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Written by Larry Peck
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Saturday, 24 May 2008 |
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More troop history from our current Scoutmaster, Don Milligan: This PDF file goes along with his discussion: *** HERE ***
A little additional history about some of the people from my memory.
Ed Brown lived on Andover Street not far from South School. He wrote for the Andover Townsman and Lawrence Tribune and was paid by the inch. So, the more he wrote, the more he earned. He covered Ballard Vale and was very knowledgeable about the history of the area. His column appeared in the paper on a regular basis.
The community building was located on Andover Street. That land is part of the Ballard Vale green. The top floor had an auditorium type room with moveable chairs, the next level down had the precinct room where Ballard Vale residents went to vote and the library, the lower level faced on Andover Street and was occupied by a couple of stores.
John Reading lived on Andover Street next to the fire station. His son was killed in WW II.
Arnold Schofield was the troop's first Eagle Scout in 1943. He lived on Tewksbury Street and went on to become a professional scouter.
P. W. Moody was a local industrialist and had a business is one of the mills in Ballard Vale center.
The "engine house" and the "fire house" are the same structure. We met on the top floor. The troop met there when I joined late in 1949. Mr. Butler took over as scoutmaster shortly after I started. The firemen complained about the noise - they had one of the early television sets - and the troop moved their meetings to the precinct room in the Community Building.
I believe Harry Batchelder's son was the troop's fourth Eagle Scout.
Ballard Vale had two Protestant churches, the Methodist and the Congregational. The area could barely support them both so they merged to form the United Church. The parishioners met in the Congregational church located on Church Street until the new building was constructed on Clark Road. When the churches merged, the name of our "Chartering Organization" changed. Thus, the troop had to be rechartered and our date starts from then.
We are considered to be 50 years old this year in spite of the fact that the original organization is much older.
Don |
