2007-2008 Troop 1 Calendar of Events, 2005-2006
We are deeply grateful to the First Congregational Church of East Hartford for its continuous sponsorship since our founding on October 14, 1910. According to BSA National's records, Troop 1 is the oldest remaining BSA Troop in Connecticut and the nation that has been sponsored continuously by the same organization since 1910; so that's pretty cool! Today, Troop 1 is a member of the Hockanum River District in the Connecticut Rivers Council. We recognize there are a handful of troops still in operation around the U.S. that were founded in 1910, and we are proud to be among this historic group of troops that kept it together all these years. A hearty thank you goes out to all the adult volunteers that have made and continue to make Scouting a high priority in their lives and have selflessly served the needs of hundreds of children that have been and are members of Troop 1 of East Hartford.
In the book, "The First Twenty Five Years of Troop 1 in East Hartford, Connecticut (1910 to 1935)," author Albert R. Crocker reported that John L. Alexander, Managing Secretary for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), spoke at the Congregational Church in New Britain in the fall of 1910. Reverend Prentiss of the Congregational Church of East Hartford was in attendance and later worked with Mr. Ralph Fitch back in East Hartford to organize a Boy Scout Troop. On October 14, 1910, National Headquarters of BSA issued certificate number 447 to Reverend William Carlos Prentiss as "Scoutmaster of the Second Troop of the City of East Hartford." A. Crocker's research revealed that "certificates 1 to 100 were reserved for Scout Commissioners; also twenty-three (23) of the 447 numbers were not issued. Thus the East Hartford troop was the 324th troop in the United States and the fifth (5th) in Connecticut." By the time the 25-year history was written, our East Hartford troop was the only surviving troop from the first five, so we became the "oldest in Connecticut." In 1906, for our 50th Anniversary celebration, BSA National sent a telegraph that stated we had become the oldest continuously registered troop in the nation. Wow, that was an amazing a distinction!
A Crocker went on to write that the first troop in Connecticut was organized about a month earlier in Hartford by Dr. Snyder of the Hartford YMCA. "It did not exist for a great while for Dr Snyder, in 1913, asked that the No. 1 be granted to our Troop, inasmuch as the other troop had lapsed." There is much more troop history in Albert Crocker's book on the first 25 years, which we’ve made available (free) in Adobe PDF at the link below.