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concordia-memories.org Recalling Concordia's Past
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roger.pape Site Admin
Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 414 Location: Liverpool, NY
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:19 pm Post subject: Boy Scout Troop 258 |
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For some of us, the Boy Scouts were a big part of growing up in Concordia. I’m not sure when the Lions Club began sponsoring Troop 258, but my brother Don and his friends were members of the troop in the early to mid-1940s. Nups Schnakenberg was Scoutmaster at that time.
The next Scoutmaster was Chet Gibson, who most will remember for the turkey hatchery that he operated in Concordia. His Assistant Scout Leader was Nelson Powell. son of Lawrence Powell, the longtime MoPac depot agent. They headed the troop when I joined.
Next came Floyd Schoene, who worked at the Concordian at that time, along with Lee Wehrs as assistant. They can be seen in the faded photo below together with the members of Troop 258 and most of the Lions Club Scout Committee. We were gathered in front of the Scout cabin shortly after it was built. We held our weekly meetings in that cabin and it was a place to assemble for other activities. Note. I know the names of most of the people in this photo, but I will leave it up to the readers to see how many they can identify.
As Scouts, we were involved in various public service activities, most notably the scrap drives long before recycling became popular. They started in WWII but continued long after with regular paper drives every few months.
During the waste paper drives, some of us went from house to house around Concordia, brought out the old papers from the basement or wherever they were stored, tied them up in bundles, and put them on the sidewalk to be picked up later that day. We would then go around town loading the bundles into Nups Schnakenberg or Alvin Bokelman’s truck to be shipped to KC for recycling. There, pulp from the paper was used to make such things as egg crate separators, some of which probably wound up back at Concordia Produce. The big reward for us boys was finding some comic books in the discards. We would read these in the weeks that followed and put them back in the next paper drive for someone else to find.
There were plenty of activities for us to fulfill the requirements for our next rank and to earn various merit badges. The highlight of summer was camp at Osceola. We would pile into Henry Kammeyer’s stretched DeSoto (that he had for his large family) and head south to the Ozarks. We loaded our belongings in homemade wood foot lockers on the roof of his DeSoto and, when we got there, filled straw ticks for the cots in our platform tents to set up home for the next two weeks. Camp Osceola was an interesting place, filled with caves like much of Southern Missouri, some of which we could explore. One of the best known was Cannonball Cave in the side of a cliff along the river that ran along the edge of the camp. The wildlife consisted mostly of copperhead snakes, tarantulas and scorpions. One of the memorable parts of life at camp was portly H. Roe Bartels leading songs in dining hall. Finally, after a fun-filled two weeks of swimming, hiking and various crafts, we would head home.
Starting in the 1940s, the cabin and land known as the Boy Scout property became the regular meeting place for Troup 258. In another posting, I noted how my father had purchased what he thought was the entire block between Main and Gordon St., South and 13th St. When he bought the property from John E. Cassing in 1942, the block was vacant except for a small dilapidated barn across South St. from Clem Duensing’s house. Dad felt that the land should remain undeveloped and hoped that it would be an extension to Southside Park. He would say that Concordia had plenty room to grow on the outskirts and it would be good to keep some green area in the middle of town. However, someone else claimed ownership to the lot at the south end of the property, along 13th Street. That lot was later sold to druggist Norm Benteman where he built his home, breaking up the continuity to the Park.
In 1945, Dad decided to donate the land to the Boy Scout troop for their use, but with reversionary rights to our family in case the troop disbanded or tried to sell the property. He wanted the troop to keep the property in a “forever green” condition as added park property for the city and felt that the Scouts were the appropriate group to maintain it. (Actually, while I was a member of the troop, my uncle John Runge would bring his tractor and mower to cut the weeds and I would clear the ditches with a scythe.) I understand that in later years Raymond Frerking kept the land in great shape for many years.
Over time, there were various attempts by the Scout committee to sell the property for other purposes (and raise additional funds) that Dad opposed as long as he lived. However, he did concede in letting Bob Kroencke purchase the northwest corner lot to build a home. After Dad’s death, more ideas for use of the land were floated, such as for a Katherine Kuhlman memorial or as a possible site for building a new senior citizens center. Our family did not consider any of those plans viable or suitable for that location. Finally, at the end of 2008, the Pape family gifted its reversionary interest in the property to the City of Concordia. We hope that they will continue to honor our Dad’s wishes.
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roger.pape Site Admin
Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 414 Location: Liverpool, NY
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:33 pm Post subject: Early Scout Photo |
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The photo below is the earliest that I am aware of for Troop 258 (1944?). According to John S., they were meeting in the old Lohoefner building on Main St. at that time. Does anyone know of something earlier?
The following are the names of everyone in the photo listed in alphabetical order:
Brice Bailey Jr., Carl Bergmann, Jim Borgelt, Stanford Brackman, Tyrus Frerking, Raymond Hartwig, Bill Henry, Phil Henry, Glen Kammeyer, John Kammeyer, Russell Meyer, Paul Mueller, Don Pape, Marvin Rehkop, Gene Rohman, John Schnakenberg, Norbert Schnakenberg, Milton Von Holten, Earl Wille, and Dean Wren.
I'll leave it to you to associate the names with those smiling faces.
Happy 100th birthday to the Boy Scouts of America.
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