History of Thanksgiving

     Our national holiday of Thanksgiving is linked to a thanksgiving feast held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in October of 1621. The three day event was attended by ninety members of the Wampanoag tribe and fifty English settlers.  Celebrations to rejoice a good harvest have been practiced through the ages. There are records of annual feasts celebrating bountiful harvests going back to the ancient Greeks and Hebrews. A few other American communities claim to have had the first Thanksgiving. St. Augustine, Florida maintains that a Roman Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving and communal meal with the native Seloy tribe in 1565, was the first Thanksgiving. Virginia states that a ceremony of thanks was recorded by its European settlers in 1619, two years before the pilgrims had theirs in Massachusetts.
     James W. Baker, the Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation, debunks several of the myths of the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts. The settlers’ first Thanksgiving meal consisted of mainly meat such as venison and wild fowl. Most vegetables were not available in autumn other than cooked, mashed pumpkin or corn. No desserts were prepared as there was little sugar. The food was piled directly on the table or ground as soon as it was cooked. The settlers ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers.  They did not typically wear black, preferring earth colors and buckles were not available.
     New Englanders continued the tradition of the Plymouth Thanksgiving but most Pennsylvanians preferred their Harvest Home festival. Pennsylvania Governor Simon Snyder, in 1817, was the first to recognize Thanksgiving as an official holiday on the third Thursday in November. Governor William Findlay continued the practice the following year, setting Thursday, November 19, as Thanksgiving Day. Governor John W. Geary of Pennsylvania, in 1868, issued a Thanksgiving proclamation urging citizens to “Let us thank Him with Christian humility for health and prosperity" and “our paths through life may be directed by the example and instructions of the Redeemer.”  A week after Geary’s proclamation seven Philadelphia rabbis signed a petition stating, “An elected official, chosen by a large constituency, as the guardian of inalienable rights, ought not to have evinced a spirit of exclusiveness.” Geary did not respond to the petition.
     Sarah Josepha Hale used her position as editor of the Godley’s Lady’s Book and Magazine to campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day holiday. Beginning in 1837, she wrote letters to five presidents and every state governor advocating the holiday as a device to keep the country unified. Southern states rejected the idea considering it a Yankee tradition.  Hale did finally gain President Abraham Lincoln’s ear. Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863, after the Union’s victory in the battle of Gettysburg. He dedicated the last Thursday of each November as a "day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father." The holiday emphasized the religious belief that the nation was blessed by God and given a special purpose in the world.
     The first Thanksgiving Day parade occurred in 1920 in Philadelphia. Ellis Gimbel of Gimbels Department Stores sent fifty costumed employees to parade in the street to lure customers to his toy department. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924 when employees of the R. H. Macy and Company store on Herald Square, organized a parade to give thanks for their new adopted country. Many of the employees were immigrants and first-generation Americans.
     Public school teachers picked up on the idea of using the Thanksgiving Day holiday to teach lessons to the children of immigrants. This was an effort to Americanize immigrants. Pupils learned the story of the first Thanksgiving and acted in Thanksgiving pageants. The children then encouraged their parents to celebrate the holiday as Americans did.
     Football soon became essential entertainment on Thanksgiving. The Intercollegiate Football Association scheduled its first championship game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876. Thousands of high schools and colleges had scheduled games on the day by 1900. Listening to the Thanksgiving Day football game on the radio became an important part of celebrating the day, from the 1920s to 1950s. The first national radio broadcast of a NFL Thanksgiving Day game featured the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears in 1934. The first televised a broadcast of a NFL Thanksgiving game was viewed in 1956.
      President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939, approved by Congress in 1941, to accommodate retailers who wanted a longer Christmas shopping season. This Thanksgiving, whether you are with company or alone, it is a good time to consider all the things to be grateful for.

Scottish, Irish immigrants celebrated Halloween

     The celebration of Halloween gained in popularity, in Bethlehem, towards the end of the 1800’s. Scottish and Irish immigrants brought the holiday to the United States from their homelands. Two million Irish arrived in the states, driven out of Ireland by the Great Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849). Most of the Scots who migrated here were tenant farmers (known as crofters) who were evicted from their land in the Highland of Scotland by the large-scale sheep rearing industry. Before the arrival of the Irish and Scots, there was a dominant Puritan influence that frowned upon the holiday. 
     The Bethlehem Globe Times November 1st editions of 1877, 1894 and 1902 document the increasing popularity of Halloween with Bethlehem residents. In the 1877 publication the editor notes in a brief paragraph that Halloween seems to be catching on. He mentions that children of the town enjoyed receiving nuts, apples and candy the previous evening. He describes a fortune telling game with apple seeds. He admonishes a few youths who threw cabbage heads, flour and dried corn kernels around town and for running away after ringing doorbells.
     The 1894 publication dedicated more than an entire column to describing the origin of Halloween and it traditions. By 1894, Halloween had been accepted as an American holiday. Children engaged in roasting nuts, dipping for apples and playing the game of three bowls of fate. In this game, a young woman or man sits before three bowls, blindfolded. One bowl is filled with clear water, the second bowl with discolored water and the third bowl left empty. He or she dips their left hand toward the bowls. If their fingers land in the clear water it is predicted that they will have a happy marriage. If their fingers touch the discolored water then they will be widowed. If they touch the empty dish, then no marriage is predicted.
     In 1902, the paper described a parade of over seven hundred children that marched through the main streets of Bethlehem. Every child wore a costume representing various nationalities. This is the first mention of wearing costumes on Halloween in Bethlehem. Later that evening the pranksters freely threw about corn, flour and cabbage heads. They removed business signs through out the city and placed them in new spots. The mischief makers switched the physician’s sign with the undertaker’s sign. There were several Halloween parties through out the city. Typical decorations were autumn leaves, corn stalks and jack-o-lanterns. Musical entertainment included singing the songs
“The Coffin Song,” “Ghost of Betsy Ross” and “Ghost of the Men of Harlem”. Childrens costumes were described as old maid, Japanese lady, a Quaker, a cavalier (a man wearing elaborate embellished clothes, and plumed hat), country maid and a city belle. Refreshments for the evening were apples, cider, lemonade, ices and corn on the cob.
     Children were entertained with games of blowing out candles, roasting apples and chestnuts and several games that shared the theme of finding one’s true mate. During the apple paring contest each guest peeled an apple with a paring knife attempting to cut the longest peel. They then threw the peel over their left shoulder and looked to see what letter was formed by the dropped peel on the floor. The letter discerned was the initial of their future spouse’ name.  Also at midnight, young girls tried to catch a reflection of their future husbands in a mirror. In another contest, Dumb Cake, required the following steps with the participants not uttering a word. Each person placed a hand full of flour on a piece of white paper then sprinkled a pinch of salt and water on the flour. They then mixed their ingredients into dough, flattened the dough and marked their initials on it. The individual cakes were baked and then served at midnight. Their future husband or wife selected their initialed cake to eat.
     The theme of many of these early Halloween games was to predict who and when a young person would marry. The games seem nostalgic and romantic however parents today would find then inappropriate. Even the costumes of that time seem quaint with children today preferring to dress up as Spiderman, a pirate, Sponge Bob, a princess and Barbie. The best selling Halloween candy yesterday and today is the tri-color candy corn. It was invented in the 1880’s by George Renninger. That reminds me, I need to buy some candy, right now!

How We Treat Animals Is A Measure Of Our Enlightenment

Horse drinking fountain in Central Park N.Y.

 

     Henry Bergh, the son of a prominent New York shipbuilder, was traveling through Europe in 1864. During this trip, he met the Earl of Harrowby, president of England's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the first organization of its kind in the world, founded in 1840. Bergh was so inspired by the mission of protecting animals that he proposed a charter for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to the New York State Legislature. It was passed on April 10, 1866 making it the first animal protection group in the United States. Nine days later, the same legislature passed an anti-cruelty law granting the ASPCA the right to enforce it. Bergh and his group immediately addressed the abuses suffered by working horses. Up until the inventions of electric trolleys and steam and gas engines, people depended on horses for transportation, farming, construction and hoisting. People viewed horses as property not as animals with rights. The engineer, James Watts, coined the term "horsepower" in 1782, when he measured how much coal could be lifted out of a mine by a horse. By 1900, there were 130,000 horses working in Manhattan.
     Bergh earned the nickname “the Great Meddler” by confronting abusive horse owners in the streets, where they worked. On one occasion, Bergh and his associates swooped down on a busy intersection and removed every maltreated horse they could find. The horses were pulling trolley cars during rush hour. The action resulted in a traffic jam for several hours with thousands of travelers forced to walk to their destinations.
     The ASPCA is celebrating their 142nd anniversary of their founding, on April 10, 2008. They are asking everyone, pet owners and pets alike, to wear something orange to show their support of the organization.
     The second Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was chartered in Philadelphia on April 4, 1868. The group was led by Colonel M. Richards Mucklé, a Philadelphia businessman and engineer. Their main focus was also on the many abuses perpetrated against horses. In the 1800s, Philadelphia working horses had to contend with cobblestone streets littered with broken glass, crockery and scraps from the various industries. The horses suffered through extreme weather without protection. There were no provisions for the horses to take rest breaks or drink water. The horses were frequently beaten by their drivers.
     Over the next several years, the Philadelphia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was successful in getting legislation passed that addressed these abuses. New regulations curtailed the use of the horse whip and provided for the availability of warm horse blankets in winter, water troughs and rest periods. Eventually the Society expanded their focus to the humane treatment of livestock and pet animals.
     Following London, New York and Philadelphia, humane societies began popping up in cities across the United States and the world.  It is interesting to note that it wasn’t until after animal protection groups were well established that children’s rights groups came into existence. The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first children’s protection group in the United States, was established eight years after the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was chartered. The animal protection groups were so successful that children’s rights groups used them as a model for organizing their groups.
     In 1866, the Borough of South Bethlehem Council passed an ordinance requiring their police constables to keep track of the pet dogs in the borough. Packs of stray dogs had become a problem. The citizens were upset by the high mortality rate for wild dogs who succumbed to starvation, rabies, extreme weather, and dog fights. Council required each dog owner to pay a yearly tax of one dollar for each male dog and two dollars for each female dog. The police constable was responsible for collecting these taxes. He was under orders to shoot any dog he found running wild on the streets, then he had to bury the creature. The Borough paid him 50 cents for providing this service and fined him 50 cents if he neglected this responsibility.
     Serving Northampton and Lehigh Counties today are the Northampton County SPCA (founded 1913), now known as The Center for Animal Health and Welfare, and the Lehigh County Humane Society (founded 1907.) Both organizations are non-profit groups that depend on volunteers and private donations. They offer the services of pet adoptions, reuniting pets with their owners, investigating reports of cruelty, neglect and abuse of animals, rescue and emergency services to homeless animals, euthanize animals that are too sick or aggressive to be safely placed in homes and community education.
  Our society has come a long way in acknowledging animal rights. Most people believe animals have a right to live free from pain and suffering. Mahatma Gandhi stated, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Lehigh Valley International Airport began as airmail stop.

ABE Airport, 1950s.

     In October of 1975, local newspapers announced plans for five days of dedication ceremonies to celebrate the opening of the new terminal at A-B-E-Airport. Over a thousand people attended the largest dinner dance held in the Lehigh Valley. Some 13,000 people previewed the multi-million dollar terminal complex that would begin operations on December 14th. The main terminal was encased in eleven steel frames, each 172 feet long and spaced 30 feet apart. The frames allowed for a large open space where ticketing agents would process seat assignments and check luggage. The main terminal was built into the terrain to give it a lower profile. In addition, the new departure lounge, food service wing and 1000 car parking lot made flying much easier for travelers.
     The airport began in 1927 when the U.S. Department of Commerce rented 50 acres of farmland as an emergency landing air strip for airmail pilots. This 1,500-foot grass landing strip was the first airstrip in the Lehigh Valley. A steel tower topped by a rotating beacon was erected and a small frame building constructed for an attendant.  This wooden structure eventually became the first terminal for the Allentown Airport Corporation. The original 50 acres form the northwest portion of the Allentown Bethlehem Easton Airport, known today as Lehigh Valley International Airport. It is one of the oldest airports in the country that still operates from its original location. The property was perfectly located, in Hanover Township, between Lehigh and Northampton counties.
     The Allentown Airport Corp., formed in 1929 by local businessmen, recognized the need for a local airport. The group purchased 317.5 acres, including the 50 acres rented by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, with the goal of creating an airport. They built a 120-foot by 80-foot hangar and moved the beacon tower and former attendant’s quarters, next to the hangar.
     The first company to rent the airport was the Allentown Aviation Corporation, headed by John H. and Dorothy B. Leh. John was a partner in H. Leh’s Department Store. John and Dorothy were only the second couple in America to both earn flying licenses.
     The Allentown Airport Corp. ran into financial problems during the Great Depression. To stay afloat they sold 27 acres of land to farmer Frank Dlugus in 1933. Several years later, Mr. Dlugus obtained a court injunction on April 1, 1944 to halt flights at the airport. He complained that the low flying planes were disturbing his farm animals. The injunction was lifted May 27th allowing flights to return to the airport.
     On September 14, 1935, the Allentown Airport officially began accepting air mail service. Thousands of residents crowded the runway to observe mail bags containing nearly 10,000 pieces of mail depart on east and westbound planes. They witnessed the first United Air Way passenger planes (Boeing 247) arrive to begin service to Newark and Cleveland. That day the crowd also watched Laura Ingalls, a pioneer woman pilot, land her plane at the airport. Earlier that year Ingalls had accomplished the feat of being the first woman pilot to fly across America, from coast to coast. Ingalls was revered by the public for her accomplishments in aviation; however her politics irritated the F.B.I. In 1942, a jury found Ingalls guilty of being a spy for the Germans. She was a known peace advocate. She violated the law in 1939 by flying over the White House and dropping pamphlets that advocated U.S. isolationist policies. She served over 18 months in prison.                 
    In order to receive public funds through the WPA, the city of Allentown took over the title to the airport. Through the assistance, again, of John H. Leh and local businesses, three new runways and a new terminal building were constructed. During World War II, the Navy set up a flight training school at the airport and trained over 1,500 enlisted men.
     In 1948, the Allentown Airport Corporation was reorganized as the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, to become eligible for federal funds.  At the same time, the name of the airport was changed to Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport. In the same year, TWA began providing flights from A-B-E to Newark and Pittsburgh.
     Passenger terminal #3 was completed in 1950 for one million dollars. Colonial Airlines (soon to be acquired by Eastern Airlines) provided Lehigh Valley travelers flights to Washington D.C. and Montreal. In 1967, United Airlines introduced the first jet service. In 1969, Lehigh and Northampton counties assumed the financial burden of the airport from the cities Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. Passenger terminal #4 was completed in 1972 at a cost of one million dollars.
     There was a rash of airplane hijackings occurring around the world, between 1967 and 1972. On May 5, 1972, an Eastern Airlines 727 jet was hijacked at A-B-E Airport. This, the airport’s only hijacking in its history, occurred when Frederick W. Hahneman, boarded the jet and threatened the crew with a gun. The jet was scheduled to fly to Washington D.C. then on to Miami, Florida.  Hahneman, a 49-year-old engineer from Easton, demanded $303,000 in large bills and six parachutes. He ordered the plane to land at Dulles International Airport where he received the ransom on board. He then released everyone except the crew. The plane made a stop in New Orleans for repairs then flew over Honduras where Hahneman jumped from the plane with the briefcase full of cash. On June 2nd Hahneman turned himself in to the U.S. Embassy in Honduras. He pled guilty to the charges of air piracy and served 12 years in prison. The F.B.I. found all of the $303,000 but would not give any details about their investigation.
     In 1994, the name of the airport was changed to the Lehigh Valley International Airport. The council governments of Bethlehem and Easton were not happy about the name change. Bethlehem City Council passed a resolution asking the Airport Authority to change it back to A-B-E. The Airport Authority declined their request as they believed the name Lehigh Valley International Airport represented a more regional image. The National Weather Service closed its LVIP station in 1996, citing budget constraints and leaving the airport to depend on automated systems.  In 1997, a new $13.5 million addition to the terminal was completed offering magnificent views of the surrounding area. The 33,000 square-foot addition with eight gates was named for Wilfred M. "Wiley" Post Jr., manager of the airport from 1937 to 1983. Post had a front row seat to the history of passenger air service. He was there to see the ten-seat Boeing 247 in operation, during the 1930s. By the time he retired in 1983, the Boeing 757 was in service, carrying 180 passengers.

It is Apple Butter Time!

     If you grew up in rural Pennsylvania then you know that October is apple butter time. Apple butter is an American invention and attributed to the Pennsylvania German settlers, dating as far back as the mid 1700s. Before they could rely on refrigeration, the local farmers had to sugar cure then smoke meat, pickle vegetables and dry fruit. The Pennsylvania Germans noted that applesauce became rancid before the end of winter. They found with a longer cooking process of the apples and cider they could produce a tasty condiment that could get them through the winter and longer. In the Pennsylvania German dialect, apple butter was called “lattwarick.” Some people claim that apple butter can last several years. The higher concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life than applesauce.
     Every farm had at least a small orchard of apple trees, which yielded apples from July to November. Apples were essential to the survival of the farmers and were eaten at every meal for most of the year. Harvesting and preparing the apples was labor intensive. The local farmers and their families would work together to make cider, dried apples, vinegar, applesauce and apple butter. Because making apple butter was an all day affair, a community would often celebrate with a dance when the chore was done.
     The first step in making apple butter was to press cider from sweet apples. The cider was then poured in a large copper kettle and heated with a hot wood fire. The cooking was usually done outdoors. The cider was boiled until half of the quantity was left. Then large amounts of pared, cored and sliced apple, called “schnitz,” were gradually added to the cider. These apples could be all the sweet variety or half sweet and half tart. It takes five pounds of apples to make a pound of apple butter. The mixture was constantly stirred with a long wooden paddle to prevent the apple butter from sticking to the pot and burning. The paddle was long enough to allow the stirrer to be several feet away from the smoke and heat. The stirring job was tiresome and went on for twelve hours. Children and young adults would team up to stir the pot with the teams taking turns. It became a social event and acceptable for a young man and woman to converse as they stirred. Eventually the heat causes the apples’ natural sugars to caramelize, giving the apple butter its distinctive deep brown color. Spices such as nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and sassafras root were added to give the apple butter its spicy flavor. The mixture became harder to stir as it thickened. The apple butter would be pored into clay crocks and stored in a cool place like a root cellar or a hole dug in the ground.
     The apple originated in the eastern Mediterranean region but was carried by traders and soldiers through out Europe and Asia. The only variety of apple native to American was the sour crabapple. The colonists brought new varieties of apples with them in the form of seeds, called pips. They grew specific types of apples for different uses such as baking, deserts or cider. Back then, the apples were small and stored in cellars or barns for months at a time. With the multitude of orchards soon there were thousands of different varieties of apples. Many of these heritage, antique, or heirloom apples have all but disappeared. In the 20th century, professional nurseries improved apple production with more heavy bearing varieties, cold storage and faster transportation. Consumers only wanted those varieties that looked good. Taste became a lower priority. Researchers are now rediscovering some of heritage varieties and preservation orchards have been planted. Some heritage varieties have been lost forever as urban sprawl has destroyed old apple orchards.
     Fortunately, farms such as the Burnside Plantation are growing heritage apples to preserve history. Their large apple orchard, which extends up the hill behind the farmhouse and past Martin Tower, is bursting with Newton Pippins, Roxbury Russets and Rhode Island Greenings. Other farms in the area specializing in heritage apples are the Glasbern County Inn in Fogelsville and Suyundalla Farms in Coplay. You can still find heritage apples at the Saucon Valley Farmers Market in Hellertown (Sundays 9am–2pm until November 18th), Emmaus Farmers Market (Sundays, 10-2, until November 25th) and Bethlehem Farmers' Market, New and Morton Streets (Thursdays, 12-5 until October).
You can go on a tour of apple butter production at Bauman’s Apple Butter Factory in Sassmansville, PA  The Baumans has been making apple butter since 1892 with the third generation at the helm now.

Johann Sebastian Bach's music in America

Johann Sebastian Bach

     The earliest evidence of Johann Sebastian Bach's music in America can be found in the Moravian Archives. In 1823, a Bethlehem musician made copies of one of Bach’s cantatas. It took another Moravian musician to make Bach’s music a part of the musical tradition of Bethlehem, PA. Dr. J. Fred Wolle was visiting Munich in the spring of 1885 and took the opportunity to hear a production of Bach’s St. John Passion. Wolle returned to Bethlehem, determined to bring Bach’s music to life in America. Under his supervision, the Bethlehem Choral Union sang the St. John Passion, on June 5, 1888. It was the first complete rendition of the work in this country. Wolle conducted the first complete performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, at the Central Moravian Church in 1900. Due to the historical importance of these accomplishments, the Central Moravian Church earned recognition as a National Landmark of Music.
     The Bach Festival moved to the Packer Memorial Church of Lehigh University in 1912. A review in Outlook Magazine of the 1918 Bach Festival described the event. “Mr. Wolle leads without a baton, and his nervous arms and fingers seemed not only to be charged with electricity, but to electrify the whole body of people there, those in the choir seats and those in the pews alike. He made those people not only sing, but think the words as they sang them.”
     Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 31, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany. He lived his entire life in Germany. He was born as the youngest and eighth child of Johan Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lammerhirt. Johann Sebastian came from a long line of musicians and composers. He lost both his parents, within the same year, at the age of nine. Johann Sebastian and his brother Johann Jacob went to live with their eldest brother, Johann Christoph, who was organist in Ohrdruf.
     At age eighteen, Bach was appointed organist of the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt. His first known compositions were written during the early 1700s. At that time he was courting his second cousin and future wife, Maria Barbara Bach. A new job as organist of the Blasiuskirche in Mühlhausen and a small inheritance allowed them to marry in 1707. In Mühlhausen, Bach began to write cantatas. The cantatas that survived from this period are regarded as masterpieces. The Blasiuskirche suffered a great fire and Bach sought employment 40 miles north in the city of Weimar as organist in the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst.
     While in Weimar, he continued to write cantatas along with compositions for the organ, harpsichord, choral preludes and fugues. Duke Wilhelm Ernst was in a contentious power struggle with another Duke in Weimar, Ernst August. Ignoring politics, Bach wrote compositions for both Dukes, which angered his employer. Duke Wilhelm Ernst had Bach jailed for a month.
     Upon leaving jail in 1717, Bach moved his family to Köthen and began his new job as Kapellmeister (director of music) to Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen. During his stay in Köthen, Bach wrote the six Brandenburg Concertos, violin concertos in A Minor, E Major, and the double concert in D Minor, Invention, the French Suites and the English Suites. Bach’s wife, Maria Barbara, died in 1720 after a short illness. Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, a talented soprano, in 1721.
     In 1723, Bach became Kapellmeister in the St Thomas School in Leipzig. Beginning in March 1729, Bach assumed the direction of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. Bach was always looking for ways to increase his income.  He sold books, music and Silbermann fortepianos. Bach finished his great B Minor Mass in 1749. Bach was practically blind due to cataracts at the end of his life. In 1750, he suffered a stroke. He died on July 28, 1750, probably from diabetes mellitus. During his lifetime, Bach was famous for his organ and harpsichord playing. The high regard for his compositions didn’t occur the 19th century.
     During the first two weekends of May, thousands of Bach lovers from across the country arrive in Bethlehem, PA to hear the Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra.

History of Boy Scouts of America

     Chicago publisher William Boyce founded the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910. Boyce was inspired by the British organization of Scouting begun in 1907 by General Robert Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell was a hero in the Boer War and wrote a book about military scouting called Aids to Scouting. The book was a hit with British boys who used the book as a guide to outdoor activities. Baden-Powell rewrote the book as Scouting for Boys, galvanizing scout troops to organize all over England.
     Boyce employed as many as 30,000 boy-agents to sell his weeklies. Through working with these young men he came to understand the importance of providing for the needs of America's youth.
     Although there were several small scouting groups in America in 1910, William Boyce organized the Boy Scouts like one of his businesses. He incorporated the organization, hired experienced staff to design and operate the program, and he provided the funding to insure its success.
     The Boy scouts program was designed to have three divisions: Cub Scouting (for boys in 1st through 5th Grades); Boy Scouting (for boys and young men aged 11 through 17) and Venturing (formerly Exploring; for young men and young women aged 14 through 20.)
     In the Semi-Centennial Souvenir History of South Bethlehem, written in 1915, Henry Topfer is mentioned as scout master of Boy Scouts Troop One. Topfer was a printer for Bethlehem Steel and lived with his wife, Isabel, and their three sons in their home on Center Street. Topfer was raised in South Bethlehem on Vine Street. His father, Nicholas Topfer, was a talented florist and maintained five greenhouses at 813 Seneca Street. The number of Topfer’s troop suggests that it was the first Boy Scout troop in Bethlehem.
     The Bethlehem Area Council of Boy Scouts evolved from early troops such as Topfer’s. The Council opened a sleep away camp in the Delaware Water Gap area, in 1919. The Army donated land to the Council in Tobyhanna Township and the camp was moved there in 1928. Then in 1949, Samuel Rubel, largest Pennsylvanian ice and coal distributor, bequeathed to the Bethlehem Boy Scouts of America, 1,100 acres of camping grounds in the Pocono Mountains. Rubel, as a child, was a boy scout in Brooklyn, N.Y. He left the gift to express his appreciation. In the 1950’s Bethlehem Steel donated funds to rebuild the camp buildings. The camp re-opened in 1958 and has remained in operation at that location ever since. The camp, known as Camp Minsi today, is surrounded by beautiful woodlands with over 20 miles of hiking trails.
     In 1969, the Bethlehem Area Council joined Delaware Valley Area Council, and Lehigh Council to form the Minsi Trails Council. Today the council consists of six districts and maintains two camps (Camp Minsi and Trexler Scout Reservation). Its headquarters is located on Postal Road in Allentown. The R. Tait McKenzie sculpture “The Ideal Scout” stands outside the center. The Mini Trails Council scouting program continues to be very popular with local boys.