kind enough to share some of these slices of history. Some of the scrapbook pages have been scanned into an archive for the readers to enjoy. These links below, contains a small amount of the scanned material for viewing. Images shall be added in future updates.