Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you out there from all of us here at VirtualBoxwell! Have a wonderful and safe holiday!
And, in what will now be an official holiday tradition, we give you this photo of DE Bob Groth (Camp Director at Parnell in 1980) sitting on the lap of Tom Willhite (Santa; Reservation Director, 1976-1994).
See you all again in 2019.
Tom Willhite as Santa Claus as a Council Christmas party; 1980 Parnell Camp Director Bob Groth “on his lap”
The Boxwell Family
As we wrap up the year 2018 and continue to work on our centennial history for 2021, one of the questions we keep coming back to is this: what makes Boxwell so special? Obviously, the physical place is part of the specialness. Staff and Scouts alike each have memories of a location at camp that sticks out in their minds. There might be an activity as well. You remember a friend getting pulled up in a tree or maybe a song. If you’re a staff member, there are a dozen stories you remember, stories of crazy and awesome things that happened.
In all of our interviews, one theme often comes up–and it is especially strong amongst those who have been staff members. Boxwell is a place and it is the home of stories, but it is the place where incredible friendships are made. Friendships that last a lifetime; friendships that are so strong that for many a second family is formed there.
There really isn’t as good way to capture this “Boxwell as family” feeling, but it happens. We saw it here at Camp Murrey back in July 2016 and again in February 2017, but this week, we can also see it in the photo here. These men all worked on Camp Parnell staff in 1965. When camp ended, they all took a trip together to the High Adventure base in Ely, Minnesota, staying at lodges, camps, and bases set up by Foxy Johnson, and provided transportation by the Council. That group got together and went back to Ely after the 2014 Staff reunion.
This photo is from this summer, 2018, at Latimer Reservation. Friends for over half a century. That is a legacy to be proud of.
Top row L to R: John Roe, Mike Rice, Congressman Phil Roe, Bob Fyke, Judge John Bryant, Dr. Pat Bray
Bottom row L to R: Wes Frye, Greg Tucker, Skip Dow, Jerome Terrell
Boxwell Greats: Leslie G. Boxwell
If you’ve been to Stahlman Dining Hall, you’ll likely have noticed a pen and ink drawing on the wall. If you took a few minutes, you may even have read the text and learned a few things about Boxwell Reservation’s namesake: Leslie G. Boxwell. You may even have noticed that the verbs in the drawing are present tense, making this drawing almost 100 years old! Here is the complete text if you haven’t read it before.
“Leslie G. Boxwell, Treasurer of Tenn. Metal Culvert Co., was born in Ohio, but has been in Nashville for about thirty years. He studied engineering at Ohio State, and his first job was with the St. Louis World’s Fair. Because Nashville offered the best business opportunity, he chose to live here, and he hasn’t changed his mind on the subject. Since 1921, Mr. Boxwell has been president of Nashville Boy Scouts of America. Their camp at Linton is named for him. Mr. Boxwell is a Rotarian and an active civic worker.”
“‘Box’ enjoys hunting, fishing, and golf, but their aint nothin’ with quite the appeal of hunting!”
Most of this is true, but there’s more to the story of this man. We don’t have ALL of the details, but we think we can help create a more fleshed out character…
Born in 1881, Boxwell was not even 25 years old when he worked at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (google it; it’s pretty amazing itself!). He moved to Nashville in 1908, and by 1911, at a mere thirty years old, Boxwell was president of the newly incorporated Sanapan Company, a distributer of Sanapan, an odorless disinfectant. However, roads and the automobile boom were his passion (Ford’s Model T arrived in 1908). By 1913, the young man was part of the Tennessee Good Roads Association and by 1914 “Box” was the Secretary of the Tennessee Branch of the National Highway Association. Opportunities abounded from here. Boxwell became a member of the Nashville Auto club, manager of Duplex Truck Sales Company, and manager of the Tennessee Metal Culvert Company. Boxwell was part of the group of auto enthusiasts in the state who argued that new highway projects were passing up Tennessee because of its poor business organizations and poor existing roads. To help facilitate this goal, Boxwell helped form the Nashville Board of Trade, the predecessor to the Chamber of Commerce. Boxwell was a player in Nashville’s road building boom of the 1920s and by 1935, his Tennessee Metal Culvert Company, was handling large contracts from newly formed Tennessee Valley Authority.
Scouting was L. G. Boxwell’s other passion. A member of the Rotary Club that formed the Nashville Council in 1920, he served as chair of the Council’s camping committee. One of his first jobs? Finding a location for a council summer camp. So pleased was the council executive board with Boxwell’s work here, they decided the new camp should be named for him. That named has stuck ever since.
Boxwell went on to serve as the Council’s elected President from 1927 to 1947 (the one place the drawing is incorrect), dedicating a large portion of his time and resources to the movement. And he cared about his namesake. While his day job was general manager and treasurer of the Tennessee Metal Culvert Company, he always made time for Camp Boxwell. On Monday mornings, when Scouts gathered at the terminus of the Belle Meade rail line to go to camp, it was often Boxwell himself who drove the truck from Nashville out to the Linton camp and later the Narrows. If he didn’t drive Scouts out himself, it was often his truck that was used. Boxwell and his company often helped get camp ready to go before the camping season began. It was also not uncommon for Boxwell (and sometimes his wife Jeanette) to come out to camp for dinner. Imagine having dinner with the camp’s namesake!
The greatest testimony to Boxwell’s dedication came from Council Executive William Anderson himself, as he reflected over his tenure in Scouting. “On one occasion of a distant yesteryear,” Anderson wrote in his January 11, 1948 Nashville Tennessean column, “when Boxwell’s business was facing the rocks and darkness lay only two months ahead, his means and service to Scouting did not falter. Possessed of a modesty that is a stranger to me, his contributions to the boyhood of Middle Tennessee are known to the Creator.” In short, faced with imminent business failure, likely in 1930, Boxwell never waivered in his support of Scouting.
Boxwell’s wife of 36 years died in May 1947; he retired as Council president by the end of the year. It is unclear if the two are directly related, but it seems likely. Over the next few years, Boxwell spent his time away from Nashville, down at his other adopted home, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. About 1950, Boxwell contracted a chronic illness, though we don’t know what exactly that was. He was almost 70 by this point, so age was undoubtedly a factor. Still, Boxwell lived to see his namesake move to Walling for the Rock Island camp, and then back closer to his Belle Meade home with the current Old Hickory Boxwell. We don’t know if he ever toured the current camp. He died in September 1960, leaving a legacy that has literally benefited tens of thousands over nearly 100 years.
Leslie G. Boxwell’s Council President Portrait from the Council Office
The Swinging Bridge
The Narrows of the Harpeth Boxwell (1930-1948) had several neat attractions. In addition to the Narrows themselves, which made for a great lazy canoe trip, there was the Montgomery Bell tunnel, a Native American Mound builder site, and at least one local cave. It’s hard to understand why the Council ever let the property go, though now everyone can enjoy the area as a state park.
One of the less permanent attractions was a Swinging Bridge. The bridge was made of wire and wood and crossed the entire width of the Harpeth River. Indeed, the bridge was often a test of bravery among the Scouts: who would cross the river using the swinging bridge. And you can take our word on good authority: that bridge swang!
Pictured here is the Swinging Bridge at the Narrows of the Harpeth, complete with two boys crossing the river. The photo is a little fuzzy, but you can just imagine what an experience this must have been. The bridge is long gone now, but perhaps we could consider this an early version of COPE!
The Swinging Bridge at the Narrows of the Harpeth Boxwell. Date unknown, mostly likely post-1940.
Operation Long Rifle
Have you ever heard of “Operation Long Rifle”? The name sounds like either a covert Special Ops mission or a special committee to create the Long Rifle Award. It’s neither. Operation Long Rifle was a practice Woodbadge held at Rock Island.
If you’ve read Wilbur F. Creighton, Jr.’s _Boys Will Be Men_, you’ve read over the quick one paragraph history of Woodbadge. In short, in 1950 Ward Akers and Troop 1 Scoutmaster Billy Jim Vaughn were the first in the Council to get their beads and decided to bring the program to Middle Tennessee. A National Course was held at Rock Island in 1951 and Beany Elam ran another National Course in 1952. The first Middle Tennessee courses (MT-1 and so on) were held shortly thereafter (Creighton, 142).
But that’s only part of the story. Before the National course was held at Rock Island in 1952, a group of 29 Explorers spent a week in early June going through what was essentially a dry run of the program. Headed by Gene Tolley and patterned after Woodbadge, the program worked primarily as a Junior Leader Training course (an early Brownsea), but served as a practice for the Woodbadge course later that summer. And as an added benefit, 14 of the 29 attendees were getting training for summer camp staff.
Pictured here a photo of Operation Long Rifle from the collection of John Parish, Sr. Parish was not only a Rock Island staff member, but a participant in this program. Interesting side note: His father was Charles E. Parish, who would soon serve as Council President, and for whom the Rock Island property was later renamed.
A scene from Operation Long Rifle in 1952