The Boy Scouts was founded in 1908 by Lt. General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, later to be known as Lord Baden-Powell. It crystallized a life-long ambition of Baden-Powell to set up an international organization of boys over 12 years of age that would be non-military and without racial, religious, political, or class distinction. It would stress a program of activities that would embrace outdoor knowledge and skills, citizenship, nature lore, wood and camp craft, manual arts, lifesaving, and sports. It would aim at three-fold development -- mental, moral, and physical.

The movement received almost overnight recognition and support in the United States, with national incorporation in 1910. Its acceptance and activation in Iowa, one of the pioneer states in Boy Scouts organization, followed immediately as troops formed through the state.

The records are a bit sketchy, but it appears that a man named Britton L. Dawson formed a troop in 1910 that served both Marion and Cedar Rapids. Prof. A.E. Wilcox similarly gave leadership to a troop in Iowa City.

The activities of this Cedar Rapids-Marion troop received recognition in February 1918, in a program conducted at Memorial Hall in Marion. The recognition cited the activities of the boys in assisting the G.A.R. and W.R.C. in decorating the graves of Civil War veterans on Memorial Day and their patriotism in the recent Liberty Loan campaign when they sold $20,000 worth of war certificates for which they received a bronze medal from the government.