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Girl Scout Memorials & Markers

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“A Promise to Keep” made by Phyllis Mantik

This bronze statue commemorating the first Girl Scout cookie sale in 1917 (although she's wearing a decidedly more modern uniform) was unveiled outside of the Three River Museum in Oklahoma in May 2008

 

We just don't know where "here" is in Philadelphia

The Extra Mile, Points of Light Volunteer Pathway in Washington D.C.

http://www.extramile.us/honorees/low.cfm

Juliette Low's pathway marker is #13, on G Street

This diorama is located at the Presidential Library of Hebert Hoover, showing Lou Hoover in a Girl Scout uniform, in West Branch, Iowa

Image from:  site: hoover.archives.gov

[Image of Moon Tree Plaque at Goddard]

Girl Scout Camp Koch, Cannelton, Indiana

Images from: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/

planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html

I stumbled across this memorial while online. Apparently it is near Beavercreek, Ohio.

3/13/07 Linda Mathis found this additional information:

In 1997, Beavercreek Community Park was acquired by the district. This 14 acre park is a very popular starting point for local residents to access CreeksideTrail Bikepath. An important focal point of the park is Angels Pass Memorial. This memorial was constructed with private and public funds and dedicated in 1999. It commemorated the 40th anniversary of the deaths of 8 Girl Scouts and their 2 leaders killed near that site in a car-train collision. It is a beautiful and serene area with benches, trees, flowers, flag poles and a large memorial stone. The scouts and leaders as well as rescue and public safety departments are honored on this stone.

With additional funds from the Beavercreek Township Trustees, a large parking lot was built to accommodate about 50 cars.

In recent years, the site has been improved with a pond that includes a fountain, benches, lights and a walking path, all built with money secured from another Natureworks grant and local money. There are 3 primitive campsites carved out that will have access to water and electricity. A connector through the park to the Dayton Xenia Road bike path is currently under construction.

A comfort station was constructed in 2004 and funded by the Beavercreek Township Trustees. There is a gazebo and a small bridge at the front of the park. The Girl Scouts use the bridge for their bridging ceremonies. As a community service, the Girl Scouts are in charge of planting flowers and weeding the circle around the Memorial. They also plan and deliver the annual Holiday in the Park for the community in December.

 

 

 

 

The Trefoil Tombstone Mystery

In Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond Virginia, there is a tombstone with a Girl Scout trefoil on it. The woman buried here was the second Executive Director of the Richmond Girl Scout Council. Her name was Isabel Fuller Matthes.

Isabel had been the daughter of a state senator in Richmond [Edward Fuller, was responsible a bill giving free textbooks to students in public schools]. She had graduated from Vassar College in 1918 with a major in French. She attended Columbia University for graduate work, but did not complete her graduate work.* She returned to Richmond to teach high school at John Marshall High School.  She was an athlete, playing basketball, tennis, and swimming.  At the age of 12, she had saved a man from drowning and was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Bravery.  She swam the Chesapeake Bay with only a rowboat to accompany her at one point in her life.  She was active in social work, playground work, and the local Girl Scout movement.

According to the Roll Call, Vassar College’s alumni newsletter, the first
year after graduation in 1918, Isabel taught school full-time, complaining
about the unruly students.  The following year, she taught part-time and was learning stenography.  Then in 1921, the Roll Call revealed her new job with the local Girl Scouts in Richmond as the Executive Director.  Isabel wrote how proud she was of her girls marching along in their khaki uniforms, saluting her.  However, she then stated that she was ‘playing the invalid and that she must go away to a dry climate.’ Sadly, it was at this time she at contracted tuberculosis. According the Richmond Dispatch, Girl Scouts grew in numbers under Isabel’s direction during the six months she was Executive Director; nevertheless, due to her illness, she was only able to serve in that position for a few short months. Her health would decline from that day on. She married in 1922 and had a son in 1923. In 1925 at the age of 27 years, Isabel died from
tuberculosis.

The Richmond Girl Scout office later would discover an old record of
Isabel's mother asking for permission to use the Girl Scout trefoil on her
daughter’s tombstone.  She thought other Girl Scouts would like to see it,
and to tell the world of Isabel’s devotion to the Girl Scout movement only
thirteen years old at the time of her death.


*One part of the mystery, I still have not answered, but suspect is true.
Isabel may have been in the group of young women that were recruited by
Edith Macy at Columbia University in the early 1920’s. She attended Columbia University after graduating Vassar College, but never finished. Why? Because she became the Executive Director of the Girl Scouts of Richmond. The timing would be right. I’ve tried to research this part of the puzzle without success. It may just have to remain in our imaginations.

Photo of the tombstone & newspaper photo taken one year after Isabel death with Girl Scouts placing wreath on her grave.

Jane Garnett
Roanoke, VA

Florida

Image donated by Merana

 
Tampa, Florida
Jessamine Flowers Link
1870-1973
 
In 1913, Jessamine Link established Magnolia Troop One, the second Girl Scout troop in the United States. This was just one year after Juliette Gordon Low organized the country's first Girl Scout troop in Savannah, Georgia in 1912. What is now Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa served as the sponsor for the troop.
 
Mrs. Link made significant contributions to the improvement for life for local girls and the community, and to the enhancement of women overall. When she started Tampa's first Girl Scout troop the community became more aware of what the girls could achieve. Girl Scouting gave them the opportunity to explore interests outside traditional female roles. During World War I the girls rolled bandages, delivered Western Union messages, helped feed soldiers, and sold Liberty Bonds. Mrs. Link led the troop through many other service projects and activities such as primitive camping, nature hikes, poetry lessons and field trips.
 
The Girl Scout program was an unusual and progressive concept in the early 20th century, but one that is prevalent here today because of our local founder Jessamine Link.
 
Erected May 1998 by
The Tampa Historical Society
in Cooperation with
The Suncoast Girl Scout Council, Inc.

 

Pennsylvania
 
Philadelphia, 1401 Arch Street
 
Girl Scout Cookies
On November 11, 1932, Girl Scouts baked & sold cookies for the first time in the window of the Philadelphia Gas & Electric Co. here. This endeavor soon became a Philadelphia tradition. In 1936 the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. adopted the annual cookie sale as a national program.
(text submitted by Sandy Garret)
dedicated January 16, 2001
 
 
 
 
To read a nice article about one of girls and her life click on the link below :

Enter "Baking Up A Tradition" in the search engine in the lower right corner of this page at American Profile.

 

Florida
St. Petersburg
Sunnyside Cemetery 5300 19th Street North
 
HPC #99-01 - Designated June 2000
 
Gravesites of Walter J. Hoxie and Mary Russell Day
 
Hoxie was a recognized as a naturalist and ornithologist, Civil War veteran, surveyor, educator. In his spare time he held a girl's nature study group. This group went on to become one of the first two Girl Guides of America patrols in 1912 with his friend Juliette Low. He was the author of the first handbook for the renamed Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. in 1913.
 
Day was the daughter of Hoxie and a well accomplished woman in her own right, including bringing Girl Scouting to Pinellas County, FL. She rests next to her father. Her marker reads: Mary Russell Day, Daughter of Walter J. Hoxie, Founder of Girl Scouting in Pinellas County, Cappy Day to all her scouts.

hoxie.gif

Patch from Suncoast Girl Scout Council

Info gleaned from this website

Massachusetts
 
On the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts there is a kind of historical Girl Scout marker on the gravestone of Doris Hough. Doris , as you all know, was a good friend of Juliette Low's and one of the pioneers of this great organization. I must admit it is kind of eerie to see the trefoil on a gravestone.
 
Submitted by "julietteinsema"

 

Indiana

 
 
55 Johnson Avenue,
Irvington Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis

indy2.jpg

Dedicated October 16, 2004
submitted by Jane Pfaffenberger

Indiana - reverse

Kentucky
Louisville, Jefferson County
2105 Lexington Road
 
...It is on the site of the new site (currently under construction) of the
Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana program center and headquarters building...
Submitted by Cynthia Weller
1st VP - GSK
Chair - History and Archives Committee
 
Kentucky Highway Marker #2134 - Description: Born in 1899 in Indianapolis, Walls earned an M.A. from NY's Columbia Univ. As a teacher, she developed an early black history program in Indiana. In 1930s, Walls worked to secure public housing for blacks in Louisville. In 1940s, she lead demonstrations at whites-only main library and helped hire black clerks in dept. store.
 
Reverse: Murray Atkins Wlass - Civil Rights Pioneer - Murray Walls led the movement that integrated Girl Scout programs and camps by 1956. She was a Girl Scout trainer, the first black women to serve on the Girl Scout Board of Directors, and the Ky. State Board of Education. Walls died in 1993. See over. Presented by the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana.

 

Juliette Low's Gravesite

Juliette Low's Headstone
 
(on the cross)
Founder of Girl Scouts
of the United States.
 
(on the lower area)
Juliette Low
Wife of William W. Low
Daughter of
William W. and Eleanor Kinzie Gordon
 
Born October 31,1860
Died January 17, 1927
At Savannah Georgia
Now Abideth Faith, Hope and Love,
But the Greatest of These is Love.

 

Savannah, Georgia

Rockwood, Maryland

Plaque reads:
Rockwood Manor
Estate
Presented by
Carolyn G. Caughey
and
John Wilson Caughey
to the
National Girl Scouts, Inc.

 

postcard showing the plaque
 

 

 

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Last modified: 10/03/08

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