On Monday evening, March 12, 2012 the late Janet Dempsey saw a large gathering at Rings Pond and casually wondered what was happening. By the time she finished her volunteer work at the library, the crowd was gone.
Later, when she saw a current edition of the Local she understood what she had seen. It was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scout organization by Cornwall’s 16 troops. A brief program was held, consisting of Scout songs, the Scout promise and ending with Taps.
As a former Scout leader many years ago, Ms. Dempsey had memories both of the troop meetings and the special events she had organized. “We celebrated Girl Scout week in March to mark the founding of the organization in the United States in March 12, 1912. The founder was Juliette Low of Savannah, Ga. who followed “the pattern set up for Girl Guides [which was] the sister organization of the Boy Scouts of Great Britain.”
“Since her involvement in Scouting took place some 40 years after the founding, Ms. Dempsey turned to the old Locals to learn about the history of Scouting in Cornwall. The first mention she found was a troop meeting in 1918 at the school on Willow Avenue; possibly the troop which climbed Storm King Mountain in the fall of 1919 with their leader, Miss Elsie Couser, a teacher at the school.
“Later on that fall there was a bake sale, the forerunner of a drive for funds being conducted at the bank, post office and drugstore, probably in Canterbury. In 1920 Troop 2 under the leadership of Miss Ethel Anderson (later Mrs. Gustafson) performed a play at Red Men’s Hall. Later on a dance held in the pavilion behind the Old Homestead earned the scouts $92.00, and during the summer 30 girls spent a few days at the Sutherland’s camp (possibly in the Catskills). Their daughter must have been a member of the troop. At one point Mrs. Sutherland volunteered to help Scouts working on their cooking badge. Other scout activities were a hike to Mineral Spring and a trip to Poughkeepsie aboard a Hudson River day-liner.
By 1921 there were several active troops. That year the organization obtained a 99-year lease on a parcel of the Old Homestead property where they planned to erect a cabin, 20×30 feet. During the summer $400.00 was raised for the project. Some of the money came from Walter Dayton, the town garbage collector, who volunteered to save newspapers and magazines for one of the troops.
