Order of the Arrow Section E-13
tecumseh Lodge #65
About Order of the Arrow
How It Started
The story of the Order of the Arrow starts 5 years after W.D. Boyce brought tales of the newly founded Scouting program in England back to the United States.
In 1915, E. Urner Goodman, a newly hired field executive for the Philadelphia Council, was assigned to serve as director of the council’s summer camp at Treasure Island Scout Reservation on the Delaware River. He believed that the summer camp experience should do more than just teach proficiency in Scoutcraft skills; rather, the principles embodied in the Scout Oath and Scout Law should become realities in the lives of Scouts. Along with his assistant camp director, Carroll A. Edson, he started an experimental honor society to acknowledge those campers he felt best exemplified these qualities, calling the program, Wimachtendienk, meaning “Brotherhood” in the Southern Unami language of the local Lenni Lenape tribe.
Goodman took heavy inspiration from the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the bonds of brotherhood that he witnessed. His other inspiration was that of Billy Clark, a member of Goodman’s troop, Philadelphia’s Troop 1. This inspiration was described later as the result of a troop campout. Goodman commented on Clark’s actions on a troop campout years later, saying:
“One time during our stay there, one of our [scouts] came with a minor sickness. There was no medicine, no hospital on the island at all. So he had to stay in his tent and he had to be taken care of. Billy volunteered to be our live-in nurse for the two or three days he had to be there. And he did a good job of it.
Now, there is a vessel used in hospitals they call a bedpan. And it was time to take that thing to the latrine and Billy, of course, cheerfully took on the assigned visit. However, in going from the tent to the latrine he had a little [fall]. But Billy got up smiling from it all, if you can imagine. Now that’s the picture of cheerful service.”
Goodman had many other inspirations that contributed to the founding of what is now the Order of the Arrow, but the Gettysburg Reunion and Billy Clark’s actions were the driving forces behind Goodman’s creation of the OA.
About Order of the Arrow
Wimachtendienk
In the beginning, Goodman’s brainchild was hardly an honor society, but rather a camp fraternity. The initial idea behind what would later become the Order of the Arrow was rooted in the desire to create a brotherhood that would bond campers together and encourage them to embrace the principles of unselfish service and cheerful camaraderie. This camp fraternity was more focused on building lasting relationships among scouts and enhancing the experience of camp life, rather than the elaborate recognition structure that would evolve in later years.
The fraternity’s first steps were taken at Treasure Island Scout Reservation on July 16, 1915. Two of the Troops on the island had held an election of members. George Chapman, the first Chief of the OA described the event in The Arrow and the Vigil, the former newsletter of the OA, as follows:
“In addition to the heavy heat, which often hangs in the valley of the Delaware, there was something else in the air. It was an almost indescribable feeling of expectancy and mystery. Only a very few of those on the island had been taken into the confidence of Goodman and Edson and this was done only to have sufficient personnel to carry out the planned program. So while everyone on the island was aware that Friday night was the big night, few knew exactly what was to take place and all waited with interest and an enthusiasm which was difficult to control.
The day wore on slowly. Ordinary camp activities provided little interest and the camp chores and duties were carried out with a total lack of enthusiasm. By sundown the air was charged with a tense excitement. Something that was to be a vital factor in the lives of uncounted thousands of boys and men was about to be started. The importance of this undertaking was unconsciously exerting a strange influence on those that were present.
The first members were inducted in a manner somewhat differently from the way in which the Ordeal is conducted today. All of the campers, obviously non-members, were witnesses to the induction. As darkness fell, Harry Yoder, who acted as first guide, lined up the campers in single file. In dead silence the campers followed the guide by a circuitous route to the Council Fire.
The path led under a fallen tree and the Council Fire was so located that as the boys approached the fire they had no knowledge of it until they passed under the tree and the Council Fire was suddenly revealed.
The first candidates to be inducted into the organization were Robert Craig and Gilpin Allen.