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Also, that month, downtown merchant Charles S. Miller, who had a drugstore and adjacent bookstore at 314-316 Main St., offered the space over his drugstore as a meeting place for the scouts, who had previously met at the church.

On Aug. 25, they had their first meeting in the new quarters, with 25 prospective scouts in attendance. George Gardner, of the funeral home Dexter Gardner & Son at 505 Main St., donated chairs to the scouts, and the young men walked down to collect them and carried them back to their new home. A sign painter donated a sign to give the location of the meeting place. Later, the local post of the American Legion contributed an American flag.

On Friday, Sept. 1, the 12 boys who had qualified, out of 32 applications, were sworn in as Tenderfoot Boy Scouts, with more to follow. All were between the ages of 12 and 18. Five more boys took the oath on Sept. 16. All worked to abide by the Boy Scout motto “Do a Good Turn Daily.”

Vincennes Lincoln Coach John Adams and Howard L. Brewer were assistant scoutmasters.

Later in September, the scouts undertook their first fund-raiser. On Sept. 23, Indiana Bell Telephone Company issued new phone books and offered to pay the scouts a penny for each old phone book collected. The city was divided into 13 districts, with two scouts assigned to each district, with special prizes offered to the three scouts who collected the most books.

The scouts were required to purchase their own uniform and equipment with money they earned. The uniform was comprised of breeches, shirt, hat, leg covering, and neckerchief. The local troop opted to wear woolen stockings, rather than the scout leggings.

From that modest start in the summer of 1922, the Boy Scout movement in Vincennes quickly grew. By the end of April 1923, the city had six Boy Scout troops, although all had not yet been chartered. Some were sponsored by local churches. One was sponsored by the YMCA. Scout troops were also formed in other Knox County communities.

At the end of March 1923, the wholesale grocers E. Bierhaus & Sons, whose big warehouse stood at First and Church Streets, offered the Boy Scouts use of their property on the west side of First Street, between Church and Barnett streets, next to the Fort Sackville marker, as the site for a scout cabin. Not only would this give the scouts a place to meet and have campfires, but it would help beautify the area around old Fort Sackville.

John Brevoort, the largest landowner in the county, gave the timber for construction of the cabin. Many local organizations, businesses, and individuals donated both material and labor to make the structure a reality. For instance, windows and doors were donated by local lumber companies. The finished cabin, complete with stone fireplace, was dedicated on Oct. 26, 1923, with from 400 to 500 people in attendance for the ceremony. The dedication was followed by an outdoor campfire program.

The cabin would stand on that site, until, beginning in 1929, the grounds were cleared for construction of the George Rogers Clark Memorial.

Brian Spangle can be reached at brianrspangle60@outlook.com. His latest book, “Hidden History of Vincennes & Knox County,” published in 2020 by The History Press, is available for purchase at the Knox County Public Library and on Amazon.