Former resident writes history of Scout camps
A former Butler County resident has turned a hobby into a book touching on the history of the Boy Scouts of America in Butler County. It makes for timely reading, because 2023 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Butler County Council Boy Scouts of America the predecessor of the Moraine Trails Council.
“My hobby is writing histories of old Boy Scout Camps in Western Pennsylvania, ” said Neal Bronder. “I have written a book, ‘Forgotten Scout Camps of Western Pennsylvania,’ that covers the history of over 60 Boy Scout Camps that no longer exist.”
Bronder, who has lived in Columbus, Ohio, for the past 35 years, grew up in Butler and graduated from Butler High School and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
“I moved to Ohio for work in 1985 when all the steel mills closed,” he said. He worked as president of Renier Construction, a design-and-build general contractor, until his retirement two years ago.
Bronder was a Boy Scout when he lived in the county, as well as an Eagle Scout, a counselor for four years at Camp Bucoco and a Scoutmaster for 15 years, five in Pennsylvania and 10 in Ohio.
His three sons were in Scouting, one achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.
Brodner said he began researching the history of the Boy Scouts in the county.
“I have researched the beginnings of Scouting in Butler from 1910 to 1924. I have tried to straighten out the confusion over the first troops and Scoutmasters in Butler, along with when the property was purchased for Camp Bucoco,” he said.
His book, “Forgotten Scout Camps of Western Pennsylvania,” was self-published in 2021 and was the product of a lot of computer searches and visits to the microfiche files of libraries.
“With the newspaper stuff, you have to go to the library and use microfilms, which is really difficult. With microfilm, you have to go page by page, sit at a screen and run it by you hour after hour until you have motion sickness,” said Brodner.
Still, he said documentation was important because memories can become fuzzy and not always accurate.
Brodner’s research showed Scouting arrived in Butler County with the commissioning of J.G. Bingham and the Rev. George C. Miller as Scoutmasters in November 1910. Bingham was 958th Scoutmaster in America registered by the National Boy Scout headquarters and Miller was the 959th.
Bingham taught Latin and Geometry at Butler High School. He coached the high school baseball team. The professor was the Scoutmaster of the first troop organized in the Borough of Butler, Troop One, sponsored by the Grace Lutheran and German Lutheran churches of Butler.
Miller was called to be pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church on the Diamond in Butler in 1907, his first assignment out of the seminary. He organized the second troop in the city. Miller was Scoutmaster of Troop Two, sponsored by the Second Presbyterian Church.
The Butler Scouts drilled and marched in parades. They formed basketball and baseball teams to compete against other community teams. They decorated veteran graves for Memorial Day and acted as guides to visitors from out of town arriving at the Center Avenue train station.
Ray Tennent, Scout executive and CEO of the Moraine Trails Council, said the group would recognize the centennial of the founding of its predecessor in the fall.
“We’re going to do an event at our fall camporee at Camp Bucoco the weekend of Oct. 21,” said Tennent.
Camp Bucoco is the subject of his next book, said Bronder. “It was founded in 1924. My goal is to have it ready for next year.”
“The heyday of Scouting was in the ’60s and ’50s. They’ve gone through a rough time with COVID and the bankruptcy thing. They are just coming out of it. They’re getting all that behind them, and they should pick up from there,” he said.
Anyone seeking a copy of his book should email him at nealbronder@yahoo.com.
