Pioneer Boys & Girls of America

In the spring of 1928, a group of people at the North Reformed Church Mission Building, on Sherman Ave. in East Newark, N.J., (a local mission activity of The Dutch North Reformed Church located at Broad and Bridge Streets in Newark, N.J.) were pondering over the problem of what activities could be developed for the young boys of eight to twelve years of age.

The idea was to have active youth involved in high value activities. Boy Scouting had the twelve year and older boy well taken care of, but the boy of eight to twelve had nothing. It was considered that when a boy became eight he was ready and able to advance to active citizenship if involved in quality, supervised male activities...

They turned to Herb Crookall, (Herbert T. Crookall) who had been all through Scouting in his younger years and asked him to see if he could do something about this problem. He agreed to try to come up with something.

Shortly after this he met with some of those boys. They formed a group belonging to The Boy Rangers of America, located in New York. However, there was very little cooperation from that group.

Hence on May 4, 1928, this group from the North Reformed Church Mission met and formed their own organization. They decided on the name the "Pioneer Boys of America". Some of the original members along with Herbert T Crookall, Founder, were Charles Hamilton, Albert Leonard, Henry R. Crookall, George Steele and Harry Robshaw.

The original meeting hall was on the second floor of the Church Mission building with a small 2 x 4 room next to this room used as Headquarters. The boys sat in patrol formation of eight boys including a patrol leader and an assistant patrol leader. The troop officers included the leader and assistant leader, senior patrol leader, treasurer and secretary. In this beginning mode, the founder – supervisor and assistant supervisor served as the Leader and Assistant Leader. To join the meeting after it started required a knowledge of the password. Dues were five cents a week.

The uniform of those days were khaki pants, (britches type) with a shoe lace type front~ covered mostly by brown stockings that came up almost to the knees, just barely showing the top of the laced section. Brown shirt with white buttons. Black tie and a white sailor hat. The troop had 4 tests for the members to pass. When a member passed these tests, he was awarded letter emblems as follows; IB, (I Began) IH, (I’m half done) IW, (I won) AND STAR. Each member had to learn an Oath and Standards that set forth the ideals and purpose of the founders. Later the Pledge was added. Just as is still practiced at the present, they were required to be spoken at all meetings to remind the members of their obligation to live respectable lives.

Near the close of the year 1929, the Pioneers had become a great activity for the youth of Kearny, East Newark and Harrison. The original troop became so large it had to be divided in half and Troop A and Troop B were formed. The Leader of Troop A was Charlie Hamilton. Al Leonard was leader of Troop B.

The North Reformed Mission Building had to be maintained. It was the responsibility of the same eight adult members who formed our organizations to help raise funds to support the maintenance, lighting and heating of the building. So an annual Bazaar was held. Pioneers, knowing the responsibilities, as always, not only ran one event but they used to handle several. Namely, a hot dog and soda refreshment stand and a fish pond stand. They also held a small two act play side show in the little meeting room. This play was put on in a two show a night deal on the Friday and Saturday night during the Bazaar.

The progress of troop activities was very successful. The Pioneers were ever expanding and we formed Troop C at Emerson School and Troop D at Garfield School under the leadership of Frank Papsey and James Barrett, Sr.

With the troop activities progressing well, the organization was getting bigger. This required other activities to get funds for equipment and of course our ultimate goal of a camp. So each year we would hold a Minstrel and Dance. It was quite successful and brought out a lot of hidden talent that otherwise would never have been known. The boys worked very hard at learning their parts and songs. Aided by some adult talent connected with the organization and their outside friends we were able to put on some successful shows. Needless to say, the Supervisor, supplied some rather usual talents as well as guidance in making this affair a success.

One show was patterned after the Broadway show “Hells A-Popin” and our show was so successful that the Kiwanis Organization hired us to put this same show on at Kearny High School. With some new added features the shows went two nights and not only helped the Pioneers, but the Kiwanis had a great fund raising program that year.

By the year 1931, the Pioneers were not only growing in membership but it now was participating in civic activities mainly in Kearny. They were now marching in the Decoration Day Parade, (now called Memorial Day). These increased activities created some problems for the Pioneers. They were usually placed near the end of the line of march with no music which made the march more like a hike. So the supervisor decided to do something about it, and he did.

It so happened that there were a lot of drums and bugles laying downstairs in the old Mission Building, left from his old disbanded Boy Scout troop. Needless to say, they were going to be thrown out eventually. So he called together his old buddies of that old troop and they agreed to let us have this equipment rather than have it rot away. So we spent quite a few hours repairing and polishing the equipment.

Some of the mothers of the members such as Mrs. Crookall, Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Agnes Crookall, the supervisor’s wife, Mrs. Robshaw, and others made us blue and gold overseas type hats and capes. Well, come Decoration Day, the Pioneer Boys appeared in front of their troops with a drum and bugle corps, plus a row of fifes, dressed in white with their new hat and capes. Needless to say the townspeople along with other youth organizations were quite surprised. From that day on the other organizations were in favor of marching along with the Pioneer Band.

From that day on, the Pioneer Band could be seen marching on Decoration Day and in many other parades. On Youth Sunday, they marched from the mission Building across the river bridge to Newark to take part in Services at the Dutch North Reformed Church in appreciation for the sponsorship and meeting facilities given to the Pioneers by that congregation. One such parade took place on a winter night in a snow storm that was so bad that the wind almost took our whole flag section over the rail on the Clay Street Bridge between East Newark and Newark. Then in later years there was the N, R.A. parades in Kearny, North Arlington and Lyndhurst and countless others too numerous to mention.

One of the main reasons for the advancement of the Pioneers was, as still remains, the support given by the trustees. Without such men it would be difficult to carry on. Back in the beginning such men as Philip Bell, Chief of Police of Kearny, Sidney F. Buck, principal of Clara Barton School, Cecil Arnot, Supt. of the Mission Building, Fred Gassert, Board of Consistory of N. R. Church and Rev. Dr. T. Porter Drum, Pastor of N. R. Church were a few of the members that inspired us to go on.

The Supervisor, with the help of the above mentioned men set out to give us a camp program. So in 1931 we held our first two week summer camp at Preakness, N.J. The camp site, though temporary, gave us the inspiration to go on to bigger and better summer camps. Obtaining tents, the Supervisor got us started by setting up camp in an apple orchard with one six and one eight man tent. A long tarp was used for an open air mess tent. The cooking facilities were somewhat primitive with an old wood stove providing the cook range. The cooking was done in an old abandoned house located just below the orchard. The lighting was done by oil lamp and Coleman lights. Water was provided from a well and pumps located about two city blocks from the kitchen. Water had to be carried in pails by campers in work details. The drinking water was supplied by this same well. It was poured by pails into a galvanized drum and purified with oatmeal and lemon.

In spite of these somewhat hardships we succeeded in holding the camp several years on this basis. It turned out to be a most memorable time in the lives of many boys.

Our next temporary camp was located east of Toms River N.J. at Bayshore N.J. on Barnegat Bay on two rented lots at this waterfront location.

By this time we had organized troops in East Newark, Kearny and North Arlington. A boy interested in activity could not only attend his troop meeting on the meeting night but he could belong to the band, orchestra, and even help out on Thursday nights at the bingo games held in place of the Minstrel and Dance idea that was now running out of style. Bingo provided more funds for a permanent camp. After looking over numerous camp sites, we finally purchased a fifty—two acre property located at Smithsburg, N.J. just south of the town of Freehold, N.J.

When we started to develop this camp site, all we had was an old farm house built in 1888 and a few sheds and a barn, about to fall down. However, using the old farm house as our base of operation and without electricity, we traveled down on week ends to build a camp! Except for the really bad winter weather of December, January and February, we left Kearny every Saturday morning with about fifteen adult members and older boys, plus some outside help, such as Mike Conroy, Frank McIver, who were working tradesmen from Kearny, and we started to build our Pioneer Camp. .

Along with the above mentioned tradesmen, we had our Supervisor, Herb Crookall, who was a carpenter, by trade, and Harry Mottershead, a steamfitter and plumber by trade. So along with Mike Conroy, a mason and Frank McIver, an electrician, we all, under their guidance, set out to build a camp. To make things a little better, he had Mr. Art Gibbs, more commonly known as Mr. or Leader Gibbs as our cook. Leader Art Gibbs was by that time the Leader of Troop B.

The first year we built a mess hall ‘75 feet long by 25 feet wide, plus we, dug out a swimming hole for our first summer camp. After a few weeks rest after camp season, we started working on the next year’s projects, which was a 75’ by 25’ swimming concrete pool. With a pump donated by Worthington Pump Co. and Harry’s plumbing ability, we pumped the water about a block away by pipe line. We filled the pool quickly for swimming. We also remodeled the outside of the farm house and sealed it for the winter for the caretaker’s, Allie and his wife Ethel.

The next year we built the administration building out of old lumber, box lumber, etc. that we were able to get at a reasonable price. By this time we had a power control house and Frank McIver had electric for all the buildings. To do this we cut trees, skinning them to make working poles for the wires from the main line on the road going past the camp.

These self made hard work investments made our camp program more successful each year. Trustee Walter Green, doing a lot of the electric work can attest to this.

The camp season, which was usually the last week in July and the first week in August was directed by Supervisor, H. T. Crookall, Assistant Supervisor Henry Crookall, Camp Officers James B. Gilmour, First Aid Officer Joe Gamble. The cooking staff consisted of Ma Crookall, Agnes Crookall, the supervisor’s mother and wife respectively, Uncle Wallie, Leader Gibbs and old faithful, Pa Crookall, the supervisor’s father.

A full program was provided for from 7: AM till 9 P.M. This consisted of swimming, crafts, games, inspection of tents and campgrounds and the ever popular CampBank after swimming. Twice a day, a camper could borrow money from his Camp Bank to buy treats at the poolside refreshment stand.

The usual program and activities were continued and Pioneering progressed. Then in the late thirties, and early forties, things changed with the coming of World War 2. Many of the adults and some of the older boys went into Service of our country. It soon became impossible to keep the Camp program operational let alone the needed upkeep.

The camp was sold under the provision that the funds earned would be turned into a building program for a Youth Center located closer to home. This too has been accomplished with the purchase of a building in North Arlington on Bellville Pike and Chestnut Street. Again, with the hard work of volunteer members and help from local talent, we reconstructed the 2 floor building into offices, an auditorium-activity room with stage, service kitchen, dinning area and a recreation room with a safety rifle range and miniature car track. When the lack of volunteer adult help left the programs without needed staffing, this Pioneer Youth Center was put on the market and has been purchased by an ongoing business. The funds from this sale are in control of the current Board of Trustees and are being invested so as to provide needed funds for future operations.

During World War 2, the Pioneers had to be maintained by the few adults and older boys not eligible for service. They still maintained the troops, the band which became known as the Pioneer Drum and Bugle corp., and were able to start and maintain a remarkable First Aid Emergency Unit, for Civil Defense, which became the 3rd unit used by the Town of Kearny in emergencies.

After the war some of the fellows returned home to other problems that didn’t allow them to take up Pioneering again. Some later on, returned to Pioneering activity.

Where we lost good men, other good men and a women’s auxiliary have stepped up to succeed in the accomplishments we have seen in the following years. The wonderful thing about our history at the time this is written is that we were able to be guided by our late Supervisor, Herbert T. Crookall and to have accomplished so many things in his forty two years as our founder and Supervisor.

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Pioneer Web Site
85 Folly Field Road, Unit 140
Hilton Head Island, SC 29928

(843) 842-6553