By James R. Tolson
C-H newswriter
MACON - Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, words which mean very little in a world that champions backstabbing, avarice and “looking out for number one”. It is a breath of fresh air to know these words still mean something and are practiced in the largest youth organization in the United States— the Boy Scouts of America.
Boy Scout Troop 81 of Macon observes its 75 years of existence this year. August of 1933 was when it all began. W. L. King, a press foreman at the Macon Chronicle-Herald, started Troop 81 and became its first scoutmaster. The troop originally met at Camp Winnetka near Moberly. In 1935, the troop began building a basement for the Macon United Methodist Church using only shovels and a wheelbarrow. The building was completed in 1936. They still use it today for meetings.
Speaking of 1936, this was the year that twin brothers, 12-year-olds Harry and Hubert Moehle, joined Troop 81. Harry said a young man by the name of Bill Griffith, a paperboy for the Chronicle-Herald, was the one who got him interested in scouting. Griffith was an amazing individual, Moehle continued to say. He was the songleader for Troop 81 and could make up songs on the spot and put music to them with his guitar.
In 1939, the Moehle Twins were the first Eagle Scouts to earn that position at the same time.
In August 1946, King retired from scoutmaster and became troop representative. Harry Moehle became scoutmaster with Hubert as assistant scoutmaster. During Moehle’s term as scoutmaster, he received several awards and held prestigious positions in scouting:
•1950 - Elected into the Order of the Arrow
•1951 - Received the Scouter’s Key
•1957- Received the Silver Beaver Award ( the highest honor given to an adult leader).
Nine boys earned the rank of Eagle Scout under Moehle’s watch. To finance Troop 81’s camping trips, the boys held chili and spaghetti suppers and sold Christmas wreaths.
After Moehle retired as scoutmaster in 1968, some of the others that followed were Fred Brandeberry, Sr., Darrell Wheeler with Nick Badgerow and Roger Kohl as assistants and Reverend Robert A. Morrison, a pastor of Macon United Methodist Church.
Today, Scout Leaders Joe Laughlin, Louis Fiquet III, Mark Thomas, Jim McDowell, Layne Thrasher, Niel Heckman and Chase Johnson are tasked with shaping boys of Troop 81 into men.
Moehle was asked how scouting has changed since he was a boy? He said as times change, of course, uniforms change, fund-raisers change, even ways of camping change, but the thing about scouting that hasn’t changed is its principles which can be found in the Scout Law— they are timeless. Moehle continued to say people who ridicule scouts for what they stand for and believe don’t get it. Scouting not only helps boys become men, it shapes them into better people, a caring people, a sharing people— and isn’t that what we want in this world? Amen, Harry, amen.
